As I alluded to yesterday, 2022 struck me a topsy-turvy year in film. In certain respects, that’s understandable. Collectively, we are easing into a new understanding of how to operate in public spaces now that loads of people have decided … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2022 — An Introduction
Befitting a year in which Hollywood reeled in continuous confusion trying to adjust to the new reality of the post-COVID version of moviegoing, the Oscar nominations feel all over the place. There’s this wild convergence of old and new strewn … Continue reading All at Once — Thoughts on the Oscar Nominations
Near Dark (Kathryn Bigelow, 1987). It’s amusing now to see that Kathryn Bigelow filled her solo directorial debut with actors imported from Aliens, the action sequel made the previous years by her future husband, James Cameron. Especially since Cameron has … Continue reading Then Playing — Near Dark; Elvis; Amsterdam
White Noise (Noah Baumbach, 2022). The only way this film can reasonable be deemed a success is by subscribing to the wholly unsupported premise that writer-director Noah Baumbach set out to prove that Don DeLillo’s landmark 1985 novel was accurately … Continue reading Then Playing — White Noise; Resurrection; The Eternal Daughter
#55 — Jean Hagen as Lina Lamont in Singin’ in the Rain (Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, 1952) When Adolph Green and Betty Comden wrote the script for Singin’ in the Rain, an MGM musical conceived as little more than a vehicle … Continue reading Greatish Performances #55
Decision to Leave (Park Chan-wook, 2022). Working from a script he co-wrote with Jeong Seo-kyeong, Park Chan-Wook meticulous crafts a sly modern noir. Jang Hae-jun (Park Hae-il) is a police detective with a keen dedication to his work and a … Continue reading Then Playing — Decision to Leave; The Wonder; Fun with Dick and Jane
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson, 2022). It’s seem a fine idea for Guillermo del Toro to channel his enduring fascinating for grim fairy tales into a stop-motion animation take on the little wooden boy created … Continue reading Then Playing — Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio; Violent Night; The Fabelmans
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. Sometimes I think my first real lessons in the intense power an image can hold came from … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — Close Encounters of the Third Kind movie poster
Saturdays are when I use my little corner of the digital world to excitedly redirect eyes to the recent writing of others. As the year comes to a close, I’ll offer encore hyperlinks to the following six pieces, presented more … Continue reading Outside Reading — Six from 2022
She Said (Maria Schrader, 2022). This journalism procedural is adapted from Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey’s book of the same name which recounted their pursuit of the blockbuster New York Times story that exposed years of sexual predation by producer … Continue reading Then Playing — She Said; The Corn Is Green; Aftersun
Coffee for Two 