40th New York Film Festival (Sept. 27-Oct. 13, 2002)
“No reassurance and little escapism – just right for the current state of uncertainty” New York feels unsettled these days, an agitation reflected even at the venerable Film Festival, whose[…]
38th Chicago International Film Festival (2002)
“The Scandals of 2002” “There is no more universal experience than sitting in a darkened theater, watching the magic of the movies.” So says Richard M. Daley, mayor of Chicago.[…]
Exploitation & Erotica · Reviews
Of Horny Hunchbacks and Stitch Bitches: Le Cinema Milligan
If you think his films are bad, wait till you see his life Among its many pleasures, the sixties opened the floodgates for cinematic sleaze. Subjects hitherto found only in[…]
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[…]
The Wizard of Awe: Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away
The creator of Princess Mononoke brings his sleek Boschian vision to America, courtesy of Disney “Being enclosed, protected, and kept away from dangers, children cannot help but enlarge their fragile[…]
Exploitation & Erotica · LGBT & Queer · Reviews
Chained Girls (1965): A Twilight Tale of the Third Sex
Who is that comely, vicious gal plotting mayhem from the shadows? Why, the dyke of 1960s pop culture, of course. “Lesbians have their variations from one group to another. There[…]
Candy, or Libertinism
“I’ll do anything … ANYTHING” to save Daddy!” Introduction Based on the famous – or better, notorious – faux pornographic novel by Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg, Candy (Christian Marquand,[…]
Essays · Reviews · SF & Fantasy
Defense of the Clones: Lucas’s Latest: Cheap Thrills or Sophisticated Filmmaking?
A close reading points to the latter. For those who see popular film as capable of providing more than cheap visceral thrills, the dismal nature of recent writing on Attack[…]
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[…]
Activist & Political · Reviews
Censorship and Indian Cinema: The Case of Anand Patwardhan’s War and Peace
Cutting-edge films continue to be cut – or suppressed entirely – by India’s clueless Censor Board “Censorship is when a work of art expressing an idea which does not fall[…]
Molls with Claws: Three Classic Girl Gang Movies: Girl Gang, Teenage Doll, Teenage Gang Debs
These “dolls” paved the way for the riot grrls of the ’80s – but were too busy kicking ass to notice Cultural memory is often about as fragmented as a[…]
LGBT & Queer · Reviews · Uncategorized
Boys on the Side: A Survey of Adult/Youth Relationships in Movies and TV
Surprise – it could be a lot worse. In a February 2002 commentary for her syndicated column “Lesbian Notions,” Paula Martinac recalls her angst at browsing through her local lesbian[…]
Being a Kid Is a Drag – Onscreen
There are drag queens and then there are drag princesses Why would an eight-year-old boy want to wear a dress? “Scotsmen wear dresses, they’re called kilts. King Tut wore a[…]
Goodbye Warren, Hello Tim: How Clinton Demobilized Liberalism and Anti-Capitalism Came into Hollywood
Hollywood shows some unsuspected radical tendencies – after eight years of Clintonian “liberalism” “Hollywood is at its best when it is relating to a progressive left political force that’s already[…]
Fritz Lang’s Assumption Factory: Social Agreements and Schisms in Fury, Modern Times, and A Clockwork Orange
Two films of 1936, Chaplin’s Modern Times and Fritz Lang’s Fury (with Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sydney), appear to have little in common. The former sardonically depicts a man at[…]
Essays · Historical & Epic · Reviews
Black and White Breakfast: Race, Class, Sexuality, and Corn Flakes in Alan Parker’s The Road to Wellville
Parker’s “ode to bathroom humor” plumbs surprising depths Contemporary American comedy evades realistic treatment of social issues, opting instead for escape from these issues. That the bulk of racial representation[…]
Frederic March and Carole Lombard Find Nothing Sacred in the Big Apple
“There she is, in all her beads and ribbons!” How Manhattan is Nothing Sacred? To be more Manhattan, it would have to be Manhattan. Because once more we’re on that[…]
Book review: Classic Hollywood, Classic Whiteness, ed. by Daniel J. Bernardi
Classic Hollywood, Classic Whiteness, ed. and with an introduction by Daniel J. Bernardi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000. Trade paper. 516pp. ISBN 0-8166-3239-1. Classic Hollywood, Classic Whiteness continues the project[…]
Book reviews: Keeping the British End Up, by Simon Sheridan & Hollywood’s Film Wars with France, by Jens Ulff-Møller
Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema, by Simon Sheridan. London: Reynolds and Hearn, 2002. Trade paper. $24.95, 208pp. ISBN 1-90311-121-8. For those not in the know,[…]
“Fascinating. Horrible, but Fascinating”: 20 Million Miles to Earth on DVD
In which Harryhausen’s most poignant monster mixes it up After pioneering French filmmaker Georges Mêlies, there are few special effects icons left to trip over on your way to current[…]
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