Tuesday, May 8 2012
Jerks Are My Heroes, Thanks to ‘Jerks’ Like Steve Martin
My folks are probably still kicking themselves for taking a seven-year-old to see Steve Martin’s profane and ridiculous first film, The Jerk, because that was the day I gave up on strong, upstanding heroes and decided that I wanted to be like Navin Johnson.
Friday, May 4 2012
In Defense Of ... David Simon and the Legacy of ‘The Wire’
In light of David Simon's recent comments to The New York Times on its intent to 'stir actual shit', we revisit how important The Wire should be to both popular culture and American society.
Thursday, April 26 2012
‘Lord of the Flies’ Still Reigns
Fear and brutality inherent in the human condition and the drive to survive are themes that have never gone out of fashion. The stakes get even higher when those involved are children, and that's obviously a big seller.
Wednesday, April 25 2012
For Your Smoking Pleasure
Love and hate. Success and failure. Life and death. Cigarettes. You could get addicted to Brian Dooley's The Smoking Room.
Monday, March 26 2012
The Cost of Success: When Lives Intersect With Fame
The Swell Season is one of the most intimate fly-on-the-wall peeks at the effects of stardom on two people at two very different points in their lives. It’s arguably the most accomplished music documentary of its kind since D.A. Pennebaker’s Don’t Look Back.
Friday, March 9 2012
Agitprop to Occupy My Time: ‘In Time’ for the Revolution
If fiction and reality could merge, the hero of the film In Time would benefit from listening to Real Time with Bill Maher, who said to the Occupy movement, "When you occupy anything for too long people do get pissed off."
Thursday, March 8 2012
Identity and Desire: The Search for Emotional Realism in Cinema
The manifestation of jealousy and desire is subtle. It develops over time, and if set off, the act of aggression may just as likely be one of attachment and ardor.
Friday, February 24 2012
Why I Dumped Ricky Gervais for Karl Pilkington (but Am Still Seeing Stephen Merchant on the Side)
Did the record breaking Ricky Gervais Show podcast give insight into the real people behind it? Or were they just three more brilliant comic creations?
Wednesday, February 22 2012
Twilight of the Toffs: ‘Brideshead Revisited’
Like Downton Abbey and Upstairs Downstairs, Brideshead Revisited can be considered a requiem for the days of Empire and the unyielding class structure that governed British life pre-World War II.
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.
