Despite concessions to commerce, much to admire
Activist & Political · Essays · Exploitation & Erotica
Living the New High Life: A Current Note on Race and Class in America
Or Can Tea Party Porn Strike a Blow for the American Way?
Actors & Personalities · Essays
Short Takes: Acting: James Dean’s Clumsy Punch
“The time-and-place for Dean’s performances is always now, in the moment of its creation, and he resists any technique that obscures that fact.”
Directors · Documentaries · Interviews
Catching It All in Stride: An Interview with Ariel and Nev Schulman on Catfish
“We just followed the leads.”
Actors & Personalities · Directors · Historical & Epic · Interviews
Chasing Windmills: Talking with Juan Luis Bunuel about Welles and Don Quixote
“I’d love to be Orson’s assistant again.”
Music & Musicals · Writers & Critics
It Would Make John Waters Proud, But Shakespeare? Musical Spectacle and the Missing Bard in Hamlet 2
“Coogan’s representation of Jesus, ascending high above the audience, is far removed from the silly, sexy Jesus who sang to us earlier wearing a wife-beater.”
Selling Yourself: Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop
“When Banksy sits in silhouette during his onscreen interviews, we have no proof that it’s really him, nor even that Banksy is a real individual.”
Draining Dracula: What’s Missing from Coppola’s Version?
Actually, a lot
A Dog Day’s Night in Brooklyn: Revisiting Lumet, Pacino, and the ’70s in 2010
“My first exposure to the transcendent grit of Dog Day Afternooon, at the age of 13, may have aroused an inchoate urban longing.”
Documentaries · Festivals & Awards
Illuminating the Interior: The DOC NYC Festival Debut
Boasting Werner Herzog and Errol Morris, fest sets a high standard
Freedom from the Pedomorphic Ideal: A Speculation on the Tragically Cute
“Beyond religion, we have resorted to a more modern neurosis to calm our terrors and complement our pretended ennui: cuteness.”
Bright Sights: Recent DVDs: Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, Adelheid, The War Lord, The Exploding Girl, The Law, L’Enfance Nue, Chaplin at Keystone
An ongoing column that looks at some of the most intriguing of recent, under-the-radar releases
“Unique (and Just a Little Queer)”: Camping with James Bond
“We want to be Bond; we want to fuck Bond; we want to be Bond fucking.”
Directors · Exploitation & Erotica
“He’s Dreaming My Dream!” Beryl Sokoloff’s Web of Artists
Of insular wonderlands and open cityscapes
Activist & Political · Festivals & Awards
Cinema, Virginity, and Swans: The Abu Dhabi International Film Festival 2010
“For a brief week or two, adventurous filmgoers can capture elusive truths found in works of complexity, moral ambiguity, and seriousness of purpose, all uncensored.”
Activist & Political · Drama · Essays
The Illusionist: Film Art and Political Power
“He tries to trick you. I try to enlighten you. Which is the more noble pursuit?” The Illusionist was released in 2006 to generally good reviews (the consensus seemed to[…]
Exploitation & Erotica · Reviews
UCLA Archive revisits “Cotton Comes to Harlem” and “Shaft”
The UCLA Film & Television Archive’s current series on black cinema of the 1970s has featured guest appearances by a number of actors and other people associated with films on[…]
Janet MacLachlan dies at 77; prominent African-American actress in film, TV since 1960s
Janet MacLachlan, who played the compassionate schoolteacher in Martin Ritt’s Oscar-nominated “Sounder” (1972), has died at age 77. A highly respected stage, film and television actress, Maclachlan was known for a serious,[…]
Links + BSA
