Recently I saw an interview with Michelle Pfeiffer on a morning talk show, the sort of place where informed discourse goes to die. Amidst the general harmless banter that Pfeiffer was clearly tolerating rather than enjoying, there came a point … Continue reading Maybe someday I’ll share your little distant cloud
#48 — The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Peter Jackson, 2003). When surveying the films of the past ten years, it’s tempting to view Peter Jackson’s three excursions into Middle Earth as a singular achievement. While he … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Forty-Eight
Taxi to the Dark Side (Alex Gibney, 2007). This Oscar winner for Best Documentary Feature catalogs and condemns the harsh treatment of prisoners in the Bush administration’s zealous “war on terror.” Gibney lays out the evidence of vicious abuse and clear-cut torture perpetrated by the American military at prisons in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Just as importantly–arguably even more importantly–he examines the ways in which the highest leaders created, encourages and perpetuated the environment for these horrendous practices and then casually, heartlessly blamed the enlisted men when the worst of it came to light. Like Charles Ferguson’s No … Continue reading Pivotal Film Selling Out Your Monkey
#49 — The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson, 2001). For all the precision that Wes Anderson brings to his filmmaking–the carefully constructed shots, the pristine cinematography, the merging of imagery with the rock’n’roll soundtrack so complete that it feels like the movie itself is breathing in time with each song’s backbeat–it is the ungainly sprawl of The Royal Tenenbaums that impresses most. Anderson has been upfront about drawing upon the works of J.D. Salinger, particularly those involving the Glass family, for this film, and it indeed comes across as a wildly inventive, overstuffed novel. Set in a arch, Bohemian, colorful New York … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Forty-Nine
I definitely appreciate that Duncan Jones is trying to create a science fiction film that’s as much about ideas as it is about C.G.I. logistics with his feature directorial debut, Moon. Set in an indeterminate future era in which our … Continue reading Though I’d like to look down at the earth from above, I would miss all the places and people I love
#50 — Triviatown (Patrick Cady and Brit McAdams, 2006). This documentary focuses on a trivia contest, touted as the world’s largest, which is staged annually by a college radio station in a small central Wisconsin city. In the manner of … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Fifty
Nearly ten years ago I was given a proposal from my old partner on the movie review program we did on college radio from 1990 to 1993. He suggested we each concoct our respective lists of the top fifty films of the nineties, adapting the traditional yearly top ten to a larger scale. While it had been years since we’d done the radio show together, we’d each remained avid moviegoers. In fact, we’d each taken little spins with movie reviewing and Academy Award analysis on other radio stations during the intervening years, he much more notably and productively than I. … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — An Introduction
McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971). There are many who consider this film to be the quintessential Altman effort, and it’s not hard to see why. The hallmarks of Altman’s legend are all there: the overlapping dialogue, the moral ambivalence, the richly-conceived characters. Most importantly and impressively, the film is a thrilling example of the ways in which Altman pulls all these elements of his craft together to give the sense of a fully developed culture and society. The film is focused on the main characters, but the entire frame ripples with life. You feel as if you know … Continue reading And our silver screen affair, it weighs less to me than air
After a hard day of installing hardwood flooring, there’s only one movie that stands as an adequate reward. Here’s a hint or two: “Where do you dance at, darlin’?” “Um… at the Cheetah.” “I don’t know how good you are, darlin’, and I don’t know what it is you’re good at, but if it’s at the Cheetah, it’s not dancing, I know that much.” “You don’t know shit!” “She’s no butterfly. Tony, she’s all pelvic thrust. I mean, she prowls. She’s got it!” “I’ve had dog food.” “You have?” “Mmm-hmmm. Long time ago. Doggy Chow. I used to love Doggy … Continue reading I got lots of money, I got lots of time, bought myself a penthouse, filled it up with bubbly wine
Had I gone into Away We Go uneducated about the filmmakers behind it, I would have been startled when the directing credit popped up at the end. This loose, scruffy travelogue sends a thirtysomething couple expecting their first child bounding … Continue reading Going round in circles, here we go again
Coffee for Two 