Buried Alive: On Frederick Wiseman’s Juvenile Court
“The great legal scholar Lenny Bruce once observed that in the halls of justice the only justice is in the halls . . .” The long, astonishing final sequence of[…]
Wim, We Hardly Know Ye: On Wenders’ Don’t Come Knocking
The bad news is . . . there’s not much good news If you’ve despaired at the Wim Wenders of recent years — that long line, since 1987’s Wings of[…]
Anthropomorphizing the Anthropoid: Peter Jackson’s King Kong
Even a big ape can enjoy a sunset, can’t he? 1st Blonde: “What is this thing, anyway?” 2nd Blonde: “Some kind of gorilla.” 1st Blonde: “Ain’t we got enough of[…]
Looking for Angst in All the Wrong Places: Sam Mendes’s Jarhead: Marines Gone Wild!
A few really cute boys take their shirts off, but that’s about it On paper, it must have sounded, well, interesting. Take the flamboyant, left-wing lyricism of Academy Award-winning director[…]
Actors & Personalities · Reviews · Silents
Step Right Up and Call Me Speedy! Harold Lloyd — Almost All Isn’t Enough
The last of the great silent clowns now on DVD “Step Right Up and Call Me Speedy!” Harold Lloyd has often — too often, really — been called the Anthony[…]
Reviews · TV & Streaming · Writers & Critics
Nine Hamlets: Olivier, Burton, Jacobi, Kline, Gibson, Branagh, Scott, Hawke, and Lester All Take a Stab at the Original Man in Black
“Where be your gibes now? Your gambols? Your songs? Your flashes of merriment that were wont to set the table on a roar?” Hamlet, it must be said, is not[…]
Exploitation & Erotica · Reviews
Quickies: Random Short Reviews from 119 Bullets + 3 to Transgeneration
“Dafydd Thomas (Lucas), a delusional queen in PVC fetish drag, jealously guards his status as ‘the only gay in the village’ even when competing queens arrive to challenge him.” 119[…]
Grandma’s Boy: No, Not That One
Linda Cardellini dies and goes to Hell I’m no Dante, but I bet they’re busy in Hell these days. Busy putting in new and lower circles, busy putting in new[…]
Toto, I Don’t Think We’re in the Grand Tetons Anymore: Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain
Queens in jeans? Bareback Mountain? Buttfuck Mountain? Steers n’ Queers? Homos on the Range? Has there ever been a movie that invited more witticisms?1 In fact, Brokeback should be called[…]
Against Pleasure, Against Identification: Feminism, Cultural Atheism, and the Tragic Subject (Part Two)
“The more a man dreams, the less he believes.” ~ H. L. Mencken Preface: Why My Dreams Smell Like Nothing (Onto the Regime of Odor) On June 18, 2005 (I[…]
I Am a Film Addict: The 41st Chicago International Film Festival
What the devil did they show? As soon as the black-and-white festival banners went up along Michigan Avenue, Chicago’s moviegoing public braced for the coming onslaught of 101 features (and[…]
Far from the Madding Multiplex: The Subtle Horror of The Innocents
This ghost story’s charms are far from ephemeral At a point in cinema’s long history when multiplex horror films either have the staying power of 20-year-old aspirin (The Ring) or[…]
How Sweet to Be a Cloud? Fancy and Fucking Collide in Tsai-Ming Liang’s Latest
Tsai pushes the art/porn envelope — or does he? With The Wayward Cloud (Tian Bian Yi Duo Yun — literally “A Cloud at the Edge of the Sky,” 2004), Tsai[…]
Les Fleurs du Mal: The Leopard Man and Le Corbeau: Tourneur and Clouzot Deliver Homefront Perversity, Paranoia, and Subversion
“Nothing is so transient as sanity and safety . . .” Free from his past and sufficiently angry to wage war, Germain enlists Vorzet’s talents as psychiatrist — he believes[…]
In a Galaxy Far, Far Away — But Not Far Enough: Joss Whedon’s Serenity: Like TV, but Without All the Intelligence
Sayin’ ain’t doin’, motherfucker! It’s a damn fact that starin’ into the inky, pitchy blackness of space can make you a bit addle-pated, to the point that you might start[…]
The Global Gaze: The 43rd New York Film Festival
Much to admire, little to love Swank and stately, New York’s gala is like the grande dame of film festivals. Absent the frantic pace of Berlin, Cannes, or Toronto, New[…]
The Unbearable Lightness of Cannes: 2005 Diversions and Disappointments
Where did all the wild ones go? The excitement of Cannes is that it matters: 40,000 professionals, journalists, and business people descend on the upscale Mediterranean city to showcase products,[…]
Proof or Consequences: Miscast Mathematicians in Love: Paltrow Sees Dead (Crazy) People
Let no one who is not a geometer enter here. According to legend, Plato posted this sign above the door to his Academy in Athens to show just how much[…]
Family Is Hell and So Is the World: Talking to Michael Haneke at Cannes 2005
“All of us have these hidden moments in our lives . . .” “I wish you a disturbing evening!” This is how Michael Haneke, who won Best Director award at[…]
Asian · Directors · Interviews
The Immortality Blues: Talking with Fruit Chan About Dumplings
And other tasty subjects Fruit Chan’s Dumplings provoked unprecedented attention at the 2005 Melbourne International Film Festival, first and foremost because of its controversial and idiosyncratic narrative, but also because[…]
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