So Wrong It’s Right: Quentin Dupieux’s Wrong
The protagonist of Quentin Dupieux’s last film was a tire. It was a hostage drama (in which you were the hostage) and I thought it was excellently weird. This time […]
Category Archives: Active Observation
Sightseers: The English Countryside, Romance, A Few Murders, And The World’s Biggest Pencil
Sightseers is the pleasant tale of a couple, Tina and Chris (Alice Lowe and Steve Oram, also the movie’s writers), who embark on a weeklong, romantic roadtrip across the English […]
Pootie Tang: Worst Movie Ever, Or Stealth Work Of Genius?
Pootie Tang (’01), written and directed by then mostly unknown and now hugely beloved and respected Louis C.K., was widely ignored and/or despised when it came out. Here’s a sampling […]
Animal House: The Good, The Bad, and the Otter
Do you know who is really funny? John Landis, that’s who. I was lucky enough to watch Animal House—Landis’ first studio film—last night with the man himself in attendance. (Thank […]
Whatever’s On: In Like Flint
Today, my friends, was a rough day. The Hound of Evil hurt her foot and so I had to take her to the vet. The vet installed her with a […]
The Best 3-D Movie You Haven’t Seen
I am not at all fond of 3-D movies. They don’t look more “real” to me. They don’t make me feel like I’m more immersed in the action. They tire […]
Shallow Thoughts On The Top Grossing Movies of 2012
January is Hollywood’s morgue. They wheel in the corpses of movies they wish they’d never made, bloated and bleeding, limbs missing, faces unrecognizable, and hope nobody notices the stink. […]
The 5 Most Insane Actor/Director Disasters
Some things cannot be contained. Frequently, this is hilarious. I’m talking about the ego of the shameless actor/director. You know who I mean. The guy (and yes, it’s usually a […]
The Side Effects of Steven Soderbergh
This week I was lucky enough to catch an early screening of Steven Soderbergh’s latest film, Side Effects. As regular readers will know, I’m a big fan of his. But going […]
The Best Action Movies Of The ’80s
The best decade of movies managed to last fifteen years, from ’67 to ’82. It was a decade-plus of grim realism, anti-heroes, dark endings, and plotless character studies that existed […]
Malkovich Malkovich
When I first saw Being John Malkovich in ’99, I felt as though my brain had been violated in the same way Malkovich’s was in the movie. It was as […]
The Oscars: Hollywood’s Meat Parade Returns!
The best thing anyone ever said about the Oscars was said by George C. Scott, who put it thus: “The ceremonies are a two-hour meat parade, a public display with […]
Nudge, Nudge, Wink, Wink
You’re watching a movie and a character in it strikes a particular pose. Or maybe the way the camera frames the scene, or a few elements of the production design, […]
Life of Pi: Is it Full of Tiger Poop?
A young man. A tiger. A small lifeboat. As the premise for a film, it’s intriguing. One simply must wonder: just how full of tiger poop can this thing get before it sinks?