Matt Mazur

About Matt Mazur

Since 2006, Matt Mazur has traveled the global pop sphere to bring readers reports from Copenhagen, Berlin, Montreal, Detroit, Atlanta, NYC, and Toronto.With a decided interest in the role of gender in film and pop culture, Mazur had three goals in mind when he began writing for the site: interviewing anyone associated with the Ingmar Bergman film Cries and Whispers; interviewing singer-songwriter Tori Amos; and interviewing actress Jessica Lange -- all accomplished, now he's taking suggestions on what to do next. Matt lives in rural Massachusetts with his anthropologist partner, next to a tobacco farm, which is ironic as he is a former smoker who has morphed into a completely self-righteous non-smoker. He will attend Columbia University, as a film major, in Fall 2009.

Features

Music

Agent Provocateur: Madonna’s Super Hard Candy Pop

[29.Apr.08] :. On her newest CD, Hard Candy, the legend sounds stronger and more confident -- pushed into the new directions by her posse of guest producers and musicians.

Recent features

 

Film

State of Grace: How Buddhist Teachings Transformed a Maximum Security Prison in Alabama

[11.Apr.08] :. In her new documentary, Jenny Phillips frames the daily, shackled grind of prisoners' lives with social injustices, but also investigates what it is like to be a prisoner doing hard time in the South choosing to practice guided Buddhist meditation techniques.

Recent features

 
Featured Article

Film

Paul Newman's Influential, Classic Performances in The Hustler and The Verdict

[18.Oct.07] :. In an era of relatively reserved American cinema, when most actors would be concerned with their images as leading men, Newman was not afraid to experiment and go with his artistic impulses.

Recent features

 

Music

In a Posse's Strength: An Interview with Tori Amos

[27.Aug.07] :. The artist splits personae, splits her vote, and defends her shoes. Tori Amos talks to PopMatters about this and more.

Recent features

 

My Favorite Things

Jessica Lange: The Anti-Streep

[1.Nov.06] :. Can childhood epiphanies really translate into critical pursuits of acting nuance? For Matt Mazur they most certainly can, as attested by his lifelong devotion to the immersive acting of cinematic chimera Jessica Lange.

My Favorite Things

 

Columns

Suffragette City

Michelle Pfeiffer as Pfeminist

[14.Jul.08] :. I Could Never Be Your Woman is the lone feminist antidote in a sea of venomous, misogynist, adolescent male comedies that people turn out for en masse.

Recent columns

 

Reviews

DVDs

The Furies: Criterion Collection

[24.Jul.08] :. Mann scatters fragments of Shakespeare’s King Lear into the mix along with the familial clinches of Eugene O’Neill’s dour compositions

Recent DVD reviews

 

DVDs

The Lovers (Les Amantes): Criterion Edition

[10.Jun.08] :. Fans of Malle will no doubt drool over the crisp new packaging and artwork and the physically-adventurous performance of Moreau

Recent DVD reviews

 

Events

Erykah Badu + The Roots

[9.Jun.08] :. If any contemporary artist is pushing the boundaries of preconception, misconception, and trail-blazing, it is Badu. She defies age, race, and gender norms. Hell, she defies earthly norms.

Recent Event reviews

 

DVDs

Youth Without Youth

[5.Jun.08] :. "You learn more quickly, more profoundly in dreams" -- the audience becomes a part of the hallucinations.

Recent DVD reviews

 

DVDs

A Passage To India

[24.Apr.08] :. This is a solid throwback to an era where the scope and poetry of the eloquent imagery were the only things that mattered.

Recent DVD reviews

 
Featured Article

DVDs

The Ice Storm

[4.Apr.08] :. The general fuzzed-out sense of malaise that Lee is able to tap into while exploring the Nixon-era sexual revolution (and repression and adventure), creates a point of view that both ruthlessly observes and empathizes with these alien suburbanites.

Recent DVD reviews

 

DVDs   Atonement

Featured Article

Film

Paranoid Park (TIFF 2007)

[14.Mar.08] :. Gus Van Sant is concerned with portraying the developing moral compass of a jaded youth with a heartfelt sincerity and a steady hand.

Recent Film reviews

 

DVDs   Things We Lost in the Fire

DVDs   Walker

Featured Article

DVDs

This Sporting Life

[1.Feb.08] :. Reminiscent of Scorsese’s Raging Bull in its dissection of the primal need of man to hit and be hit, and its brutish character's struggle with misogyny.

Recent DVD reviews

 

DVDs   New York, New York

PopMatters Pick

DVDs

Under the Volcano

[7.Dec.07] :. Under the Volcano is Golden Age craftsmanship at its peak with a decidedly modern edge that shows, again, that the vintage director’s eye is one that often improves with age.

Recent DVD reviews

 

Film   The Savages

PopMatters Pick

Film

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

[28.Nov.07] :. Diving Bell feels like another world and visually, it looks like no other film.

Recent Film reviews

 
Featured Article

Film

Margot at the Wedding

[27.Nov.07] :. The brisk 92-minute film explores the intensity of the women’s relationship, and how they are inherently tied to one another, whether they like it or not.

Recent Film reviews

 

DVDs   The Hoax

Events   Tori Amos

Film   Control

Events   Tori Amos

DVDs   House of Games

DVDs   Dynasty: The Complete Second Season

DVDs   Sweet Land

Music   Interpol: Our Love to Admire

DVDs   Because I Said So (2007)

DVDs   The Natural (1984)

DVDs   Catch and Release (2006)

Events   Björk

DVDs   Little Children (2006)

Music   Tori Amos: American Doll Posse

DVDs   Copying Beethoven (2006)

DVDs   The Nativity Story (2006)

DVDs   Maude: The Complete First Season

DVDs   The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)

DVDs   The Holiday (2006)

Featured Article

DVDs

The Films of Kenneth Anger, Vol. 1 (1947)

[5.Mar.07] :. Anger can be seen not only as the godfather of queer cinema, but also of indie cinema: his budgets were virtually non-existent, and the production values might have been low; but the finished products were always regarded as works of art.

Recent DVD reviews

 

Events   The Rapture

DVDs   A Man for All Seasons: Special Edition (1966)

Featured Article

DVDs

The Dick Cavett Show - Hollywood Greats

[16.Feb.07] :. This is not only an entertaining, funny, and smart guide to the glory days of Hollywood; it is an essential and useful tool for film historians.

Recent DVD reviews

 

DVDs   Trust the Man (2005)

DVDs   The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

DVDs   House of Sand (Casa de Areia) (2005)

DVDs   Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont (2006)

DVDs   Wah-Wah (2005)

DVDs   Inside The Actors Studio - Icons

PopMatters Pick

DVDs

Reds (1981)

[17.Nov.06] :. Warren Beatty's personal best film stands among the most spectacular films of the '80s and has retained its dignity with age.

Recent DVD reviews

 

Events   Xiu Xiu

DVDs   Art School Confidential (2006)

DVDs   The Girls (1968)

DVDs   Serving in Silence: Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer (2006)

DVDs   Dont Come Knocking (2006)

Music   The Knife: Silent Shout

Film   A Prairie Home Companion (2006)

DVDs    PJ Harvey: PJ Harvey on Tour: Please Leave Quietly [DVD]

Film   The Proposition (2005)

Film   Drawing Restraint 9 (2005)

Film   The Proposition (2005)

DVDs   Robert Altman Collection: Donald Sutherland, Elliot Gould, Robert Duvall, Carol Burnett - PopMatters

Blog posts

Notes from the Road

Object Becoming Subject, or, Is It a Crime to Look at Lange? - Part Two

[16.Jan.08] :. By Matt Mazur Part One In discussing her method, or lack or method in her eyes (she never was an Actor's Studio girl), Lange tried to give the audience a sense of what it is...

Notes from the Road

 

Notes from the Road

Object Becoming Subject, or, Is It a Crime to Look at Lange? - Part One

[15.Jan.08] :. by Matt Mazur Jessica Lange in Bonneville "She's like a delicate fawn crossed with a Buick" -- Jack Nicholson on Jessica Lange Spending the night with Jessica Lange is a rare and...

Notes from the Road

 

Consuming Consumables

Hairspray (Two-Disc Shake & Shimmy Edition) [$34.98]

[11.Dec.07] :. The year is 1962. The setting is Baltimore. Tracy Turnblatt (newcomer Nikki Blonsky) is a plus-sized teenage optimist who is out to solve the problem of racism with dance. Tracy is obsessed with The...

Consuming Consumables

 

Consuming Consumables

The Dick Cavett Show - Hollywood Greats [$39.99]

[21.Nov.07] :. Before talk shows disintegrated into the abrasive carnival side shows they have become in recent years, The Dick Cavett Show was on the air to demonstrate the power of the form. Inherently...

Consuming Consumables

 

Notes from the Road

M for Montreal: Day Two

[12.Nov.07] :. PopMatters Picks of the best of M for Montreal WE ARE WOLVES MySpace CREATURE MySpace CHOCOLAT MySpace Check out Day One Day two of M for Montreal began...

Notes from the Road

 

Notes from the Road   M for Montreal: Day One

Notes from the Road   TIFF '07 - The Wrap-Up: Woman of the Year

Notes from the Road   TIFF '07 - Days Six and Seven: Artistic Leaps and Crashes

Notes from the Road   TIFF '07 - Day Five: Contemporary Classics

Notes from the Road   TIFF '07 - Days Three and Four: Make Way for the Ladies!

Notes from the Road   TIFF '07 - Day Two: Here Come the Terrorists!

Notes from the Road   TIFF '07 - Day One Continues

Notes from the Road   TIFF '07 - Day One: The Brave One

Short Ends and Leader   Depth of Field: The Monster Inside Ms. Theron

Short Ends and Leader   Depth of Field: Ullman's Doll House

Short Ends and Leader   Depth of Field: Michel Gondry's Science of 'Sleep'walking

Short Ends and Leader   Short Cuts - Forgotten Gems: Rivers and Tides (2001)

Short Ends and Leader   Depth of Field: The Best Lead Performances of 2006

Short Ends and Leader   Depth of Field: The Best Supporting Performances of 2006

Short Ends and Leader   Short Cuts - In Theaters: Inland Empire (2006)

Short Ends and Leader   Short Cuts - Forgotten Gems: Country

Short Ends and Leader   Short Cuts - Forgotten Gems: The Emigrants

Short Ends and Leader   Short Cuts - Forgotten Gems: Mary Queen of Scots

Short Ends and Leader   Short Cuts - Forgotten Gems: Elizabeth

Short Ends and Leader   Short Cuts - Forgotten Gems: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Short Ends and Leader   Short Cuts - Forgotten Gems: Opening Night

Short Ends and Leader   Short Cuts - Forgotten Gems: The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds

Short Ends and Leader   Short Cuts - Forgotten Gems: The Crossing Guard (1995)

Short Ends and Leader   Short Cuts - Forgotten Gems: Georgia (1995)

Short Ends and Leader   Short Cuts - Forgotten Gems: Mrs. Soffel (1984)

Short Ends and Leader   Short Cuts - Forgotten Gems: Sounder (1972)

Short Ends and Leader   Short Cuts - Forgotten Gems: Bird

Short Ends and Leader   Short Cuts - Forgotten Gems: Passion Fish

Short Ends and Leader   Depth of Field: Harriet Andersson, Part II

Short Ends and Leader   Depth of Field: Harriet Andersson

Short Ends and Leader   Short Cuts - Forgotten Gems: Possession (1981)

 
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