On The Road Ain’t Got No Gas
It’s a bad sign chilling here in lovely Barcelona in the lobby of the Hotel Colon (which I’m told has a different meaning in Spanish, thank heavens), thinking about the […]
Category Archives: Active Observation
A Few Thoughts on A Place Beyond the Pines
A Place Beyond the Pines is not the movie you think it is. It doesn’t star the actors you think it stars, tell the story you expect it to tell, […]
Spring Breaking Bad: The Shady Consequences of Spring Breakers
I realize that I am a little late to the party. That everyone’s already left for spring break, seen Spring Breakers, gotten mostly naked, highly intoxicated, incarcerated, penetrated, and otherwise violated. […]
The Internship & Grown Ups 2: Go Fuck Yourself
Honestly, we only have ourselves to blame. People talk about the decline of Western civilization and here is the proof. Nothing, absolutely nothing, could be worse than these two films. […]
The Best Opening Credits Sequence of All Time
No charming intros today. Let’s keep it simple. The best opening credits sequence of all time? The Shining. That’s it. You can have your Saul Bass and your James Bond […]
Touch of Evil: It Was Some Kind of A Movie
Touch of Evil is Orson Welles’s best movie. Which is a scandalous thing to say in the movie world. Maybe not scandalous. How about sacriligeous? Citizen Kane is, after all, […]
Nic Cage’s Stolen: The Laziest Film of All Time
Have you seen Nic Cage’s face recently? I mean, really looked at it. The man looks like he’s been making out with a belt sander. Like he would need an extremely […]
Akira: Critical Nuclear Head Meltdown
You are the monster. You are the god. You are the destroyer, the creator, the ripping skein of life torn free and thrashing wild. You are the wind that cleanses and burns and you are only a boy.
On Koyaanisqatsi, Beauty, And Ambiguity
Images from Godfrey Reggio’s 1983 film Koyaanisqatsi are etched into my brain. Nighttime cityscapes at high speed, their streets like veins carrying electrons. Rivers of fog roiling over mountains. A […]
8 Million Ways to Die: Hal Ashby’s Lost Lifeline
Here at Stand By For Mind Control, we’re big Hal Ashby fans. This is because he was one of the world’s most empathetic directors. His complex characters ride their flaws like […]
A Royal Affair: Pawn Takes Queen
Objectively, Nikolaj Arcel’s A Royal Affair tells a fascinating tale of palace intrigue, the birth of the Enlightenment, treachery, insanity, and illicit sex. These are all things that I enjoy watching. I also […]
Giant, Deadly Piles of Spider Shat
Sometimes, you think up a headline for a blog post and you just have no choice but to use it. Also, sometimes (always) you are given the opportunity to see a […]
Spring Breakers Broke My Brain
The more I think about it, the weirder Spring Breakers becomes. It is in no way a normal kind of movie. It is a Harmony Korine movie, and Harmony Korine […]
Stoker Will Crawl Up Your Skirt
I am a big fan of Park Chan-Wook‘s. Perhaps that makes me a Wookie? If so, I can live with that. His films—previously made in Korea in Korean—are bloody and […]