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Film Friday: Favorites of 2009
When Chris Anderson used the phrase “long tail” in Wired, he was referring to the way information is gradually detaching from the physical world. Music no longer needs shelf space in stores, and books and movies will surely follow. For businesses who sell physical objects, it’s been helpful to have consumers who cluster around a few big titles. That way they know how many disks to make, how many books to print. But a world where shelf space doesn’t matter looks pretty different. There may still be big hits, but the demand for more obscure items from deep in the... read more
Found in: Movies, ColumnsFilm Friday: Comparing Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes to Conan Doyle's Stories
I don’t think I’ve ever been spotted defending a Guy Ritchie movie, and I’m not yet convinced that I’ll defend his latest. It’s premature to say, since I haven’t yet seen it. But I’m eager to defend its subject, the characters of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson, not from Ritchie but from those who think the filmmaker is taking vast liberties. Maybe he is—we’ll see—but not everything in the trailer that’s causing some people to roll their eyes is a whole-cloth invention.... read more
Found in: Movies, ColumnsFilm Friday: Your Favorite Movie Was Snubbed
The schoolyard taunt of the digital age is “you lost all credibility when….” It’s heard following every ten-best list and every set of award nominees. I mention it now because we’re entering what the trade journals have taken to calling award season. Like butternut squash, these awards ripen at the onset of winter, and this year I’m detaching my home from the grid and running it solely from a loss-of-credibility turbine mounted on my roof. Don’t worry about me; I’ll be toasty all season long.... read more
Found in: ColumnsFilm Friday: Slice Garlic with Razor Blades
Over the decades, Hollywood has sharply curtailed smoking in movies. And although they may not have had a huge effect, debates about the supposed dangers of sex and violence in film pop up from time to time, usually with the goal of protecting children from unsavory influences. The unstated part of that argument is that we adults are largely immune from the allure of vices on the big screen. Especially critics. Especially politicians. Especially parents.... read more
Found in: ColumnsFilm Friday: Claire Denis' 35 Shots of Rum and White Material
A quiet movie called 35 Shots of Rum is traveling around the country, a film of uncommon grace, and I mention this because I’d like to see it again myself whenever I have the chance. I’m waiting for it to come to my town; maybe you’re doing the same. World-class filmmaker Claire Denis made the movie last year, and anyone who’s been keeping score knows that I’m one of her unabashed fans. Name the date, and I’ll be there.... read more
Found in: ColumnsFilm Friday: Werner Herzog Goes Nuts Twice (and Other Observations About Crazed Filmmakers)
A new movie called Bronson by filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn is traveling around the country, three screens per week. It’s about a man (true story) who’s so incorrigible that British authorities had to lock him up in a jail (or rather, a gaol) for 30-odd years. He’s the kind of chap who hauls off and belts people just for being within arms’ reach: school teachers, police officers, you name it. Bald, mustachioed, and hard-knuckled like a carnival strongman, he has no place in a civil society, even though his crimes don’t seem to warrant three decades in solitary confinement, either.... read more
Found in: Movies, Features, ColumnsFilm Friday: A Weekend of Pushing Buttons
This weekend at your local Big Screen, the movies are about pushing buttons. In The Box, directed by Donnie Darko creator Richard Kelly, a mysterious man in a long coat who appears to have been slapped in the face on more than one occasion shows up at the home of Cameron Diaz and James Marsden to ask if this attractive, cash-strapped couple wants to see what’s in his box. Spoiler: it’s a button. Push it and you get a million dollars, but when you do someone on the other side of the earth whom you do not know will be... read more
Found in: Movies, Features, ColumnsFilm Friday: George Lucas and the Canadian Force
When the National Film Board of Canada released an iPhone application last week, I naturally thought of Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, and Yoda. For some people, trolling through the NFB’s video archives will undoubtedly bring to mind those three famous Canadians.... read more
Found in: Movies, Features, ColumnsFilm Friday: Your DVDs Are Rotting
Like the autumn tomato left on your window sill or the miniature pumpkin forgotten on the mantel until November, your DVD collection is rotting. Maybe not physically deteriorating like fall fruit (although some people worry about that, too) but deteriorating in the way that all media seems to: by sitting still as technology marches past. You can’t easily play the video games of your youth, peruse a defunct web site, listen to an 8-track tape found in the attic, or, at this point, even play an audio cassette or a VHS video in many households. The DVD is headed for... read more
Found in: Features, ColumnsFilm Friday: Drag Me to Where the Wild Things Are
The long anticipated Spike Jonze-Dave Eggers adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are arrives in theaters this weekend, and Sam Raimi’s latest film Drag Me to Hell is newly out on DVD and Blu-Ray. I could be wrong, but I suspect the audiences for these two films overlap more than you might expect.... read more
Found in: Movies, Features
The 50 Best Movies of 2011
The 50 Best Movies of the Decade…
The 20 Best Movies of 2011 (So…
A Day In The Life Of Seryn
Album Stream: Eisley - Deep Space
Video Premiere: Rhett Miller - "Tower of…
Live From CMJ: Robert Ellis
Song Premiere: Milagres - “Quiet Street”
