Film
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On DVD: 180° South: Conquerors of the Useless
“The best journeys answer questions that, in the beginning, you didn’t even think to ask.” Questions are both asked and acted upon in Chris Malloy’s 180° South. The documentary is a cautionary tale of adventure in a decaying world, following…
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James Franco’s Insane Anti-Career
If you’re looking for a long profile of a celebrity to read this weekend (and why wouldn’t you be?) you should choose this one: Sam Anderson’s profile of James Franco in New York magazine. You should read it just based…
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Magic in Movies: Notes on Au Hasard Balthazar
Magic in movies is a beautiful thing. I’ve inundated myself with film for years, since the age of nineteen, but only recently experienced the pleasure of being put under a spell by two directors I had known of, but whose…
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Now Playing: Let It Rain
Agnés Jaoui directed her sublime first film The Taste of Others (Le goût des autres) in 2000, and received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language film in the process. Jaoui and her writing partner Jean-Pierre Bacri have since collaborated…
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Beaches of Agnès Still on POV for Free
I know this film is a hobbyhorse of mine, but I just can’t resist today: Agnès Varda’s extraordinary filmed memoir, the Beaches of Agnès, is still available to watch for free, online, at this POV page.
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Now Playing: Kisses
It’s no secret that fairy tales and dreams have a good deal in common. The action of both often rolls onward with a seeming inevitability, a certain sense of fatedness. Strange landscapes fade in and out of view, at once…
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12th and Delaware
Over at Mother Jones, Rumpus volunteer and Mother Jones intern Maddie Oatman has published a review of the abortion-rights documentary 12th and Delaware, the new film from the makers of Jesus Camp: “The new documentary 12th and Delaware, which premiered…
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10/40/70 #18: Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
This ongoing experiment in film writing freezes a film at 10, 40, and 70 minutes, and keeps the commentary as close to those frames as possible. This week, I examine Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, directed by Sam…
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Presumed Guilty Online
Today is the last day you can watch Presumed Guilty for free online, I just found out — through midnight tonight. The documentary is about the shockingly corrupt Mexican justice system, which has no juries and no presumption of innocence,…
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Bill Murray Interview at GQ
A long and very interesting interview with Bill Murray is up at GQ; one of the most interesting things comes right up front, where we learn that anybody can get in touch with Bill Murray simply by calling an 800…
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Notable San Francisco, This Week: 8/2-8/8
This week, Quiet Lightning! First Tuesday: TechnoCraft @ YBCA, and art, art, art! In North Beach @ DoublePunch, Western Addition @ Big Umbrella, and in the Haight at the Summer Art Walk. Monday 8/2: Relatively new, and already so popular…
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Notable New York, This Week 8/2 – 8/8
This week in New York Jennifer Vanderbes Feasts, David Carter for Gay Rights, Peter Hedges and Jonathan Tropper shows us how to bring black and white to color, Geoffrey O’Brien is an aristocrat, Leo Allen gives us Whiplash, Ask Me…