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EMPIRE OF LIGHT — Sir Roger Deakins Interview

February 22, 2023 By Leave a Comment

EMPIRE OF LIGHT — Sir Roger Deakins Interview

Click here to listen to the interview. Sir Roger Deakins (he was knighted in 2021 for his contributions to the art and craft of cinematography) has achieved iconic status as a cinematographer, so much so that when San Francisco, where I live, experienced a day when the sun did not come out due to local… Read More »

Tagged With: 1917, Aeroflex, BLADE RUNNER 2049, BLADERUNNER 2049, cinematography, digital, film, Leica, SICARIO, Skyfall, Sydney Opera House, tracking shots

Mark Burton and Richard Starzak — Puns, Cryptomnesia, and Dreams with SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE

August 6, 2015 By 1 Comment

Mark Burton and Richard Starzak — Puns, Cryptomnesia, and Dreams with SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE

Aardman Animation.  For hordes of animation fans, you don’t need to say anything else about a film in order to get them to pack a theater. I, however, will add that the latest from that storied studio, the SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE, is everything that not just a great Aardman film should be, but also… Read More »

Tagged With: A Close Shave, Aardman Animation, animation, animators, cinema, Cryptomnesia, film, Mark Burton, movie, Nick Park, Peter Lord, plasticine, puns, puppet runner, Richard Starzak, Shaun the Sheep, sheep, silent film, stop-frame animation, stop-motion, Tom and Jerry cartoons, Vladimir Putin, Wallace and Gromit

DOPE is Genius

July 3, 2015 By 2 Comments

DOPE is Genius

DOPE is a provocative blend of gritty realism, gentle compassion, and piercing social satire that is so unlike anything that has come before that its maker, Rick Famuyima, may have just invented a new cinematic sub-genre in the spirit, and brilliance, of the Coen Brothers’ FARGO.  Boldly venturing into issues of identity, class, gender, sexuality,… Read More »

Tagged With: cinema, class issues, DOPE, film, geek culture, gender issue, hip-hop, movie, narrative, race relations, Rick Famuyima, social satire, The Bottoms

Stephen Winter Re-discovers JASON AND SHIRLEY

June 27, 2015 By 1 Comment

Stephen Winter Re-discovers JASON AND SHIRLEY

Click here to listen to the interview. When Shirley Clarke made PORTRAIT OF JASON, she was doing more than exercising her creative impulse. The Oscar™-winning director had been all but shut out of Hollywood, and returned to New York to pursue a career as an indie filmmaker rather than deal with being marginalized by the… Read More »

Tagged With: 1960s, African-American, Alan Ginsberg, Alfred Hitchcock, Anthony Perkins, Canada Lee, Carl Lee, cinema, civil rights, director, film, gay, Gus Van Sant, homophobia, Howl, interview, Jack Waters, James Baldwin, James Tobak, Jason Holliday, LGBT, Marion Crane, Miles Davis, MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO, narrative, New York City, Orson Welles, PARIS IS BURNING, PORTRAIT OF JASON, PSYCHO, racism, River Phoenix, ruthlessness, Sarah Shulman, sexism, Shirley Clark, Stephen Winter, THE TRIAL

A Pale Shadow of A POLTERGEIST

May 22, 2015 By Leave a Comment

A Pale Shadow of A POLTERGEIST

The original POLTERGEIST was said to have a curse attached to it.  Perhaps because the producers opted to use real skeletons rather than models because they were cheaper. Perhaps because taunting the supernatural might tick off the wrong non-corporal entity. Aside from the deaths associated with members of the original cast and crew, certainly the… Read More »

Tagged With: cinema, film, ghosts, haunting, horror, Jared Harris, narrative, POLTERGEIST, remake, Rosemary DeWitt, Sam Rockwell

IT FOLLOWS and It’s Relentless

March 27, 2015 By Leave a Comment

IT FOLLOWS and It’s Relentless

IT FOLLOWS slyly juxtaposes the familiar with the alien as it tells its exceptionally effective tale of terror. The clichéd tropes of low-budget horror — the remote lake house, the eager and nubile kids having sex in the back seat of a car, a terrified girl in high heels and lingerie running in terror down… Read More »

Tagged With: cinema, curse, film, haunting, horror, movie, narrative, sexually transmitted curse

DANNY COLLINS Overcomes

March 25, 2015 By Leave a Comment

DANNY COLLINS Overcomes

Narratively, DANNY COLLINS commits more than a few faux pas, but there is such warmth to the melancholy of a life discovered to have been wasted, that the winces they produce are worth enduring. Writer/director Dan Fogelman (CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE) may be too quick the play the melodrama card, but I prefer to focus on… Read More »

Tagged With: Al Pacino, Annette Benning, Bobby Cannavale, comedy-drama, Dan Fogelman, DANNY COLLINS, father-son relationship, film, Jennifer Garner, John Lennon, mid-life crisis, movie, rock star, singer

INSURGENT Keeps the DIVERGENT Franchise Puffing Along

March 20, 2015 By Leave a Comment

INSURGENT Keeps the DIVERGENT Franchise Puffing Along

The advantage of seeing outstanding actors in a middling film is that you can appreciate just how good they are on a whole new level.  And INSURGENT is certainly a middling film, though that is an improvement on the last installment in this franchise, DIVERGENT. With a new director, Robert Schwentke, bringing Veronica Roth’s YA… Read More »

Tagged With: Ashley Judd, book to screen, Chicago, cinema, DIVERGENT, dystopian future, factions, fantasy, film, INSURGENT, Kate Winslet, Miles Teller, movie, narrative, Octavia Spencer, Robert Schwentke, Sci-fi, Shailene Woodley, THeo James, Tony Goldwyn, Veronica Roth., young adult and tagged Ansel Elgort

GOING CLEAR: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE PRISON OF BELIEF

March 20, 2015 By 2 Comments

GOING CLEAR: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE PRISON OF BELIEF

Alex Gibney has proven himself an able and engaging documentarian, bringing to light with films such as TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE, ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM, and most recently THE ARMSTRONG LIE, the hubris, self-deception, and other foibles of human nature that allow people to commit crimes without ever quite admitting to… Read More »

Tagged With: Alex Gibney, book to sceen, cinema, cult, documentary, film, IRS, L. Ron Hubbard, Lawrence Wright, LGBT, movie, Paul Haggis, religion, scientology, Tom Cruise

FOCUS Needs Some Adjustment

February 26, 2015 By Leave a Comment

FOCUS Needs Some Adjustment

Glenn Ficarra and John Renqua have made some films that are close to my heart. BAD SANTA, I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS, CRAZY STUPID LOVE are movies that are funny and smart without resorting to schmaltz. Instead, they are subversive satires about human nature, and what happens when wide-eyed innocence meets conniving manipulator. The same… Read More »

Tagged With: B.D. Wong, Brennan Brown, cinema, comedy-drama, con man, confidence game, crime caper, deception, film, Gerald McRaney, Glenn Ficarra, John Renqua, Margot Robbie, movie, narrative, narrative and tagged Adrian Martinez, race car, racing, romance, Super Bowl, Toledo Button, Will Smith

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