Appropriately Unclear: 12 Years a Slave, Ender’s Game, and the Hidden Scrunt
There was one shot in Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave that made it all clear for me. A slave stands below the sweep of a tree, he lifts a dented horn […]
Category Archives: Active Observation
You Are Counseled Against Seeing The Counselor
As your lawyer, I am bound by the court to advise you against seeing this film.
How to Touch Gross Things
Wanna see something totally gross?
The Paperboy: Let’s All Pee On Zac Efron!
Stinging jellyfish and Nicole Kidman peeing on Zac Efron? It’s a movie-lover’s dream come true!
Kubrick Loved The Treasure of The Sierra Madre–So Should You
In 1963 Stanley Kubrick made a list of his top ten favorite movies, the only time he was ever known to make public such a list. It’s got some usual […]
24 Hour Party People Get Delusional
’24 Hour Party People.’ This is, I learn, a song by the Happy Mondays, which were in turn an important band in the Manchester music scene of the 1980s and […]
Black Swan Plays with Its Pecker
There are two stunning things about Darren Aronofsky’s 2010 award winner Black Swan. The first is Natalie Portman’s sinewy and strung performance. The second is that people went to see it.
12 Years A Slave Brings The Pain
Watch the trailer for director Steve McQueen’s new movie, 12 Years A Slave, and you will fear the worst: a weepy, tug-at-your-heartstrings, Oscar-bait Hollywood take on slavery. If you’ve seen […]
The Slugger’s Wife and Extended Slumps
In the 1970s, Hal Ashby directed your favorite films; Harold & Maude, The Last Detail, Shampoo, and Being There to name a few. In the 1980s, his name topped an unbroken string […]
The Shining: King vs. Kubrick
King still thinks the movie is cold, distancing, misogynistic, not about the characters he invented, poorly directed, and not scary.
Escape From Tomorrow: Disney’s Sinister Underbelly
Family man loses grip on reality on extended Disney World vacation, leers at girls, imagines park blowing up. No doubt it happens on a daily basis, but good luck filming it.
Steven Soderbergh, Richard Lester, And The Knack
Nobody ever told me about Getting Away With It, a ’99 book in which Steven Soderbergh interviews Richard Lester, director of such movies as A Hard Day’s Night, Help!, Petulia, […]
Captain Phillips Is Not Okay
There is a moment, towards the end of Paul Greengrass’ true-life actioner Captain Phillips, in which the eponymous sailor played by Tom Hanks is simply overcome. The violence and strain have […]
Possession; or Why Divorce is Like Tentacle Porn
Żuławski’s film is like Davids Lynch and Cronenberg had a torrid affair with Ed Wood and gave birth to that baby from Trainspotting in William S. Burrough’s garbage disposal.