Monday, February 6 2012
Not-So-Central Casting: Kevin Smith and the Birth of the Reality Podcast
Filmmaker Kevin Smith may be in a celluloid slump, but his new podcast network is on point.
Thursday, January 26 2012
The Hidden Mythos of ‘Police Academy’
Exploring the strange parallels between the writing of mythologist Joseph Campbell and the first four Police Academy films.
Monday, January 23 2012
The 40 Best Films of 2011
2011 was a year of good, not necessarily great, films, though the amazing choices by our staff might argue against such a overall cinematic classification.
Thursday, January 19 2012
Movies 2011: Out of the Past
Super 8, The Muppets, and some of the other great movies of 2011 owe plenty to movies of the past. And they pull off a neat trick too: they're as vivid and delightful as your memories of those movies.
Wednesday, January 18 2012
The Best Male Film Performances of 2011
In another strong year, crime and punishment take on heart and heroism for the right to be called 2011's best male film acting work.
Tuesday, January 17 2012
The Best Female Film Performances of 2011
It was a monumental year for women in film as our selections for 2011's best female performances indicate... over and over and over again.
Monday, January 16 2012
Movies 2011: American Gothic
While comic-book apocalypses ripped across US multiplexes, some smaller films of 2011 envisioned an icier, more disruptive darkness at the heart of the American family.
Movies 2011: Powerful and Disturbing Visions
Many films this year explored self-consciously "big" themes, revealing that sometimes the line between felicity of expression and facileness can be unclear.
Friday, January 13 2012
The Best Indie / International Films of 2011
The year's best independent and international films are highlighted by a duo from iconic director Werner Herzog, a staggeringly brilliant frontier-western and a score of top-notch documentaries that illustrate how filmmaking continues to reach new highs.
Tuesday, January 10 2012
The Guilty Pleasure Films of 2011
You may snicker when looking over this list, but these are the films of 2011 that made us feel guilty for loving them so -- and love them we do.
The Worst Films of 2011
Nothing is more punishing than a bad movie. With these ten, 2011's torture was truly painful.
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.
Thursday, January 5 2012
Howard the Duck: Trapped in a World He Did Not Make
Howard smokes cigars, uses profanity, indulges in pornography, and drinks. Despite his downfalls, Howard is not a villain by any definition of the word. If anything, these imperfections make him more human than any of his Hollywood alien peers.
Tuesday, December 6 2011
The Beauty and the Horror: Peter Jackson’s King Kong - Part 2
Jackson's film is as unwieldy and difficult as it is gripping and moving, expanding upon the exotic spectacle of the original while simultaneously steering the tale into the realm of tragic lament.
Thursday, December 1 2011
The Beauty and the Horror: Peter Jackson’s King Kong - Part 1
This film is keenly aware of the myriad meanings embedded in its cinematic myth and sets about re-contextualizing and commenting upon the implied politics while offering extravagant thrills and tragic, classic romance.
Tuesday, November 29 2011
Money, Sex, and Power: Contemporary Adaptations in John Guillermin’s King Kong
The 1976 King Kong updates this modern myth’s meanings for a vastly different social, economic, and cultural milieu, but it does so with a leaden obviousness that undermines its conclusions.
Monday, November 28 2011
From Spectacle to Elegy: The Cinematic Myth of King Kong
Like many of the Hollywood blockbusters that followed in its footsteps, King Kong was a barometer for its troubled times, a clear crystallization of many lurking social anxieties in Depression-era America.
Wednesday, November 23 2011
Jung and the Restless: On Michael Fassbender’s Role as Carl Jung in ‘A Dangerous Method’
PopMatters has been counting down the days until David Cronenberg's newest film, A Dangerous Method hits theaters. Today it arrives in limited release and in the last piece of this cinematic puzzle, actor Michael Fassbender, talks to Christopher Sweetapple for the grand finalé.
Tuesday, November 22 2011
Adapting the Unconscious: Christopher Hampton’s Screenplay of ‘A Dangerous Method’
Lauded screenwriter Christopher Hampton speaks with David Lee Dallas III about adapting his own stage play.
Monday, November 21 2011
The Hunter and The Hunted: Keira Knightley Explores Duality in ‘A Dangerous Method’
A Dangerous Method's Best Actress hopeful Keira Knightley speaks with PopMatters about playing the unsung feminist heroine of psychoanalysis, Sabina Spielrein, for David Cronenberg.
