By Gary D. Rhodes. Once upon a time, Coke actually had cocaine in its formula. New ingredient: lumps of coal.” Coca-Cola’s controversial new series of Christmas commercials are literally inhuman, the results of A.I. Human intelligence created artificial flavoring; artificial intelligence created these ads’ “humans” and iconic “polar bears,” as […]
There is Indeed a Fire: The State of Film Industry Work Conditions Since #MeToo
By Yun-hua Chen and Anne Küper. I like movies too much to just sit idly by, knowing that there are people in this industry who struggle with protecting both their work and themselves. My goal is to empower them to do just that, so they can focus on their art […]
Round Like a Circle in a Spiral: The Poster Art of Film Noir (Preview)
By Marlisa Santos. As the movie-viewing public was becoming more comfortable with these kinds of filmic depictions, poster art, never to shy away from marketing hooks, aimed to tantalize prospective audiences with images that promised entrance into a suspenseful world of increasingly commonplace criminality and subversion of systemic stability…. University […]
Three Sides of the Same Coin: Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (Criterion Collection)
By Theresa Rodewald. An unflinching depiction of the dying West and the violence inherent to the frontier….” Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) is a film shaped and defined by its past. Shot more than 50 years ago, its production was infamously fraught. Director Sam Peckinpah and […]
Ten Rules for Doing Documentary Interviews the Right Way
By Roger Nygard. Every documentarian starts out doing interviews wrong. I learned the hard way, by making all these mistakes.” Interviews are the main ingredient in the documentary recipe, so how you conduct them is crucial. Everybody starts out doing interviews wrong. I learned the hard way, by making all […]
Ultimate Equity: Hoag Kepner’s Torched
By Phoebe Hart. Like Ultimate Frisbee in its grassroots approach. Funded by a Kickstarter campaign, the makers have done well to put together a cohesive piece that will thrill both fans of Ultimate and folks interested in equity.” Torched is a new film directed by Hoag Kepner about Austin’s professional […]
Self-Taught Genius – Tim Mackenzie-Smith’s Getting it Back: The Story of Cymande
By Phoebe Hart. This documentary on the neglected 70s funk band consisting of West Indian Londoners is beautifully shot and edited, with an infectious energy….” Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande charts the comeback of influential funksters, Cymande. The band were a seminal influence on generations of musical artists […]
When Radiohead Met Nosferatu: Josh Frank on Silents Synched Event Cinema
August 1, 2024
In running a tiny drive-in, I found over time that people were not coming for new releases or even often caring that it was an old movie, they wanted a special movie experience. This got me thinking about how to customize the experience of going to the cinema, horror and […]
Notes on Anatole Litvak’s City for Conquest (1940) and the Tough Vulnerability of James Cagney
By Theresa Rodewald. City for Conquest revitalizes the sports drama formula: losing does not break Danny.” Danny is a truck driver, a boxer, a brother to Eddie (Arthur Kennedy) and a boyfriend to Peggy (Ann Sheridan). He drives a truck to earn money, to pay the rent and put food […]
Drive Away Dolls: On a Goofy Coen Road Comedy
By Elias Savada. Gags and pratfalls ensue, many funny and more than a few blush-worthy as the film speeds through its brief 84-minute running time.” Sure, we’ve been conditioned over the last 40 years that you can’t have one Coen (brother) without the other. Two peas in a pod. Ethan […]