Mo’ Money, Mo’ Money, Mo’ Money! J. K. Rowling Just Got Richer
Harry the Fifth comes in third OK, the latest Harry Potter — Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, to give the full name — isn’t a bad flick[…]
Notes on a Scandal: On Film Criticism and Its Teachers
Will the twain ever meet? Why isn’t film criticism taught by film critics in British universities? Or to put it another way; why have we never heard of those who[…]
What the Previews Tell Me
Since cutting off my cable I’ve managed to avoid 99% of the crap advertising I used to be subject to. Now I just have to soak up the subliminal messages[…]
The Peak of American Cinema? Leo McCarey’s Duck Soup (1933)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2P9_0JEje8k] I’ve been thinking a lot about director Leo McCarey lately and, in particular, how so many of his movies , from the 1928 Laurel and Hardy short Two Tars[…]
The Simpsons Movie: from D’oh to Dough! Helping white men get richer for 18 years!
Yes, Matt Groening and James L. Brooks are rich, rich white men, and thanks to The Simpsons Movie, they’re going to be even richer. Much as I would like to[…]
Herzog’s Tricky Rescue Dawn
Most critics have approached Werner Herzog’s latest film Rescue Dawn with qualifying kid gloves, as if it would be impolite to question a late work from such a grand old[…]
Classic Hong Kong Action Cinema, you are Avenged!
Fans of Hong Kong action cinema have long had to wade through murky, treacherous terrain, even with the arrival of DVD: bad transfers, faded, junky prints, badly cropped pan&scan;[…]
Kill Hagen! – Lang’s Kriemhild And Her Revenge
A 5-hour epic film in two parts about a bride who swears vengeance on the conspirators who killed her husband. That’s Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill. It’s also an accurate description[…]
Uncategorized · Visual Artists
The Gorey Factor
Some still dispute whether Edward Gorey (1925-2000) was fundamentally an artist who wrote, or a writer who drew. Gorey was, in fact, both an accomplished writer and an accomplished artist[…]
Political Premonition in La Cinema
My shrink today was talking about how amphetamines gave Phillip K. Dick both paranoia and second sight, and maybe they tie into each other on some far out dimension. That[…]
A 40 year old escapist rewinds to the UHF past.
The question one hears leaving the movie theater these days, assuming everyone enjoyed it is: Are you gonna buy it when it comes out on DVD?” Or you hear–or even[…]
In Like Clint! Letters from Iwo Jima Is Excellent
With one, yeah, pretty major caveat I do have a major objection to Clint Eastwood’s new film Letters from Iwo Jima, but my first reaction is one of praise. After[…]
Artists · Directors · Producers & Studios · Reviews
Nearer My Corman to Thee: Roger Corman Remembers, and Roger Corman Remembered
Give us another naked nurse and some more explosions! Roger Corman, who turned 81 in April 2007, has assured his place in the history books several times over. As fast[…]
Uncovering the Romantic Bond: Thoughts on Casino Royale
“By describing a conscience for James Bond the character, the story has provided a subconscious for James Bond the movies“ What do James Bond movies and American Football have in common? Well, for[…]
Billy Ray’s Breach: At Last, a Film as Boring as DC!
The evil that men do in a Fairfax County regional park I’ve had a lot of fun over the past few years ridiculing Hollywood’s lame attempts to capture — or[…]
Man in the Dark: On David Fincher’s Zodiac
“A brutal, slick game” Zodiac probably is more of a critic’s picture than an audience picture. Since it is about an actual serial killer — Zodiac, who terrorized Northern California[…]
Digitizing the Cold War: Olympic Wish Fulfillment in Tron
“The blue Tron team delivers the red team the drubbing the Americans were never able to deliver the Soviets . . .” In 1980 the American Olympic ice hockey team, comprised mostly[…]
Lost World: Michael Haneke’s Time of the Wolf Reconsidered
What we’re given is a sense that the structures of our civilisation have broken down . . .” Code Unknown (Code inconnu: Récit incomplet de divers voyages, 2000), The Piano[…]
Will Ferrell on Ice! Speck & Gordon’s Blades of Glory
No Betty White, but funny! Blades of Glory is a winning, genial take on some of the grosser vanities and shortcomings of early 21st century America — most notably, the[…]
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