Directors · DVD & Blu-ray · Reviews
The Beauty of Uncertainty: I Know Where I’m Going on DVD
Powell/Pressburger’s fairy tale comes to life on Criterion’s DVD
Category: Artists
Directors · Experimental & Underground
An Appraisal of the Films of William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, and Anthony Balch in terms of Recent Avant Garde Theory
Those crazy “cut-ups” Burroughs, Gysin, and Balch restored to their rightful place in avant-garde film history Preface This is the first serious critical study to contextualize the films of Burroughs,[…]
Composers · Music & Musicals · Reviews
Weill & Brecht: The Rise and Fall of Mahagonny on DVD
Show us the way to the next pretty boy Don’t know much about history? Well, don’t sweat it, because Kurt Weill and Bertold Brecht didn’t either when they decided to[…]
Actors & Personalities · Reviews
Come Back, Jack! Why Schmidt Is Shit
Payne capsized an actor and a novel in this misfire About Schmidt drives another nail in the coffin of irony. About Schmidt is as lacking in irony as its blatant[…]
Actors & Personalities · Reviews
Two Hour Movie (Starring Robin Williams in One Hour Photo)
Robin Williams morphs again, and still nobody’s laughing We all have met a man like Seymour Parrish at some point in our lives. Whether he was refilling our slurpies at[…]
Actors & Personalities · Essays · Reviews
Andy Kaufman, Tony Clifton, Mr. Ripley, and the Elisions of Identity
I had an opportunity to see a double feature a couple of years ago on a British Airways flight to Madrid. The size of the screen certainly reduced any desire[…]
Actors & Personalities · Music & Musicals · Reviews
Fred Astaire Meets Artie Shaw in Second Chorus
New DVD also includes Ezio Pinza, Lena Horne, and Duke Ellington “The worst picture I ever worked on.” That was Fred Astaire’s overly sour take on Second Chorus. It’s easy[…]
Directors · Experimental & Underground · Interviews · Visual Artists
An Actionist Begins to Sing: An Interview with Otto Mühl
“I have been making art for 50 years and have never allowed myself to be corrupted. Quite the opposite, I was locked up.” – Otto Mühl As I tremulously reflect[…]
Two by Sturges: Sullivan’s Travels and The Lady Eve on DVD
Criterion serves up two more deep-dish DVDs from yesteryear Sullivan’s Travels (1941) Hollywood’s self-exams are usually dipped in acid: What Price Hollywood?, A Star is Born, Sunset Boulevard, The Bad[…]
Actors & Personalities · Music & Musicals · Reviews
Fred Goes Over the Top with Eleanor Powell in Broadway Melody of 1940
The semi-sweet smell of excess Have you got a yen for understated elegance and class? Then keep on truckin’, dude, because this 1940 M-G-M black-and-white monster/masterpiece ain’t for you. M-G-M[…]
Actors & Personalities · Music & Musicals
Astaire & Rogers Fade to Black in The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle
Fred dies, Ginger cries The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle is the not very graceful swan song of the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals of the thirties.1 Carefree,[…]
Rare Docs on French Filmmakers: Bresson and Akerman on VHS
Two of the most elusive auteurs tell all, or at least some. ROBERT BRESSON: WITHOUT A TRACE A documentary about Robert Bresson (1901?-1999), with the director cooperating – indeed, appearing[…]
Actors & Personalities · Interviews
“Redefine What It Means to You”: Talking with Margaret Cho
The “All American Girl” on her new movie, her influences, and the joy of high colonics As the quote implies, Margaret Cho is no stranger to redefinition, mostly because she’s[…]
South of the Chocolate Mountains: Scattered Impressions of The Hitch-Hiker
Ida Lupino: Mother of Us All! “Any rocks up there to give you a problem, darlin’? Now, Walter baby, while we’re here we might as well take the posse through.[…]
Actors & Personalities · Directors · Silents
“Why Are They All Ugly Little Men?” Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, and Langdon: The Great Silent Clowns Reformatted
“Why are they all ugly little men?” asked Cindy, after I’d dragged her to three solid weeks of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harry Langdon, and Harold Lloyd at a silent[…]
The King Steps Out: Goodbye to Billy Wilder (1906-2002)
“A brain full of razor blades and a heart full of chutzpah” In his screenplay for The Fortune Cookie (1966), Billy Wilder, who has died at age 95, described ‘Whiplash[…]
Anti-Heroics: The Superman Films of Richard Lester
“While the first Superman film, directed by Richard Donner (on which Lester served as an uncredited producer), is essentially reverential and respectful towards the subject, Lester’s attitude in his second[…]
Catch Me If You Can: The Tarantino Legacy
Has Tarantino gone underground or is he revving up to zap the box office with another mega hit? Another whole year has gone by and still no new film from[…]
African American · Directors · Producers & Studios
Independent Black Filmmakers Take on Hollywood: The Distribution of Black Films
For many black auteurs seeking distribution, working around the system has proven as rewarding – and necessary – as working within it Since the popularity and commercial success of films[…]
“Sure I’ll Do It”: An Interview with Robert Wise
This movie master is still busy after all these years Few artists in the history of the medium have mastered their craft so well as has filmmaker Robert Wise. The[…]
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