Much has been made of Steven Soderbergh’s announced intention to retire from film directing–at least for the big screen–now that he’s completed and released Side Effects. There’s a certain wistfulness to all the discussion surrounding the film, and assessments have … Continue reading Well, you burnt my house down, then got mad at my reaction
Remarkably, it’s taken Kathryn Bigelow all of two films to transform from an also-ran action director to the most revered and dependable cinematic chronicler of American’s early 21st century of global militaristic angst. Unless there are people out there who … Continue reading It was a girl with her face in the shadows so dark
In a recent Director Roundtable discussion organized by The Hollywood Reporter, David O. Russell discussed how he came to work on the the 2010 film The Fighter. Russell acknowledged that it was exactly the sort of conventional projected he would … Continue reading Hey, babe, what’s in your eyes? I saw them flashing like airplane lights.
In Rust and Bone, Marion Cotillard plays Stéphanie, a woman who works at an aquatics-based theme park, collaborating with other handlers to guide killer whales through a routine while Katy Perry blares over loudspeakers. After a freak accident, Stéphanie wakes … Continue reading Love like lightning, shaking till it moans
My first exposure to director Michael Haneke came via his 1997 film Funny Games, which was probably the entryway for many in that relatively small subset that have dipped into his filmography. I loathed it. Luckily, I think that may … Continue reading What’s a boy in love supposed to do?
Let’s start with this: if Jennifer Hudson could win a Best Actress in a Supporting Role Academy Award, despite showing no apparent capacity for acting beyond a suitable performance of a show-stopping musical number, then it’s somewhat remarkable that Anne … Continue reading In my life, why do I give valuable time to people who don’t care if I live or die?
It’s tempting to say that Quentin Tarantino has too many ideas, but that’s not quite right. Certainly every one of his films has been overstuffed, at least after his comparatively lean debut, 1992’s Reservoir Dogs. Even the one film of … Continue reading Got you in his chains, will he set you free someday?
Before getting down to pros and cons of Sacha Gervasi’s Hitchcock, let’s spare a moment of sympathy for Toby Jones. Pushing ten years ago, the veteran character actor got what seemed like a plum role that also had the benefit … Continue reading They will become psychotic, and they won’t make an ideal husband or wife
The various promotional efforts for Judd Apatow’s new film, This is 40, position it as the “sort-of sequel to Knocked Up.” The reasoning behind this is simple enough, reflecting the fairly unique creative starting point of drawing a couple of … Continue reading Many will see, many will see and fear
In 1990, poet and journalist Mark O’Brien wrote a piece entitled “On Seeing a Sex Surrogate.” A damaging bout with polio as a child left O’Brien largely confined to an iron lung and effectively paralyzed from the neck down, but … Continue reading I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me
Coffee for Two 