THE DEAD DON’T DIE takes the tropes, idioms, and beloved foibles of low-budget zombie flicks and, with a skillful flick of its auteur’s cinematic wrist, recontextualizes them into a stylized gloss on the new normal of 2019. Certainly the “Make America White Again” ball cap sported by the most reviled citizen (Steve Buscemi) of sleepy… Read More »
BLINDSPOTTING
BLINDSPOTTING is a contemporary fable told in dynamic syncopation and unexpected compassion as it uncovers the farce and tragedy of an Oakland in transition.
TOWER
On August 1, 1966, a sniper took aim from the observation deck of the tower on the University of Texas campus at Austin and reigned 90 minutes of chaos and terror on the people below. TOWER, a partly animated documentary by Keith Maitland, tells that story in real time from the perspective of the eyewitnesses… Read More »
DO NOT RESIST — Craig Atkinson Interview
Ferguson, the militarization of the police, and covert surveillance all happened at about the same time, and Craig Atkinson suspected that there was a connection. His startling and disquieting documentary, DO NOT RESIST, is the result of his investigation. When I spoke to him on October 21, 2016, we covered all three topics, starting with… Read More »
Matt Sobel Says TAKE ME TO THE RIVER
Matt Sobel dedicated his feature film debut, TAKE ME TO THE RIVER, to his grandmother. She didn’t live to see the film, but her spirit pervaded the shoot. Sobel had considered several other locations other than Nebraska, where the story is set, but it soon became clear to him that only her farm could capture… Read More »
REGRESSION
Alejandro Amenábar directed Nicole Kidman to one of her best performances in THE OTHERS, a horror film that was both haunting and clever. The full review of that fine film is here, and I recommend watching that instead of REGRESSION, a film that is equally atmospheric, but diffused in its mounting terror, rather than sharply… Read More »
STRANGER BY THE LAKE
There is no getting around the prurient interest that STRANGER BY THE LAKE evokes. Set entirely on the rocky shore of the titular lake, it teems with beautiful young men madly in lust both with each other and with being in a state of nature. It is the stuff of porn flicks and of classical… Read More »
THE PINK PANTHER
Peter Sellers is so deeply identified with monumentally bumbling Inspector Clouseau that one wonders why Steve Martin would want to take a crack at the character with a remake of THE PINK PANTHER. Others, including the character’s co-creator, Blake Edwards, have taken their shot and failed miserably. Martin, who co-wrote the script, at least makes… Read More »
THE DEPARTED
With THE DEPARTED, Martin Scorsese has taken a good film, the Hong Kong minor classic INFERNAL AFFAIRS, and remade it into a movie that is as bloated as it is bland. Gone is the dramatic tension of a slick action flick, gone is the suspenseful psychological subtext that pondered the nature of identity, subsumed into… Read More »
John McDonagh Hires THE GUARD
John McDonagh garnered acclaim for his screenplay, NED KELLY, but didn’t like the way it was translated to the big screen. The experience gave him the perfect impetus to come up with a screenplay that he could direct himself. Conceived as a low-budget project that would allow him the artistic freedom he craved, THE GUARD… Read More »