Since he started writing for PopMatters in 2006, Matt Mazur has crossed paths with more than one iconic Swedish film star, taken film studies classes alongside American movie stars in the Ivy League, and even gotten his idol Tori Amos to apologize for giving an abstract answer. Mazur has turned in coverage of film festivals, awards ceremonies and pop culture events in Atlanta, Berlin, Copenhagen, Detroit, Montreal, New York and most places in between. Somewhere in the midst of the chaos of being a full-time scholar (film and gender/sexuality), he has managed to talk with some of the most celebrated film personalities of our time: Pedro Almodovar, Margaret Cho, Robert Duvall, Jane Fonda, Pam Grier, Mike Leigh, Sissy Spacek, and Tilda Swinton are among them.
Mazur’s decided interest in the intersecting roles of class, gender, race and sexuality in film and pop culture continues to inform both his features and reviews for PopMatters and is also the focus of his bi-monthly column Suffragette City. Follow his every move on Twitter @Matt_Mazur - where he tackles important issues such as academia, actresses, awards, the quickly-evolving role of the modern film critic and shoes.
Features
Friday, October 7 2011
One by One, We're All Becoming Shades: An Interview with Anjelica Huston
In her newest film 50/50, the actress brings everything full circle, combining comedy and high drama with another far less-discussed area of her expertise: the ability to work a good old-fashioned bad wig and turn it into a powerful acting tool.
Monday, September 19 2011
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms: Tori Amos Goes Hunting
Tori Amos talks with PopMatters about her newest CD Night of Hunters, where she goes back to her classical roots and gets back on the piano bench for a dark odyssey that will both give you the chills and break your heart.
Tuesday, July 26 2011
Overlooked Polish Masterpieces: Two Essential Films by Jerzy Kawalerowciz
Kawalerowicz's work would set the intellectual tone for post-war acts of filmic subversion and transcendance within Poland's burgeoning industry, essential characteristics that Polish cinema would come to be best known for.
Friday, March 4 2011
Digital Ghost: Director Apichatpong Weerasethakul Recalls Uncle Boonmee
Celebrated film director and visual artist "Thai Joe" talks to PopMatters about the cost of transmigration, hybridity and fantasy, as his Palm D'Or-winning Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives finally bows stateside after traveling the long and winding roads of the international film festival circuit.
Friday, January 21 2011
Saint Fonda in the Backyard: The Iconic Jane Works It Out
Golden Age Hollywood scion, feminist activist, and general all-around bad-ass Jane Fonda is back, and this time out, she is hitting the campaign trail on behalf of the health of boomers and senior citizens. Fonda keeps Mazur on task and on his toes during this exclusive interview, preferring to focus on fitness rather than feminism or cinema.
Columns
Friday, November 11 2011
Let's Get Physical: In Praise of Kay Kendall's Joie De Vivre
Kay Kendall's mercurial performances in George Cukor's Les Girls and Vincente Minnelli's The Reluctant Debutante highlight a romantic Englishwoman and her knack for graceful physical comedy.
Friday, September 9 2011
Connect the Dots: Transgender Narratives in Pop Culture
Transgender representation in modern film, television, and literature blurs the lines of gender, class, race and sexuality, which is precisely why trans narratives are still considered dangerous.
Friday, April 8 2011
Passing Me By: African American Women and 'Passing' As a Film Genre
Caught between two worlds, standing on a near-literal precipice with one foot in the African American experience, the other firmly in majority white culture, the protagonist of the passing film is confronted with an impossible choice: live in truth as a person of color or risk “passing” for white to gain societal advantage.
Thursday, January 6 2011
Suffragette City's Best of 2010 Cinema
What’s black and white and blue all over? 2010’s finest films. Suffragette City investigates all of the major awards categories, offering up choices that are about as far a field from the Hollywood/Oscar PR machine as one can get!
Friday, November 19 2010
Politicking with 'Made in Dagenham''s Miranda Richardson
Miranda Richardson discusses this season's premiere feminism-themed film about the real-life strike at the UK Ford plant that challenged and changed British laws on equal pay. Just how far have we come since 1968 in the fight for gender equality in the workplace?
Reviews
Monday, May 2 2011
The Film Versions of Gilbert & Sullivan's 'The Mikado' and 'Topsy-Turvy' Stand on Unequal Footing
Why was the 1939 Technicolor curio The Mikado not included as an extra on the far superior Mike Leigh extravaganza Topsy-Turvy? The earlier film is but a pale shadow of Leigh's meticulous artistic vision.
Thursday, April 21 2011
'Senso' Is an Operatic Post-WWII Coda to a Story of War, Nationalism and Societal Decay
The erotic, intoxicating kiss of Luchino Visconti's Senso leaves the spectator wanting something more despite it's impressive cinematic size. Perhaps bigger is not always better in the world of film, after all...
Friday, March 4 2011
'The Naked Kiss': Part Smoldering Temptress, Part Saint, Part Marlene Dietrich by Way of the Gutter
The Naked Kiss exists somewhere between Russ Meyer's exploitation flicks, Douglas Sirk's feminine melodramas, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder's savage assaults on contemporary sexual politics.
Wednesday, February 16 2011
'The Town' Is Ben Affleck's Best Work as Director, Writer and Actor
While not the Oscar bait it was being positioned as, The Town still remains an iron-clad testament to the surprising versatility of writer-director-star Ben Affleck.
Friday, January 14 2011
'The Night of the Hunter' Is a Sophisticated, Artistic Depiction of Good vs. Evil
The Night of the Hunter's iconicity is largely due to its genre-defying dialectical properties that bring together the edgy with the earnest, a blending of styles ahead of its time.
Blogs
Wednesday, August 24 2011
Best Actress Rewind: 1944
Best Actress Rewind is back! Oscar-watcher Matt Mazur challenges the Academy's choices in his favorite category, comparing the Academy nominees with his own (frequently better) nominees!
Friday, August 19 2011
Best Actress Rewind: 1958
Best Actress Rewind is back! Oscar-watcher Matt Mazur challenges the Academy's choices in his favorite category, comparing the Academy nominees with his own (frequently better) nominees!
Thursday, August 18 2011
Best Actress Rewind: 1961
Best Actress Rewind is back! Oscar-watcher Matt Mazur challenges the Academy's choices in his favorite category, comparing the Academy nominees with his own (frequently better) nominees!
Thursday, July 21 2011
Best Actress Rewind: 1975
Best Actress Rewind is back! Oscar-watcher Matt Mazur challenges the Academy's choices in his favorite category, comparing the Academy nominees with his own (frequently better) nominees!
Tuesday, July 19 2011
Best Actress Rewind: 1980
Best Actress Rewind is back! Oscar-watcher Matt Mazur challenges the Academy's choices in his favorite category, comparing the Academy nominees with his own (frequently better) nominees!
