Film
-
For The Nextflix Pile— The Parallax View
The Parallax View, released in 1974, based on the book by Loren Singer, was scripted by Lorenzo Semple Jr. (his daughter just wrote a book about L.A called This One Is Mine). Mr. Semple also wrote the scripts for Three…
-
The Last Bastion of Jim Crow
The Order of Myths is a film too nuanced to confront lynching directly, and too focused to make any easy statement about racism.
-
Devious Inc.
I hold certain truths to be self evident. Among these: independent film is good. Locally produced products are good. Rocking musicals are good. Shoes are good. The fetish industry is good. Based on adherence to these precepts, I was delighted…
-
The Rumpus Interview with Lisandro Alonso
“If tomorrow I have to quit filmmaking, I will. I’m not going to sell my house for a project, that’s for sure. If I have to go back and work on my family’s farm, fine. I don’t have any problem…
-
THE EYEBALL: The Thief of Baghdad
The Eyeball is currently teaching creative writing in a decommissioned military base on the Olympic Peninsula, which means late-night DVD watching in the officers quarters. Last night I watched The Thief of Baghdad, a 1940 film directed by a hodgepodge…
-
Fade to Orange: He is So Totally That Into Me Edition
I was in Halifax this weekend, visiting my 93-year-old grandma. Seeing her reminded me of the ace movie reviews she started sending me right after I moved to New York. My grandma loved to go to “the show” and would…
-
THE EYEBALL: Guy Maddin
I held out for just the right time to watch Guy Maddin’s Brand Upon the Brain! and caved this weekend, experiencing it like I do so many movies now, on my laptop with a couple earbud headphones. Friends, this is…
-
THE EYEBALL: Fake Out
Rumpus blogger Rick Moody posted a comment to my recent post about Lord of the Rings asking whether the special effects of that film still held up. I got to thinking about why we accept some special effects as cool…
-
Fade to Orange: Michelle Orange’s International Film Link Incident
One of the films a few critics I know are looking forward to at this year’s Sundance is a documentary called 211:Anna, about the 2006 assassination of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Screening several times this week, this is not the…
-
The Eyeball: Lord of the Rings
Last Friday I was laid up with some kind of nasty stomach bug that left me prone most of the day. What better time than to revisit Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring? It was literally the…