Features
Monday, March 14 2011
Pedagogy of the Possessed: Teaching and Learning in 'Buffy'
The implied pedagogical theories undergirding both Buffy and Giles's guidance of her evince a particularly American pragmatic understanding of the learning process.
Monday, June 14 2010
'Blackmail' and the Birth of the British Talkies
Originally conceived as a silent film, Blackmail was quickly converted to sound, making it the first British talkie. To accommodate theaters that were not equipped for sound, it was reissued as a silent film. The differences in the two versions are here compared.
Thursday, May 13 2010
"Fringe": Every Generation Gets the "X-Files" It Deserves
Fringe is The X-Files new and improved for viewers with shorter attention spans and an appetite for more gadgets and less paper work, more super geniuses and fewer bureaucrats, higher body counts and less verisimilitude, more answers and fewer questions.
Thursday, October 30 2008
Decade of the Dead
After a decade in which the dissemination of powerful images of human suffering—911, Abu Ghraib, Darfur, Iraq, New Orleans—have had little impact on changing the status quo, it’s hard to grudge Romero for his pessimism.
Reviews
Friday, May 25 2012
Love is Rarer than Diamonds: 'Letter Never Sent'
This Soviet-era gem about the hunt for precious stones in Siberia is more alchemy than geology.
Monday, April 30 2012
Cozzers, Slags, and Filth: Tom Bell as the Bent On Revenge Ross, In 'Out'
While location shooting lends the series authenticity, Out offers a formulaic setting to match every sequence shot at landmarks like Electric Avenue in Brixton.
Thursday, April 5 2012
'Urbanized': Hopeful Developments and Sobering Statistics
This is total immersion filmmaking, a crash course in all the elements of city life that concern planners, architects, politicians and activists: housing, transportation, growth, crime and sanitation.
Wednesday, February 29 2012
'Revenge of the Electric Car': Charge!
Chris Paine’s follow-up to his 2006 documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? plugs into more cinematic trends than a Tesla Roadster has laptop batteries.
Wednesday, January 25 2012
'Jane’s Journey': Insightful, Moving, Beautiful and Maddeningly Superficial
Lorenz Knauer presents Jane Goodall’s life as traditionally female, structured by marriages, sacrifice, and an act of reconciliation with her son.
Blogs
Thursday, December 16 2010
Just Say Nooo!: ‘Contact’
It’s always impressive when a director can imbue silverware with horror.
Monday, November 22 2010
Johnny Flynn, 10 November 2010 - Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio
The sound of a room full of 20-year-olds singing “when you’re dead” over and over again, while Flynn provided harmony, made for an exhilarating end to an unforgettable evening.
