Apr 12, 2015 | Thoughts On Cinema
Nightcrawler (2014, dir. Gilroy) was one of the best flicks of last year. I’d like to offer a soft critique of what kept it from being great. The shortcoming consists of slightly overplaying its strength — the “otherness” of Jake...
Nov 16, 2013 | Thoughts On Cinema
Sometimes you have an aesthetic in your head and you search for it out in the world (and in my case you also try to create it with your own work). Having fallen short of the ideal so far on my own steam, it can be very disappointing when I continually search for other...
Jul 30, 2011 | Thoughts On Cinema
Since I don’t really watch new movies anymore (if something looks interesting I’ll get to it eventually, but I have no burning need to see it in the same year it was released), this is a list of the top 10 (or so) awesome movies “I Saw For The First...
Aug 16, 2010 | Thoughts On Cinema
Criterion outdid themselves this month with the announcement of their November titles. America Lost and Found: The BBS Story is pretty much the most exciting box set this year. For those looking to get acquainted with late 60s/early 70s American cinema, this is an...
Jul 24, 2010 | Thoughts On Cinema
The critic or audience member who searches and picks apart a movie to assign and define symbolism is analogous to the tourist who visits the Louvre and only looks at the paintings through the viewfinder of her digital camera. A. the storing up of self-congratulatory...
Jan 12, 2010 | Thoughts On Cinema
We are deeply saddened today at the passing of a giant of filmmaking. Eric Rohmer gave us everything he had, year after year, masterpiece after masterpiece. My own first feature, Pieces, is unthinkable without Rohmer. Aside from perhaps Robert Bresson, no one achieved...
Nov 10, 2009 | Thoughts On Cinema
Claude Sautet mostly made (or was most famous for making) “domestic, bourgeois” dramas. He also made a handful of crime films. Max seems to be a melding of the two, almost perfectly. Up until the forty minute mark or so, it was almost boring, almost too...
Sep 2, 2009 | Thoughts On Cinema
I suppose it could have been Lenny, just as easily. Disregarding the superstar American directors of the 70′s, did anybody have a better run than Bob Rafelson, Mike Nichols, and Bob Fosse? Rafelson: Five Easy Pieces, The King Of Marvin Gardens, Stay Hungry Nichols:...
Mar 10, 2009 | Thoughts On Cinema
Disregarding the ridiculous anti-capitalism rant at the end, this is one of the best film interviews I have ever read: Reflecting Reality — And Mystery Find and watch every film by Ermanno Olmi you can get your hands on. The Job and The Fiances should go down easy for...
Feb 8, 2009 | Thoughts On Cinema
Andrei Tarkovsky, when asked about his time filming outside the Soviet system, once replied (I’m heavily paraphrasing) that he would show up on set, work out the scene, block it with the actors, integrate the various visual elements… and after one hour...
Dec 16, 2008 | Thoughts On Cinema
I came hesitantly to the films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger; after all, those whose masterwork rested on the theme of Ballet seemed suspect to me. At any rate, The Red Shoes certainly belongs among the greatest cinema has to offer, and a good majority of...
