Activist & Political · Directors · Interviews
Maps and Movies: Talking with Deepa Mehta
“I think it’s really important for you, or anybody who wants to be a filmmaker, to really be honest with yourself.”
Category: Genres
What do Terrence Malick and Steely Dan have in common? Part 1
Let’s start with the most obvious correlation, other than perhaps the fact that both artists are likely to appeal to folks like me who strongly identify with the technical experimentation[…]
A Double Dysfunctional Mickey Xmas
I’ve survived the family Xmas, and what saved us was the power of the movies. This got me to thinking about all the best dysfunctional family holiday films–I don’t mean[…]
An Atheist’s Guide to A Charlie Brown Christmas
Continuing an annual orgy of cartoon watching I decided to take a lengthy look at this classic in socio-philosophical, rather than belletristic, terms. Unfortunately, the full Atheist’s Guide runs over[…]
A Muppet Christmas: Letters from Another Era
The by now hideously distended Muppet franchise received another subpar entry on network television last night in the form of “A Muppet Christmas: Letters to Santa”. Is anyone else willing[…]
Actors & Personalities · Exploitation & Erotica
Everybody’s Dream Girl – Bettie Page (1923-2008)
Is there an art to being photographed? I believe there is, and when I say that, I am thinking of four artists in particular, all of whom reached their peaks[…]
Directors · Experimental & Underground
An Evening With Kenneth Anger
Last night, I had the pleasure of attending a screening of some of Kenneth Anger’s most recent short films – hosted by Mr. Anger himself. The legendary “underground filmmaker” was[…]
Activist & Political · Essays · Silents
Metropolis, Ezra Pound, Mammon: And the Law of Too-Large Numbers
“The old world is dying away, and the new world struggles to come forth: now is the time of monsters.”
Festivals & Awards · LGBT & Queer
Queer Angles: The 2008 Portland Lesbian and Gay Film Festival
Feisty orthodox Jewish dykes, globe-trotting ladyboys, fascistic Armani queens you know, the gang
Festivals & Awards · LGBT & Queer
What’s Up, QDoc? Portland’s 2008 Queer Documentary Festival
Seeing queer lives from the U.S. and Canada to South Africa and Iran
Vicky and Woody and François: On Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona
The return of Jules and Jim?
Activist & Political · African American · Reviews
Sinful Remake: The Women Problem
“Wife, get a real life for yourself. Career woman, the career isn’t everything. Hussy, men still marry ladies. Lesbian, explore your ‘male’ issues … “
The First-Class Jewels: An American in Paris and Gigi
Two golden-age musicals get the deluxe treatment
Books · Experimental & Underground
Books: Art in Cinema: Documents Toward a History of the Film Society
Art in Cinema: Documents Toward a History of the Film Society, Scott MacDonald. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2006. Hardcover, $63.50, 465pp. ISBN: 1-592-134254 Reading the more or less official correspondence of a film[…]
The Volleyball in the Void: Tom Hanks Is Cast Away
Pascal . . . Kierkegaard . . . Nietzsche . . . Zemeckis?
Actors & Personalities · Documentaries · Music & Musicals
It Ain’t Me Babe: On Dylan and Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There
I’m not the one you want babe / I’ll only let you down.”
Crime · Music & Musicals · Reviews
Early Jeanne, Early Louis, Early Miles: Louis Malle’s Elevator to the Gallows
“Paris at night in black-and-white with Miles on the soundtrack? It’s a perfect fit.”
Composers · Essays · Music & Musicals
Finding Unlikely Ideology in Prokofiev: Polyphonic and Anti-Authoritarian Gestures in The Gambler
“Alexei must be condemned to the pointless, loveless, and finally false freedom of a spinning limbo, as unfinished and unfinishable as the best Bakhtinian polyphony.”
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