Features
Monday, January 9 2012
The Best DVDs of 2011
With the continuing rise of Blu-ray, this year sees a lot of repeat entries. Just because they're here again, however, doesn't mean they're any less special.
Monday, August 29 2011
The 100 Essential Directors Part 9: Victor Sjöström to Luchino Visconti
Today we present a glorious spate of international auteurs that range from cinematic innovators from the silent era to those who continue to push the limits of film in their contemporary work.
Friday, January 8 2010
The Best 30 Films of 2009
In one of the rarest rating periods ever, several on the staff could successfully argue for any of the Top 30 choices as a potential number one. While not all classics, they remain the consistent cream of 2009's crop.
Wednesday, January 6 2010
The Best Male Film Performances of 2009
Certainly, the multi-millionaire boy's club represented here is heavy on the dramatics and light on the more 'amusing' fare. But if you really give this list a meaningful perusal you'll see a few genre and jokester surprises along the way.
Wednesday, January 6 2010
The Best Female Film Performances of 2009
Some in the media would have you think it was a sparse year for women on the silver screen. One peak at this amazing list of 20 girl power performances will have you giving said sentiments a specious second look.
Columns
Tuesday, August 9 2011
Quentin Tarantino's Cinematic Reality
Quentin Tarantino is reliving his childhood cinema experiences, reinterpreting fractured moments of memory. Going to the movies is about an escape from our world, a mirror world at once familiar yet different.
Thursday, August 27 2009
Dear Mr. Denby: In Defense of Inglourious Basterds
Quentin Tarantino drives critics nuts because he loves movies. 'New Yorker' critic David Denby drives The Rockist nuts because he hates movies.
Reviews
Friday, December 9 2011
'Pulp Fiction' Takes Cinematic Conventions, Ties Them Up and Slices Off Their Ear
Pulp Fiction oozes with awesome characters, sumptuous dialogue and a crowd pleasing turn from Bruce Willis. Plus it's got Q.T.'s signature violence. What's not to like?
Thursday, October 20 2011
'Jackie Brown': Is a Love Story, a Heist Film, an Offbeat Crime Story Set to a Great Soundtrack
The intriguing combination of Elmore Leonard's voice with Tarantino's unique dialogue leads to his best film.
Tuesday, February 9 2010
Inglourious Basterds
The bad news is that the Weinsteins may have been right about trimming some of the fat; the good news is that even a flawed Tarantino is better than a perfect most anyone else.
Friday, August 21 2009
Inglourious Basterds
Inglourious Basterds' interest in rumors and reputations and their effects is complicated, both narrative and thematic.
Friday, April 6 2007
Grindhouse (2007)
Where the olden days movies were fierce, these are more nostalgic for a moment that's amplified in the remembering. These retreads are surely giddy, but they're also indulgent, just as they mean to be.
Blogs
Thursday, October 13 2011
Why 'Jackie Brown' is Quentin Tarantino's Best Film
The typical Tarantino is like tightly wound TNT. But in Jackie Brown, the filmmaker is mellow. He's relaxed...and as a result, revelatory.
Wednesday, September 29 2010
Bye, Sally - Sally Menke (1953 - 2010)
Even in the middle of creative chaos, Tarantino was sure to always send his Sally a shout-out. Sadly, their subject can no longer hear them.
Monday, July 12 2010
Serious Men, Inglourious Basterds
While Inglourious Basterds is about a band of freedom fighters standing against the Nazis, rather than one man’s inward crisis with the riddle of existence itself, there is a profound and personal moral center to the Basterds’ struggles, a “seriousness.”
Sunday, December 13 2009
Inglourious Basterds (2009): Blu-ray
It’s a real quandary – how do you reinvent the war film, especially one that centers around Hitler, the Nazis, and the so-called “greatest generation”?…
Friday, August 21 2009
Inglourious Basterds: The Trouble with Tarantino
In the case of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds, the film doesn’t just have greatness in it, there’s mighty rivers of greatness simply leaking out of the thing.
News
Thursday, February 18 2010
Quentin Tarantino talks about the films that influenced 'Inglourious Basterds'
LOS ANGELES — Most writers, musicians and filmmakers are delighted to talk about the biggest influences on their work. After all, for artists, the influences…
Thursday, January 14 2010
Vintage Tarantino
LOS ANGELES — With its aura of faux humility, dense saturation of "for your consideration" ads and humble-yet-effusive nominee posturing, awards season can be a…
Monday, December 14 2009
Tarantino doesn't cover himself in glory with his World War II fantasy
In the opening sequence of "Inglourious Basterds," Quentin Tarantino directs an emotionally shattering scene with brilliant camera work, delicate performances and almost-unbearable tension as a…
Thursday, August 20 2009
Christoph Waltz makes one memorable Nazi in 'Inglourious Basterds'
It takes only the first scene in Quentin Tarantino's World War II film "Inglourious Basterds" to convince audiences that they're watching the birth of a…
Monday, April 9 2007
Movies don't always have to be picture perfect to gain our loyalty
Tarantino compares the "grindhouse" experience with the raw power of "punk rock."
