Screen
A lesson in unintended consequences
“What about the ROUS?”
“Rodents of unusual size? I don’t think they exist.” — Princess Buttercup and Westley in The Princess Bride
Bad news Westley, they...
God’s lonely men
For most, Taxi Driver is summed up by one of the most famous lines in cinema: “You talking to me?” Conveying masculinity and bravado, it readies angry men for battle. But it is misleading. It is an act, a façade. The truth is found in the line that follows: “Well, I’...
Home viewing: Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock may not have invented the moving image, but he defined what it was capable of.
The son of a London grocer, Hitchcock’s career...
Thou art a symbol and a sign
Wanting for my happily-ever-after, I lowered my defenses, forgetting the first lesson I was taught: That I was brought into this world to be...
Lust at 6,000 feet
Movies aren’t reality. They’re visual expressions of an emotional experience. The best filmmakers have known this all along, but it’s worth bringing up, as...
‘We don’t get a lot of things to really care about’
Deep in the Oregonian woods, a man lives with his pig. He is a recluse with a past; she is a Kunekune with a...
She don’t lie, she don’t lie, she don’t lie
It sure is fun to be young. Not yet old enough to experience that odd combination of nostalgia and melancholy that plagues most adults,...
Not a question of where, but why
Watching movies in 2019 is no longer a question of where, but why.
It could be everywhere: Multiplexes, art house theater, film societies, living rooms,...
Falling through plot holes
Limitless is about a drug that rewires your brain so that instead of having access to the usual 20 percent, you can utilize it all. Every memory is eidetic; everything you’ve ever seen, heard, learned, touched, tasted can instantly be integrated into your experiences...
Just Mercy
Monroeville, Alabama,
1987: A man is condemned to death for a crime he did not commit. Do you need to
know the color of his skin,...
Gilda Radner: Her voice and her writing
There seems to be an endless fascination with the famed Saturday Night Live. While the merits of the weekly television show are continually debated...
War, hot and cold, in ‘Underground’
Not every movie survives the baptism of time. Even award winners and those end-of-the-year Top Ten movies become buried under years of obsolescence. Which...