Sometimes comedy illuminates hard truths with a pointed urgency that other means can’t quite achieve. Sometimes comedy is just funny. This series of posts is mostly about the former instances, but the latter is valuable, too. Recent days have been … Continue reading Laughing Matters — Abbott and Costello, “Who’s on First?”
#35 — James Gandolfini as Winston Baldry in The Mexican (Gore Verbinski, 2001) I wonder if it’s all but inevitable that a proverbial “role of a lifetime” brings with it as many hardships as benefits. No matter the pleasures of … Continue reading Greatish Performances #35
There’s no particular inspiration for extracting this old review from the archive today. It is one of the fairly random raids of my old writing. The only annotation I’ll offer is the retrospective conviction that Alexander Payne’s segment is strongest in the film. It’s the one that has stuck with me. The new film Paris, je t’aime brings together eighteen directors (or teams of directors) to create short films celebrating the beloved city of the title. There is no through-line, no overlap, nothing that connects the pieces together. It seems everyone was given the the freedom to construct whatever they … Continue reading From the Archive — Paris, je t’aime
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. Months ago, I used this space to expound upon the glories of the most famed movie poster … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — Airplane! movie poster
I read a lot of comic books as a kid. This series of posts is about the comics I read, and, occasionally, the comics that I should have read. Raiders of the Lost Ark was released into theaters less than … Continue reading My Misspent Youth — Raiders of the Lost Ark by Walt Simonson and John Buscema
Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas, 2014). In this wryly funny and wise rumination on aging and celebrity, the grand Juliette Binoche plays Maria, a movie star who is coaxed into a production of the play that made her a star, … Continue reading Playing Catch-Up — Clouds of Sils Maria; 13 Rue Madeleine; Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
As means of congratulating the highly deserving winner of this year’s Best Directing Academy Award, I will excavate one this review of an old Guillermo del Toro film, which I believe stands as the final such writerly relic that can … Continue reading From the Archive — Hellboy II: The Golden Army
For the first time in more years than is at all reasonable, I feel like I watched an Oscar telecast that wasn’t constructed by people who were embarrassed about the very concept of the storied ceremony they presided over. That … Continue reading Oscars Gonna Oscar
In the corner of the multiverse where I preside over the Academy Awards like a benevolent despot, every one of the performers pictured above received an acting nomination for their roles in No Country for Old Men. Also, Seth MacFarlane … Continue reading From The Archive — My Ballot, 2007
Now I’ve completed the process of listing my ten best films of the cinematic year not-so-recently-completed, I have one more bit of annual business to take care ahead of this Sunday’s trophy ceremony. As usual, I share the Actors Branch … Continue reading Twenty Performances, or Bird is the Word
Coffee for Two 