There Will Be Blood and Queen Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Thrilling and underrated is how I find ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE. I’ve read some of the reviews and probably waited this long because of them, but now I’d like to[…]
Favorite Screenwriting Device No. 42 – The Sympathetic Listener
Much has been written about the scene in There Will Be Blood in which Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) confesses his innermost feelings to his purported half-brother, Henry Brands (Kevin J.[…]
Wes’s World: Riding Wes Anderson’s Vision Limited
Paging crackle, energy, and wit. Come in, please.
Documentaries · Festivals & Awards · War
Onward and Inward: On the 2007 Thessaloniki International Film Festival
“Each work limns a moral dilemma that has no discernible answer.”
Quickies: Random Short Reviews from CineKink to Zizek!
“Don’t know, don’t care. Beads for boobs!”
Activist & Political · African American · Exploitation & Erotica · Genres
Hillbilly Hustle: The Thin Line Between Hillybilly Sexploitation and Blaxploitation in Trash Cinema
“How you gonna keep um’ down on the farm after they seen all this?”
Composers · Essays · Music & Musicals · Sound & Language · Writers & Critics
False Consonance and False Consciousness: Contrarian Notes on the Ideology of Film Music
“Defenseless against music, I must submit to its despotism and, depending on its whim, be god or garbage.”
Only the Pictures: We’re All Editing, Ed
But about this audit
Communication Breakdown: Reboarding Jim Jarmusch’s Mystery Train
“You only need one leg to get around. Sure helps to have two.”
Directors · Experimental & Underground
Peter Watkins and the Politics of Expression: On Edvard Munch (1974) and The Freethinker (1994)
“Watkins’ filmmaking bravely seeks an insistence on personal truth his own and the viewer’s.”
Actors & Personalities · Music & Musicals
Ode to Lili: And Leslie Caron
“This MGM movie is studio-system filmmaking at its most protective, and it’s designed entirely to showcase Leslie Caron …”
Actors & Personalities · Essays · SF & Fantasy
A Boy and His Dog: On Will Smith, Apocalypse, and I Am Legend
“Neville remains wholly oblivious, falling into each trap the ferals set … “
When Virtue Sleeps: The Moral World of Denys Arcand’s L’Âge des Ténèbres
“We are asked to think morally: is the happiness these characters seek possible or desirable?”
Documentaries · Religion & Spirituality
Innocence Lost or Regained? The Clear-Eyed Vision of Jesus Camp
“Real things happening to real people”
Thank God for Uncle Tom: Race and Religion Collide in The Green Pastures
A kinder, gentler condescension
Exploitation & Erotica · Reviews
The Foxy, the Dead, and the Foxier: Re-Visiting Death Proof
“He’s old enough to be my dad!”
Tickets to the Dark Side: The 43rd Chicago International Film Festival
“We will see whose heart is sharpest!”
Nuts to the Squirrels and Roués Redeemed: The Discreet Charm of Charles Boyer
“In Boyer, self-belief and theatrical technique are seamlessly fused together.”
Bright Sights: Recent DVDs: Our Hitler, Sawdust and Tinsel, Black Sun, Marketa Lazarova, Battleship Potemkin, Nosferatu, Automatons
An ongoing column that looks at some of the most intriguing of recent, under-the-radar releases
Downward Mobility: On Roger Corman’s Bloody Mama
“You never could make a decent living … you never did mount me proper.”
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