Posts by author
Matt Singer
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Movies, Briefly: The Wages of Fear (1953)
Just how intense is The Wages of Fear? This movie didn’t just make my palms sweat; it made the soles of my feet sweat too. Either I’ve got a glandular problem or this is one suspenseful movie.
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In Defense of The Color of Money (1986)
The Color of Money features two kinds of trick shots: the ones on the pool table and the ones in the camera. “Fast” Eddie Felson puts on a clinic on shot selection on camera and Scorsese’s puts on another off.…
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The Rumpus Review of Up in the Air
Up in the Air is sentimental, but that doesn’t mean it’s simplistic. In fact, the movie plays at some interesting contradictions. It is a genuinely funny movie about genuinely depressing times.
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The Rumpus Review of The Informant!
For his role in Steven Soderbergh’s The Informant! as corporate executive turned whistleblower Mark Whitacre, Matt Damon gained something like thirty pounds. He didn’t need do it to look like the real Whitacre because none of us know what the…
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Movie Briefly: Deliver Us From Evil (2006)
Deliver Us From Evil is a documentary, but it could be filed in the video store under the horror section. Few fictional bogeymen in the history of movies can hold a candle to a real-life monster like Oliver O’Grady, a…
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Movies Briefly: Not Quite Hollywood, 2009
If, as Quentin Tarantino believes, the real core of exploitation cinema is found in images so crazy you cannot believe your eyes, then the new film about the history of Australian exploitation, Not Quite Hollywood, not only documents its subject,…
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Movies Briefly, Stripes (1981)
Few movies deserve an “Extended Cut” but I can think of few that deserve one less than Stripes, which was already twenty minutes longer than necessary in its original theatrical edition. Rather than expanding the film to a bloated 126…
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Movies Briefly, The Proposal (2009)
The title The Proposal has two meanings; it refers to the improvised marriage between shrew boss Margaret (Sandra Bullock) and exasperated assistant Andrew (Ryan Reynolds) devised to stave off her deportation, as well as to their jobs in the world…
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Movies Briefly, Suspiria (1977)
It boggles my mind that Dario Argento directed a movie called Deep Red and it is not this picture. How is that possible? How could any movie not set entirely in a darkroom be more about the color red than…
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Salesman (1968)
This picture about traveling Bible salesmen had me thanking God I didn’t go into retail. At least not the kind in Salesman: you’re separated from your family, working out of shared hotel rooms, trying to convince poor Catholics they need…
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The Rumpus Review of The Hangover
According to the opening credits, The Hangover is “A Todd Phillips Movie” not “A Todd Phillips Film.”