In its fundamental premise, the comic book series The Old Guard was made for modern movies. The mighty Marvel machine has fundamentally changed expectation for how big and booming action needs to be on screen in order to hold an … Continue reading Now Playing — The Old Guard
#26 — Columbus (Kogonada, 2017) Intently studying great films, it turns out, is a solid strategy for someday making your own great film. Before crafting his debut feature, Columbus, Kogonada was surely best known for his exemplary video essays detailing … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Twenty-Six
Warning: ‘Jaws’ Is Still Devouring Us by Manohla Dargis Writing for The New York Times, Manohla Dargis looks back at Steven Spielberg’s 1975 blockbuster with acute insight and inspired wit. The opening paragraph alone is a little masterpiece. There’s so … Continue reading Outside Reading — The Head, the Tail, the Whole Damn Thing edition
#27 — Roma (Alfonso Cuarón, 2018) It’s not uncommon for a filmmaker to reckon with their own past through their chosen medium, but the end result rarely carries as much grace as Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma. Drawing on his own history … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Twenty-Seven
Bumblebee (Travis Knight, 2018). A prequel spinoff of the Transformers films, Bumblebee benefits immensely from the natural comparison to the unwatchable eyesores that director Michael Bay foisted on a helpless world. Making his first live action effort following wide acclaim … Continue reading Then Playing — Bumblebee; Stuber; Just Mercy
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. I take it as a cunning affront on the part of the British that they chose to … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — “A Hard Day’s Night” trailer
For my eleventh birthday, all I wanted was a Carl Reiner movie. A little more than a year after the release of The Jerk, Reiner’s sixth film as a director and his first of four straight starring Steve Martin, the … Continue reading Carl Reiner, 1922-2020
Rethinking the Film Canon by Rich Juzwiak Earlier this year, I was listening to the Little Gold Men podcast as they discussed the newly announced Academy Award nominations. As they mostly expressed relief about the small signs of voters looking beyond … Continue reading Outside Reading — Canon Fodder edition
#28 — Snowpiercer (Bong Joon Ho, 2013) Most of the films of director Bong Joon Ho have been wholly original works, suffused with inspiration drawn from serious study of film, perhaps, but springing start to finish from his whirring brain. … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Twenty-Eight
Ashes and Embers (Haile Gerima, 1982). Made around forty years ago, Haile Gerima’s experimental drama opens with Black men driving in a city who get pulled over police officers that immediately escalate the situation, presuming guilt as a default for … Continue reading Then Playing — Ashes and Embers; Brewster McCloud; A Star is Born
Coffee for Two 