There’s plenty to be said for Gasland, the Oscar-nominated, 2010 documentary from Josh Fox, who grew up and currently lives on the Marcellus Shale, “the Saudi Arabia of natural gas” in Pennsylvania. In fact, his land is so valuable that he was offered 100,000 an acre by a handful of companies seeking the “ocean of natural gas” […]
Thanks to True Hollywood Story and Behind the Music, watching music-centered biopics and documentaries is often akin to watching Titanic in that you are relegated to waiting for the boat to crash into an iceberg of ego and slowly sink as the mates argue over which dinghy to take. The formula for these shows is simple: take two people who meet in […]
There is something compelling about Man on Wire, the 2008 Academy Award winner for Best Documentary, that would have not been as such had it been released closer to the time of Philipe Petit’s daring walk between the North and South towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. Certainly, his astounding athleticism would stand out, as would […]
It feels a bit ironic to say that Larry Clark, the director of Kids, Wassup Rockers, and Ken Park, failed to push Bully as far as it could go. It feels doubly so because, at times, Bully feels like a venture into pornography and sadomasochism. At the same time, these elements seem more like redundant exposition to […]
The wash of posters in subways, on busses and taxis that declare “It all ends” on July 15thmight portend an earlier than anticipated end of the world prophecy; however, for now, the declaration is geared toward the millions of Harry Potter fans who are lining up to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2, the finale […]
As a waiter, I once had a manager approach a table to castigate a young woman for having no palate because she sent back a moderately expensive bottle of wine without allowing it to breathe. While he might have been correct in his view of her assessment, he failed to notice her bald scalp wrapped beneath […]
Jul11
Rubber – The Difference Between Absurdism and Absurdity is the Difference Between Satire and Schlock
“All great films without exceptions contain an element of ‘no reason,’” and for this notion I give writer / director Quentin Dupieux credit. There is truth to the theory that many films include plots that are impelled by “nothing.” Romantic films often follow this trope. What makes the two characters fall in love? Often, convenience and the […]
Every once in a while, there is a film from which nothing is expected but its ability to kill two hours, yet surprises with a solid plot and decent performances. The other day, that film was Black Snake Moan. There are a few reasons why I hadn’t seen this when it was released in 2007. One was […]
In an age of prequels, sequels, triads, and epic franchises, X-Men: First Class separates itself from the former list and has become less a prequel, for the most part, and more of a faithfully extended narrative, stemming from the first scene of Bryan Singer’s initial X-Men, where a concentration camp-trapped Erik Lehnsherr’s demonstrates his ability to manipulate […]
In what might be his best film since 1997’s Sweet and Lowdown, Woody Allen sheds the jittery paranoia, forced love affair, and overly-convoluted script that were staples in the 90’s by giving us Midnight in Paris, an exploration of our relationship with and admiration of nostalgia. In present-day Paris, our protagonist Gil Pender (Owen Wilson) is on vacation […]