Don’t Look Up (Adam McKay, 2021). Following the inspired The Big Short and the unwatchable Vice, director Adam McKay continues his run as a satiric auteur of lefty outrage with this onion skin–thin allegory of political indifference to the climate … Continue reading Then Playing — Don’t Look Up; Paper Moon; The Friends of Eddie Coyle
Spencer (Pablo Larraín, 2021). Chilean director Pablo Larraín brings the airy, arty approach of his 2016 film Jackie to another iconic female figure on the world stage. As in the earlier drama, Larraín keeps the focus on a few days, … Continue reading Then Playing — Spencer; No Man of Her Own; The Southerner
In Defense of Shame by Julia Claire Writing for Gawker, Julia Claire makes the most important argument of our age, and she does it effectively and with enviable wit. The flagrant rejection of accountability and honest assessment of wrong social … Continue reading Outside Reading — Shame Game edition
The Birth, the Life and the Death of Christ (Alice Guy-Blaché, 1906). As the title implies, this early silent film from director Alice Guy-Blaché covers the whole life of Jesus Christ in its relatively brief running time. It’s primarily a … Continue reading Then Playing — The Birth, the Life and the Death of Christ; The Sea of Grass; Times Square
Before Peter Bogdanovich made movies, he loved movies. That doesn’t seem all that unique, but it was still a relatively new trajectory into the artform in the late nineteen-sixties, when the grand old men of Hollywood’s Golden Age (and it … Continue reading Actors’ Director — Peter Bogdanovich
By the time I was old enough to pay attention, Sidney Poitier was already an icon, one of the few figures in entertainment genuinely deserving of that term. The major career-capping laurels — the lifetime achievement Oscar, the Kennedy Center … Continue reading Sidney Poitier, 1927 – 2022
Maggie Gyllenhaal didn’t opt for an easy task with her feature directorial debut. There’s presumably a straightforward way to to adapt Elena Ferrante’s 2008 novel, The Lost Daughter, to the screen, laying out the embers of emotion and the character … Continue reading Now Playing — The Lost Daughter
The Matrix (Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski, 1999). In revisiting this ahead of the recent sequel, my reaction more or less mirrored original impressions from my opening-weekend experience in the theater what seems like centuries ago. The Wachowski siblings manage … Continue reading Then Playing — The Matrix; The Green Knight; Zola
Every Saturday, this space is given over to extol the writing of others. Because this particular Saturday lands on the first day of the new year, it seems proper to call attention to some of the articles of 2021 that … Continue reading Outside Reading — Six from 2021
I appreciate that Lana Wachowski, usually in collaboration with sibling Lilly Wachowski, tried to do other things. They didn’t always work, not entirely, but there was at least an attempt to tell different stories in eager exploitation of the lingering … Continue reading Now Playing — The Matrix Resurrections
