#8 Something that works on the page won’t automatically work on the screen, especially when the original prose tends towards the ruminative. That may explain why the likes of John Updike and Philip Roth are relatively underrepresented on the big … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2008 — Number Eight
#9 Gus Van Sant’s Milk pulls off the gratifying trick of making the fact that its title character is gay simultaneously vitally central and utterly beside the point. Harvey Milk’s mid-seventies rise from San Francisco small businessman to influential political … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2008 — Number Nine
#10 Set deep in a Scandinavian winter, Let the Right One In is a dark movie. Dark material, dark sensibilities and a dark, dark sky that crushes down on the characters with an enveloping, bleak power. The Swedish film focuses on a lonely boy who discovers a strange new friend in his apartment complex. It is a girl who appears to be about his age, but is actually ageless. She’s initially curious but standoffish, declaring the impossibility of friendship between the two. In a way, she’s right. What emerges feels like more than friendship, certainly more than the sort of … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2008 — Number Ten
When you’re devoted to evaluating film from a geographic locale that’s well-distant from any established centers of cinema, the timing of a year-end top ten list and corresponding ruminations is fairly detached from the actual calendar. It’s more like calling time of death in the back of the ambulance. You work and work, but eventually you just know it’s time. It’s time. To be completely accurate, my decision-making is impacted by the timing of Hollywood’s annual company picnic and trophy ceremony. As has been the case the past three years, I’d like to have the countdown wrapped up before the … Continue reading I’m telling you I caught the sun creeping up behind my shoulder
For many, the announcement that Ron Howard would be directing the film version of Peter Morgan’s acclaimed play Frost/Nixon caused dismay. It was another example of a Hollywood hack being handed a prestige project with ruination of the work a … Continue reading They’ll never rehabilitate that mother, no way
It’s hard to fathom an odder milieu for an Oscar-nominated film than the world of professional wrestling, particularly the seedy version of it that appears in Darren Aronofsky’s new film, The Wrestler. But then, it’s equally hard to find any … Continue reading Give your heart to somebody soon right away, right away
Some time back, I noodled around with a comparative theory about the stylistic methodologies adopted by members of the small, influential group of acclaimed British theater directors who started working in film during the nineties. These are the sorts of … Continue reading Well, it would’ve been, could’ve been worse than you would ever know
Years ago, when I started dispensing my smart aleck movie opinions across the central Wisconsin airwaves, I decided on an evaluative approach that entailed treating each film entirely as its own entity. I made no assumption that viewers would go into the average new release with a full working knowledge of the filmmakers involved, so it made sense to me to do the best to set aside my own preconceptions. Though done with the best intentions, that methodology proved to be extremely difficult, unduly limiting and, frankly, not all that much fun. It was more interesting to consider, say, Martin … Continue reading I’ll have to follow the way what I was wont to say
Sometimes, especially at this time of the year, seeing a movie is liking taking a big spoonful of medicine. Studios notably and notoriously stockpile most of their product that has merit beyond its expected appeal to narrow demographic groups like … Continue reading My eyes fall from my head with all the pages read
Nineteen. That is the number of times that my old radio movie review show colleague and I have engaged in a yearly showdown to determine which of us is more skilled at predicting the nominees in the six most notable Academy Award categories. Two. That is the number of times we have been equal forecasters, getting the same number of nominees exactly correct. This includes last year, when we each named twenty-four of the thirty nominees. Zero. That is the number of times I have won this annual competition. Again, that number is zero. Nada. Nil. Goose egg. 0-17-2. That … Continue reading The zero in my hand is nothing to lose
