Articles tagged with: review
August 2009, Cultural Comment, Literature »
With time, unfound gems will be uncovered, newly discovered favorites will be shelved and I’ll be a richer person from the experience. I’d now like to reflect on those stories that count most to me and have left the greatest impact: my favorites.
Cinema and Television, May 2009 »
The audience is made up of equal parts leather-clad true believers, college-age hipsters, and, like me, cinematic onlookers hoping for a once-in-a-lifetime multimedia experience. I’d never heard of the Canadian hard rockers Anvil, but since the unveiling of the sweetly-titled documentary, Anvil! The Story of Anvil, at Sundance in 2008, buzz had been mounting. I frequently check this particular theater’s online listings, never knowing when a special event may appear, and tonight I’ve hit the jackpot: Anvil itself is going to be at this midnight showing, thrashing through what could …
Cinema and Television, May 2009 »
Film critic Andrew Sarris at work.
It almost seems mean to criticize For the Love of Movies, Gerald Peary’s documentary on American film criticism. It’s very well put together. The movie has nice music, interesting clips from other movies, and warmly quirky narration by actress Patricia Clarkson. All those critics we only know from their bylines are given time to say a lot of cute things.
It’s a very nice movie. It’s too nice.
The affectionate doc certainly makes a great primer on the history of film criticism; and Peary, with 30 years …
Cinema and Television, March 2009 »
Few comic book properties being adapted into the medium of film draw as much fantard enthusiasm, skepticism, and scrutiny as does Watchmen, the beloved graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Gibbons about ex-costumed vigilantes searching for answers after one of their kind is murdered, only to discover that it is a small piece of something bigger and much more terrifying than they initially thought. The book has long languished in the depths of development hell, with directors such as Terry Gilliam, Paul Greengrass, and Darren Aronofsky …
Cinema and Television, February 2009 »
Here’s the best part about being a film geek: you can become genuinely excited about the stupidest things, and it profoundly impacts the way you see a movie. Like a certain actor showing up. They don’t even have to do a good job; the quality of the performance may even be tertiary to your glee. You’re just amped that they showed up. Push is full of faces that bring me joy; joy for no other purpose than to know that they are getting work in troubled economic times. Even if times weren’t troubled, I’d be happy these actors were working, so that I could just soak up their onscreen charisma from my theater seat like a roly-poly incubus.
