Michael Clayton, Tony Gilroy’s Oscar-nominated directorial debut, was one of my favorite movies of 2007, and it remains as compulsively watchable as the first time I saw it. I love the way Gilroy built and revealed his characters, the structure and delivery of the dialogue, and most certainly the performances. I like Duplicity for a … Continue reading
You’ll forgive the title, but I felt it was the most effective way to invite those for whom those things matter into the discussion. Last week, there was a link on IMDb that said “Appreciating Films As Visual Art, Part 1.” I was skeptical, as this isn’t exactly groundbreaking territory, but what was contained within … Continue reading
Late? Whatever. I don’t live in New York or LA, I don’t have press passes, so I have to wait for movies like Che to roll through my town before I can call for a verdict on the year previous. First thing’s first – maybe it’s because I’m coming off the wondrous glow from 2007 … Continue reading
I’m not really sure how I ever made it through Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece, Barry Lyndon, but boy was I glad I did. By the end, I found it without a doubt Kubrick’s most involving film, one of the few he did that I actually truly cared about the characters. But it wasn’t because I was … Continue reading
Today – I woke up, saw my girlfriend off, threw some bacon and french toast on the stove, listened to some Christmas music, and prepared to sit down and finally watch Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park and probably something else. I didn’t have to leave the house ’til 3:30 or 4, and Park is only … Continue reading
No, I don’t work for Criterion and I benefit from this in no way. It’s just awesome and something I thought should be shared. If you hit up the Criterion Collection online store, they’re having a 40% off sale ’til November 25th. Some tremendous deals in there if you’ve been holding back on some purchases … Continue reading
Quick setup so this doesn’t seem totally insane – I wrote this for a class given this basic instruction, taken from Christian Keathley’s 2006 book Cinephilia and History, or The Wind in the Trees: “Select a detail from a movie…it should not be obviously symbolic, and the purpose to which you put it should not … Continue reading
Some days, there’s a movie… The day of the screening for Slumdog Millionaire, I was wiped. I’d been up late the night before doing homework, had around five, six hours of sleep when all’s said and done, taken a test, and just generally felt like going home and making myself some comfort food. I kind … Continue reading
It’s almost impossible to talk about this movie without spoiling, so if you don’t want to know how it ends (and I know there are a fair number of people who have actually seen it and wish they didn’t know how it ends), steer clear after the big spoiler marking. Eagle Eye starts off strange, … Continue reading
“Show, don’t tell” is one of those things that gets pounded into your head in all avenues of creative writing, but especially in film school. The idea behind the mantra is that it’s better to convey information (exposition, facts, character, anything) visually than to state it outright. First, it lets the audience piece it together … Continue reading