Where the Nostalgic Things Are

Wes Anderson’s new movie Fantastic Mr. Fox takes a beloved children’s book–his beloved book from childhood I assume–and turns it into a film for adults–I’m hearing tales of kids leaving the theatres disappointed and bewildered. Spike Jones and Dave Eggers transformed Where the Wild Things Are in a very similar vein, bringing the sad weight [...]

Happiness

Happiness is, happiness is, happiness is…well, sometimes it is a warm gun. Sometimes a warm cup of milk. But most of the time, for Meera, it was the Regal Cinema. By the time she was fifteen, her mother let Meera take the bus the twelve blocks down sunny, suburban Merton Street to the dilapidated movie [...]

Tempest Rising

This whole tea party thing looks highly dangerous. Even though estimates of how many turned out for the tea party protests are relatively modest, it’s still a significant number, and the whole event could spiral into a much larger movement through media mishandling.

Lively Movie Cameras, Laughing Soviet Workers

Witness the fruits of my slightly tedious labor! The following is an excerpt from Man with a Movie Camera, an experimental 1929 silent documentary film by Russian director Dziga Vertov. Our teacher gave us four minutes to score, which I did with samples courtesy of the free sound project, archive.org and disparition.net. Favorite part? Matching [...]

A Few Things I’m Looking Forward To In 2009

Moon An astronaut movie more like Solaris and nothing like Apollo 13. Why: A great scifi plot, Sam Rockwell, an amazing actor who has so far skimmed slightly under the radar, and Kaya Scodalerio from Skins, my favorite show from 2008. Light Boxes A novel by Shane Jones about a war waged by a group [...]

Lust, Caution

Ang Lee’s most recently released film, 2007’s Lust, Caution has been described by critics as an espionage thriller, which does little to convey the major themes of this elegant elegy that follows a young girl’s journey from student to spy.

A Twilight Moment

Check out this excellent post on the Eight Douchiest Vampires Ever.

Slumdog Millionaire is a Winner

I got to watch an advance screening of Danny Boyle’s latest, Slumdog Millionaire, a couple of weeks ago. First of all, I am a huge Danny Boyle fan — there is something in his incredibly humane worldview in every one of his films that just captivates me. Even when he is dealing with horrific material [...]

Traitor

Went to see Traitor this weekend. A great film that sadly may not find the audience it deserves (doesn’t seem like it’s being promoted much), Traitor features many of the hallmarks of a classic genre thriller, with the FBI playing cat and mouse against a rogue agent against an international backdrop. But Traitor has ambitions [...]

Is Catcher in the Rye past its expiration date?

Anne Trubeck over at Good Magazine certainly thinks so. Trubeck states that J.D. Salinger’s classic “lacks the currency or shock value it once had, and has lost some of its critical cachet,” perhaps challenging its status as a classic. I tried to hearken back to when I read Catcher in the Rye — high school [...]

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