By Tony Williams. Since companies have decided to issue features accompanying DVD reissues of films available on VHS and Laserdisc in the past, the value of these additions vary with each product. For some distributors, they are extras of little value except to add padding to sell product that many […]
Writing Our Future: The Inauguration, Alternate Inauguration Ball, and Protests
January 14, 2017
January 19th to the 21st will bring Trump’s inauguration, a Peace Ball (with Angela Davis and Solange), and street protests, including the Inauguration Day Freedom Protest on Freedom Plaza, DC, the Bridge Together in Golden Gate Park, and the 200,000 Women’s March. How can we quickly document and analyze these […]
Cat People: Horror, Necessity, and Creative Collaboration
January 13, 2017
By Jeremy Carr. Who gets the credit for Cat People (1942)? Is it first-time producer Val Lewton, who though generally overlooked in his day has since received considerable reappraisal for his innovative, low-budget ingenuity? Or is it director Jacques Tourneur, the French emigre who would bring a shadowy visual flair […]
It’s Complicated: Joss Whedon and Race by Mary Ellen Iatropoulos and Lowery A. Woodall III
January 11, 2017
A Book Review by Jessica Baxter. Let’s face it. White liberals are having a “woke” moment that is shamefully long overdue. Growing up in the 1980s and early 90s as a white middle class kid from a moderately open-minded family (albeit residing in the conservative American south east), I was […]
Equality with a Discursive, Televisual Face: TV Socialism by Aniko Imre
A Book Review by Tony Williams. In Robert Aldrich’s Kiss Me Deadly (1955) the enigmatic voice of Dr. Soberin delivers one of his voice-of-God traditional thespian pronouncements over the prone, semi-crucified body of savior/destroyer Mike Hammer, whose actor (Ralph Meeker) belongs to a very different performance acting style. “How civilized […]
Jackie: Alone in Oblivion
By Christopher Sharrett. The title to Pablo Larrain’s film Jackie might be more sensibly called The Last Days of Kennedy; the title is misleading if one is prepared to see a Jacqueline Kennedy biography. I say this especially because the film’s unremitting gloom seems to flow from its chronicle of […]
Exploring Cracks in the Tarmac: John Huston’s The Asphalt Jungle on Criterion
By Tony Williams. For the new set of John Huston’s bleak 1950 film noir The Asphalt Jungle (1950), Criterion includes a cover that reproduces a still from the film, rather than the company’s recent fascination with bad artwork design. This suitable choice of coverart reflects how this two-disc DVD edition […]
Authenticity in Many Forms: 20th Century Women
January 4, 2017
By Jude Warne. Perhaps there are no two greater examples of cinematic contrast during this year’s Oscar season than Damien Chazelle’s La La Land and Mike Mills’ 20th Century Women. Both films will most likely land some number of Oscar nominations when they’re announced in Hollywood later this month. Both films are […]
The Allure of a Stone Heart: Verhoeven’s Elle
By Elias Savada. There is a brazen, dangerous atmosphere floating about the French-language feature Elle, a dramatic thriller with much to admire but, depending on your sensibilities, not as much to like. Maybe I’m too much of a puritan in this case and need to re-watch it. It’s an edgy […]
Under the Shadow of Missile Fire: An Interview with Babak Anvari
By Ali Moosavi. A few years ago an impressive short film debuted called Two and Two (2011). Fast forward to 2016 and that young filmmaker, Babak Anvari, has made his first feature, Under the Shadow. This psychological supernatural thriller, not only a hit with the critics, also impressed the British […]