These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. For a few weeks in the late summer and early fall of 1996, nothing made me happier … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — That Thing You Do trailer
Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser (Charlotte Zwerin, 1988). This documentary was released during that strange stretch when Clint Eastwood admirably leveraged his considerable influence with Warner Bros. to get the studio to make movies about jazz. Eastwood serves as producer … Continue reading Then Playing — Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser; Somewhere; Ladies in Retirement
I saw the documentary The Eyes of Tammy Faye upon its release, over twenty years ago. After a couple decades of mental erosion, I remember only one moment, but I remember it quite sharply. Unsurprisingly, it’s that exchange, in which … Continue reading Now Playing — The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Krane’s Confectionery (Astrid Henning-Jensen, 1951). Writer-director Astrid Henning-Jensen convincingly conveys the numbing misery of a provincial seamstress (Rønnaug Alten) who’s relied upon and disrespected by nearly everyone in her personal sphere, including her terminally ungrateful teenaged children (Toralv Maurstad and … Continue reading Then Playing — Krane’s Confectionery; Freaky; The Bride Came C.O.D.
SALLY ROONEY IS IRISH by Sean O’Neill As the arrival of Sally Rooney’s third novel stirs up a deluge of swirling opinion silt in the waterways of modern literary culture, Sean O’Neill offers a thesis that seems ludicrously simple and … Continue reading Outside Reading — O Ruanaidh edition
As a longtime devotee of might Marvel mags, I am familiar with the Chinese hero who is known to be a master of kung fu. In the lead-up to the character making his debut on the big screen, I still … Continue reading Now Playing — Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Mr. Soul! (Melissa Haizlip, 2018). Like Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s more recent Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), this documentary aims to correct the aggressive erasure of triumphant Black culture. Created by Ellis Haizlip, Soul! was … Continue reading Then Playing — Mr. Soul; East Side, West Side; Where’s Poppa?
Frank Oz on life as Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy and Yoda: ‘I’d love to do the Muppets again but Disney doesn’t want me by Hadley Freeman It’s a shame that The Guardian editors chose to headline this articles with its … Continue reading Outside Reading — Return to Oz edition
I feel genuine sympathy for screenwriters tasked with — or even who task themselves with — providing expositional dialogue in a film with a densely complicated science-fiction premise. While there are some ready-made tactics, such as building the narrative around … Continue reading The Unwatchables — Reminiscence
Lucy in the Sky (Noah Hawley, 2019). I think Noah Hawley has presided over some dandy television in recent years, and it makes sense that he’d bring his squirrely urges for narrative and format tinkering to his feature directorial debut. … Continue reading Then Playing — Lucy in the Sky; Married Before Breakfast; Bill & Ted Face the Music
Coffee for Two 