While Brokeback Mountain continues to outrage an assortment of the ignorant, the nostalgic, and the vehement with its alleged attack on the stirring falsehoods of the Western, another version of the honored form practically slunk into town with barely a peep of protest from the right. The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (a mouthful of […]
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You’re gonna need that first aid kit, Crowe
Thanks to filmdom’s less-than-inspired offerings last year, I truthfully wasn’t looking forward to the Daynas, the awards named after me, voted on by me, and traditionally intended to spotlight those slighted by Oscar. But I couldn’t not hold them, due to the fact that a Dayna now carries such astonishing clout, plus celebrities really seem […]
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Maybe they’ll actually deserve that statue
Two great American public occasions annually illuminate the dark days and frozen nights of winter with the bright lights of hype and the torrential flow of gush. Though celebrating entirely different endeavors, both events mount elaborate ceremonies that, through assiduous cultivation of the media and enormous expenditure of money on publicity, command the attention of […]
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Prepare to be challenged
His intelligent gray eyes belie his perpetual interrupted-nap exterior. He sounds like a cross between Governor Schwarzenegger and Count von Count from Sesame Street, only with a whistling speech impediment that might make a rational person shy away from excessive public speaking. But SlavojZizek is “an academic rock star,” an honest-to-goodness philosopher in an age […]
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Don’t believe in human goodness
The ironically titled Freedomland deals with a situation resembling the sensational stories that scream from the front pages every day and absolutely absorb the drooling forensic ghouls of the cable news channels. The movie examines such volatile contemporary materials as a missing child, a black suspect, racial tensions, the enormous distance separating comfortable suburbia from […]
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Arthouse future and arthouse past
You only need to get one gander at the opening credits of Caché (Hidden), Michael Haneke’s latest film, to know that the Austrian auteur will not be making things easy for you. Using the tiniest letters, Haneke jams the names of his cast, crew, and financiers into one frame over a street scene that seems […]
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Technology is a double-edged sword
The new thriller Firewall works a number of changes on some familiar material. It demonstrates that the tried and true Hollywood product, no matter how often it appears, remains entertaining and engaging. Whatever its debt to hundreds of movies from the past, it also suggests new directions in its genre, emphasizing once again that popular […]
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It’s not quirky for quirk’s sake
It’s probably about time you met Andrew Bujalski, but I’ll dish a little before he shows up so it’s not a totally blind date. The Boston-based filmmaker has crafted two low-budget, 16mm affairs that have made quiet yet deep splashes in the world of independent cinema and earned him comparisons to mortal gods with names […]
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Melding the high and low in English humor
Like so much else in English society, contemporary differences in styles of humor appear connected to the ancient, burdensome stratifications of social class. In crude terms, for those who remember the television imports of some years ago, the comic alternatives generally split between Monty Python and Benny Hill, representing the high and the low in […]
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A ‘little scientific experiment’ gone horribly wrong
In the early 1960s, Nile perch were introduced into Lake Victoria in an effort to restock depleted waters, a lucrative move that brought fishing jobs to Tanzania and lined the pockets of enterprising exporters satiating European hunger for the one of the biggest freshwater fish around. What probably seemed like a good idea at the […]
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Get that emperor some clothes
Woody Allen just might be the most overrated filmmaker drawing breath today. And like most people, when I use the word “overrated,” what I’m really saying is that I am unable to see the appeal behind something everyone else seems to unconditionally adore (as long as I’m confessing, I feel the same way about The […]
