Thursday, February 2 2012
Prime Time Larceny: It Takes a Thief
Al Mundy (Robert Wagner) enjoys a reputation as a world-class thief, a glamorous burglar, a pickpocket's pickpocket. Too bad he landed in prison.
Tower Songs: Townes Van Zandt
I'll Be There in the Morning offers an affectionate but hardly rose-colored view of Townes Van Zandt and his influence on other songwriters.
Friday, January 27 2012
The Tabloidization of Errol Morris
By the end of this film, the line dividing Tabloid from “the tabloids” thins to the point of imperceptibility.
‘Library After Air Raid’: On the Survival of Culture Amid the Barbarity of War
War is a science, science is an art and art, as Library After Air Raid attests, is everything.
Wednesday, January 25 2012
‘How to Make It in America’? Well for Starters, Don’t Make Hopeful Television
The HBO dramedy How to Make It in America, despite being one of television's best programs, could not make it because it was too hopeful and joyful to survive a culture of cyncism.
Tuesday, January 17 2012
Misery Loves Comedy, But Has It Killed the Traditional Sitcom?
Comedian Lee Mack believes that realism is the enemy of comedy. But his own series, Not Going Out, proves that the Old-School sitcom is alive and kicking.
Wednesday, January 11 2012
What to Expect When You’re Expecting a Vampire
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part I is a gratifying escape from reality. Those who are familiar with the books will be pleased with Director Bill Condon's attention to detail.
Friday, December 2 2011
‘Caligula’s Ghost: Why Cinema Needs Epic Failure More than Mediocre Success
Obscene, grandiose and artistically worthless -- such is the monstrous reputation of the 1979 art-porn blockbuster Caligula. Is this most shocking of Roman epics worthy of reappraisal?
Friday, November 4 2011
The Quest to Understand Tribe
This is supposed to be a documentary, not a fan letter. So how about some balance? It's big picture time when it comes to telling the story of hip-hop.
Wednesday, November 2 2011
Before There Was ‘The Exorcist’, There Was ‘The Possession of Joel Delaney’
Once again, the film industry came in and took a perfectly creepy book and upped the sensationalism because nothing can ever be too shocking in Hollywood.
Friday, October 21 2011
The World’s Favourite Parlour Game: The Quite Interesting Brilliance of ‘QI’
We rarely equate television game shows with admirable life philosophies, but the BBC's QI with host Stephen Fry pulls it off by making us think as well as laugh.
Friday, October 14 2011
Clear! Old-School Medical Drama, Stat!
A once-popular medical drama reveals how much has changed in America's health care industry -- and its television medical dramas -- and how much remains the same.
Wednesday, October 12 2011
Mohawks and Korans: Taqwacores Punk Mash-up
The Taqwacore movement seizes space in the punk narrative and social fabric, which allows Muslim voices to take root and explore their own version of rebellion.
Wednesday, September 21 2011
Buster Keaton the Inventor and Charlie Chaplin the Conjurer
The films of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin share a fraternal vitality and invention.
Wednesday, September 14 2011
Tainted Pasts: Pornography in ‘Meet Monica Velour’ and ‘The Girl Next Door’
Meet Monica Velour and The Girl Next Door demonstrate that mainstream representations of pornography, even in a society in which sex proliferates, are still surprisingly one-sided and inconsistent with counter-narratives offered by industry insiders themselves.
Thursday, September 1 2011
Life, Murder and Companionship: Dexter’s Quest for Friendship
Looking back over Dexter’s journey, the need for a trustworthy companion has never been greater. As the character has become more human, the desire for companionship and a normal life has overtaken the necessitation to kill. It has become—in fact always was—the driving force in his life.
Friday, August 19 2011
Comedy, Technology and DVD Extras: In Defense of a Dying Format
Media formats come and go, subject to the gale-force winds of technology and the retail market. Me, I'm still clinging to my Monty Python collections on VHS.
Thursday, August 4 2011
The Guys Who Bond in the Sky: ‘Toward the Unknown’
All this aircraft is blatantly fetishized, with Bond at one point giving his plane an impulsive and passionate smack of the lips.
Monday, June 27 2011
What Harm Can ‘Ice Road Truckers’ Do to Tender Young Minds?
We went into Ice Road Truckers with the best intentions for our eight-year-old, I swear. It's the History channel, right? It's educational!
Wednesday, June 8 2011
Characters, Compounds, & the Study of Change in ‘Breaking Bad: Season 3’
Walter White didn't just wake up one morning and decide he'd spice up his life by cooking methamphetamine and muscling his way into a business with life-or-death stakes. It was a chain of events.
