Sean Connery: A “Natural Thruster”
“Connery, never a martyr to false modesty, remains as voluble and combative as ever.”
Books · Essays · Uncategorized · Writers & Critics
On the Escarpment, Off the Escarpment: It Helps When the Love Is Strong
Especially when the lovers aren’t
Bright Sights: Recent DVDs: Play Time, Gaumont Treasures, Diary for My Children, Winstanley, Marlene, Bill Douglas Trilogy
An ongoing column that looks at some of the most intriguing of recent, under-the-radar releases
Blake Edwards vs. Hollywood: Sunset and the Myth of Hollywood’s Golden Age
A tour of Edwards’ curious 1988 film, with side trips to variations by James Ivory, John Schlesinger, and others
An Atheist’s Guide to “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
When you believe in things you don’t understand, you suffer. – Stevie Wonder * * * In 1949 Walt Disney Studios produced the last, and arguably the best, of their[…]
The Beautiful and the Darned: Avenging TWILIGHT
It’s massively popular, it’s ridiculously mopey, yet it’s also brooding, purple and relatively un-headache-inducing… in short, it’s everything you hate and love about Seattle if you ever tried to move[…]
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JACK ARNOLD (October 14, 1916 – March 17, 1992)
Photo: Director Jack Arnold (right) shows star Grant Williams how to handle a giant prop used in the making of The Incredible Shrinking Man. If director Jack Arnold were alive[…]
Music & Musicals · Reviews · TV & Streaming
The Marienbad Music Video
So many music videos and television commercials have ripped off the imagery of Alain Resnais’s Last Year at Marienbad since its 1961 release that it makes perfect sense for someone[…]
Set my Polack free!
An apt cinematic analogy of the Polanski brouhaha can be found in Charles Laughton’s NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, namely the hyper-reactive old salt of the general store, Mrs. Icey Spoon[…]
The Vertigo-Narcissus Connection
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrQIV3aYfiw] In celebration of the birthday of director Michael Powell (1905-1990) today, I’d like to share with you this clip from Powell & Emeric Pressburger’s 1947 color masterpiece, Black Narcissus,[…]
Thoughts on Antichrist
I screened Lars Von Trier’s new film Antichrist a few nights ago in bed, on my iPod touch (insert slightly guilty shrug), while my wife slept beside me. Throughout most[…]
Documentaries · LGBT & Queer · Reviews
Alan Turing, 1912-1954, 2009
Since we’re commemorating dire events today, here’s one from queer history worth noting. From today’s Guardian website: Gordon Brown issued an unequivocal apology last night on behalf of the government[…]
The original inglorious bastard
In the midst of this blogospheric firestorm revolving around Inglourious Basterds, one relatively mild concession we can all make is that, for one reason or another, the movie (like all[…]
Since everyone else seems to be talking about it…
…and I mean *everybody*… Jonathan Rosenbaum posted a rather damning blog entry on his website regarding QT’s “IB” that was subsequently picked up and scoffed at by a smattering of[…]
Book review: A Great Big Girl Like Me, by Victoria Sturtevant
A Great Big Girl Like Me: The Films of Marie Dressler, by Victoria Sturtevant. Carbondale, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2009. Trade paperback, $24.00. 208pp. ISBN: 0-252-07622-2. When Canadian writer Betty[…]
Book review: World’s Coolest Movie Star, by Charles Zigman
World’s Coolest Movie Star: The Complete 95 Films (and Legend) of Jean Gabin, Volumes 1 and 2, by Charles Zigman. Los Angeles: Allenwood Press, 2008. Hardcover $20.00 each. 1,112pp combined. ISBN:[…]
Book review: Michael Winterbottom, by Brian McFarlane and Deane Williams
Michael Winterbottom, by Brian McFarlane and Deane Williams. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press. Hardcover $84.95. 152pp., ISBN: 978-0-7190-7422-6. One of the most versatile and politically conscientious directors of his[…]
The Shallow World of District 9
Even within the notoriously cheese-ridden genre of science fiction, few films can rival the alien visitation picture in terms of how much suspicion they arouse. Rare is the film that[…]
Cosmic Karma in The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre
Check out the latest issue of Film Comment, containing an excellent, though regrettably short, piece by Richard Combs praising the formal achievement of Roger Corman’s The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre[…]
Apatow and Agnostic Comedy
I recently screened Judd Apatow’s Funny People (the latest in a long list of theatrical releases that the blogosphere has loved to “ehhh” about) with a group of friends, and[…]
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