These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. Let’s be very plain and direct about this. It’s entirely possible that this, created to promote (sort … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — “Real Life” trailer
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. This will be two straight weeks with a clip from an Albert Brooks movie in the space. That seems fine to me. As we traipse into the annual part of the film calendar overstuffed with fare that is desperately seeking Oscar, there are little flares of especially intriguing news here and there. For example, after months of speculation as to whether or not Martin … Continue reading Laughing Matters: Martin Scorsese in “The Muse”
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. What can I type? This is on my mind tonight. Previous entries in this series can be found by clicking on the “Laughing Matters” tag. Continue reading Laughing Matters: “The Desert Inn has heart!”
#39 — Real Life (Albert Brooks, 1979) The reputation of the debut directorial effort by Albert Brooks is so bolstered by the seeming prescience of its premise that it can be easy to lose sight of the detail that the … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Thirty-Nine
#28 — Lost in America (Albert Brooks, 1985) Albert Brooks is very funny, but that compliment, high as it is, can be paid to many people. The thing that truly sets the finest work of Brooks apart is its fearless … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 80s — Number Twenty-Eight
Kevorkian (Matthew Galkin, 2010). This documentary is about the Michigan physician who gained notoriety and, in some quarters, infamy by advocating for the right of terminally ill patients to end their lives on their own terms and providing the mechanized means to do so in the most humane fashion possible. The relative lack of voices arguing against the very premise of Kevorkian’s actions makes it fairly clear where Galkin’s sympathies lie, but the film is no hagiography. He gives a full airing to the combativeness, unpleasantness and self-defeating egotism of the man, leaving a strong impression that Kevorkian may be … Continue reading Bier, Brooks, Galkin, Jarmusch, Karlson
Coffee for Two 