Recent Film Columns

Page 2 of 14      Go to:  <  1 2 3 4 >  Last »

Thursday, December 3 2009

Tim Burton Exhibit at MoMA: Publicity Ploy or Actual Art?

By Aaron Sagers

With over 700 works on display spanning his artistic life, MoMA's Tim Burton career retrospective is more than a commercial appeal, but an example of art for popular culture.

(more PopPundit)

Wednesday, December 2 2009

Looking Back at the Avant Garde

By Michael Barrett

These two new DVDs help us take a look back at forward thinkers, and although no one will like all these films equally, the whole is an experience not only edifying but, at its most radical, even pleasurable.

(more Canon Fodder)

Wednesday, November 25 2009

Are We All Mythtaken About Star Wars?

By Monte Williams

Fans are mistaken about Return of the Jedi and Luke Skywalker (dismissing the Ewoks, and Skywalker is deemed a wuss). Might they also be wrong about the prequel trilogy? And how.

(more Lowbrow Literati)

Friday, November 13 2009

An Education: Carey Mulligan Comes of Age

By Matt Mazur

Danish director Lone Scherfig spares audiences the trite clichés of a young woman's coming of age, directs a magnificent cast of actors, and defends her film against allegations of inappropriate sexuality.

(more Suffragette City)

Monday, November 9 2009

PopShots: The Lighter Side of Swine Flu

By Glenn McDonald

Researchers have largely ignored the pop cultural value of the H1N1 virus: hours on the couch catching up on DVD.

(more PopShots)

Tuesday, November 3 2009

The Ghostbusters Twinkie Defense

By Monte Williams

More surprising than the still-impressive special effects and the jokes that hold up to modern scrutiny is the fact that there are moments throughout Ghostbusters that are legitimately scary.

(more Lowbrow Literati)

Thursday, October 29 2009

In from the Fog: Monstrous Fishermen in Popular Culture

By Chris Justice

To paraphrase Nietzsche, when fighting monsters one should be careful not to become one, but that’s a major reason why many people fish: to slay the proverbial dragon.

(more The Tackle Box)

Wednesday, October 28 2009

A Ghost Story of Dubious Origins

By Jennifer Makowsky

No matter the vercity of the tale, The Haunting in Connecticut has just enough creep quotient to keep me engaged, especially since I grew up a few miles from the house.

(more The Box Office Belletrist)

Tuesday, October 27 2009

Frightful Rome

By Marco Lanzagorta

Profondo Rosso, the Dario Argento store in Rome, hints at a dramatic cultural shift taking place in Italy regarding the appreciation and analysis of classic Italian horror films.

(more Dread Reckoning)

Tuesday, October 20 2009

Pete Kelly’s Blues

By Kit MacFarlane

Jack Webb's glum radio series 'Pete Kelly's Blues' is a sigh of a tribute to the roaring '20s, a melancholic parade of blistering jazz and the pointlessness of its own nostalgia.

(more Retro Remote)

Friday, September 25 2009

Hal Ashby: Hollywood Rebel

By Rodger Jacobs

Films and books strive toward a common goal: telling a story. And very few modern filmmakers are as good at spinning a yarn as the late Hal Ashby was.

(more Deconstruction Zone)

If You’re Going to San Francisco…

By Michael Brett

The Complete Monterey Pop Festival perfectly captures the dangerously unstable compound called rock music right before it exploded and permanently altered the American cultural landscape.

(more The Rockist)

Monday, September 21 2009

Horrifyingly Close to Reality

By Marco Lanzagorta

Western culture’s perspective of torture is complex and paradoxical; it's considered immoral, illegal, primitive, and indecent, yet it's shocking to see that torture methods continue to be used in the interrogation of prisoners of war.

(more Dread Reckoning)

Friday, September 18 2009

Comic Re-Imagining

By Shaun Huston

Not all comic book adaptations are created equal, especially not when comparing our own imaginings with what actually happens when books are moved from print to screen.

(more Worlds in Panels)

Tuesday, September 15 2009

Captain Obama and the Final Frontier

By George Reisch

Obama's four-year mission: to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new kinds of political confusion; to boldly go where no rational health-care reformer has gone before.

(more Pop Goes Philosophy)

Thursday, September 3 2009

Buster Keaton: The Sound of His Obsession

By Michael Barrett

Bill Frisell's ambient, fuzzy, meandering guitar doodles sound like they're trying to approximate the sad stillness blowing through the corridors of Keaton's mind.

(more Canon Fodder)

Wednesday, September 2 2009

Not to be Silenced: To Kill a Mockingbird

By Jennifer Makowsky

'To Kill a Mockingbird' is more than an enlightening tale of the racial inadequacies in the South during the Depression -- it inspired people to study law.

(more The Box Office Belletrist)

Friday, August 28 2009

Dear Mr. Denby: In Defense of Inglourious Basterds

By Michael Brett

Quentin Tarantino drives critics nuts because he loves movies. 'New Yorker' critic David Denby drives The Rockist nuts because he hates movies.

(more The Rockist)

Thursday, August 27 2009

G.I. Joe’s Future Hangs on the Unbalanced

By Monte Williams

The fate of 'The Rise of Cobra' (both the toys and the movie) might depend on something completely out of Hasbro’s control: nostalgia.

(more Lowbrow Literati)

Friday, August 14 2009

“No Dad, What About You?!”: The John Hughes Generation Conflict

By Michael Brett

John Hughes went to bat for us teenagers against the evil Baby Boomer adults and the damage their material expectations inflicted on the classic American nuclear family.

(more The Rockist)

Page 2 of 14      Go to:  <  1 2 3 4 >  Last »