The Wolf of Wall Street: Weekend at Bernie Madoff’s
What we’re discussing here, during the Oscar crush, is the cinematic equivalent of gout.
Category Archives: Active Observation
Four Films by Norman Jewison
Norman Jewison isn’t one of those directors whose name sets off a flurry of flashbulbs. He never won an Academy Award, or played golf with Richard Nixon (I’m assuming), or […]
On The Low-Key Magnificence That Is Inside Llewyn Davis
Inside Llewyn Davis, in which Joel and Ethan Coen go dark and plotless for their look at a struggling New York folk singer in ’61, is their best movie since Barton Fink.
In Which I Watch My First Bresson Film, A Man Escaped
Heathen that I am, I’d never seen any of Robert Bresson’s movies until, oh, just now, or thereabouts, when I watched A Man Escaped, his fourth feature, from ‘56. Bresson […]
American Hustle: This Year’s Argo?
And I mean that in the worst way possible.
Indie Round-Up: Computer Chess, Crystal Fairy, Frances Ha
Wherein various items arise for discussion, not least of which are the three indie movies named above.
The Same Old Story: The Wolverine and Nebraska
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Or these two.
On Nebraska, Only God Forgives, And Catching Fire: Movies As Empty Types
Three movies full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
I Burn for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
I cannot tell a lie: I’ve not been a big proponent of The Hunger Games thus far.
In Which I Heap Contempt On Godard’s Contempt
Let’s have a nice, friendly chat about Godard and his most beloved movie, Contempt.
Walker, Alex Cox, And The Stupid Bastards of The Late ‘80s
Walker, Alex Cox’s 1987 sort-of-but-not-really biopic about William Walker, an American who in the 1850s became President of Nicaragua, is a very weird movie.
The Haunting Is A Very Silly Movie
Martin Scorsese calls Robert Wise’s ’63 haunted house movie, The Haunting, the scariest movie of all time. Though it didn’t make too big a splash when it came out, it’s […]
Purple Rain, And The Shame of Movies Never Seen
“That ain’t Lake Minnetonka.”
How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love Indiana Jones And The Temple of Doom
Unless you are one of the more annoying contrarian film buffs, there seems to be a consensus about the best and the worst Indiana Jones movies.