Understand that I’m using the term “art-house” to refer to indie films that are considered exemplars or game-changers of the art. In my last post I mentioned the French New Wave specifically, because that’s the gold standard of arty-farty, but I’m good with exploring literally anything. The odder the better. So here’s what I’ve got… Read More Art-House Film Bucket List
They’ve basically turned Ghostbusters into PG-13 Goosebumps. I wrote a while ago about how we should just let the Ghostbusters “franchise” fade away, and not let it be a “fandom” to which we have obligations and loyalty. Ghostbusters was a good movie. A classic, even. Ghostbusters 2 was… enh. The cartoon was a cartoon. The reboot bombed. We… Read More There’s a New $&^@ Ghostbusters Film Coming Out, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the French New Wave
Here’s what’s playing at My local Regal tonight: Charlie’s Angels 2019. Because if you keep scraping, the barrell has no bottom, right? Ford vs. Ferrari. Days of Thunder made palatable to critics by historical place-setting. The Good Liar. Old people intrigue, prompting a new generation to ask “Hey did you know Helen Mirren had her boobs out in… Read More Let’s Not Go To the Movies: A Continuing Series of Curmudeoning at the Debased Art of Cinema
The problem with Corporate Art, as Andy Warhol foresaw, is that quantity eventually smashes quality. They keep repeating the same gestures, catch-phrases, plotlines, until whatever narrative existed logically has been spread out into meaninglessness. If you keep making enough seasons of a show, you will make it boring and tired. If you keep making enough… Read More Stick a Time-Traveling Fork In the Terminator Franchise
All aesthetic positions are going to offend someone, because concepts of the beautiful are perpetually wrapped up in concepts of the true, and that makes sense in poets’ vomitings but not as an ontological baseline. Whether the beautiful and the true are connected in some way doesn’t really help us to define the beautiful. The… Read More Originality is not Art.
Woody Allen’s ‘A Rainy Day in New York’ to Open Deauville Film Festival https://variety.com/2019/film/global/woody-allens-a-rainy-day-in-new-york-deauville-film-festival-1203309106/ — Read on variety.com/2019/film/global/woody-allens-a-rainy-day-in-new-york-deauville-film-festival-1203309106/ I’ve tried to like Woody Allen movies, but I can’t, because they usually involve having to like Woody Allen. And I have never managed to pull that off. Woody Allen is what happens when someone takes Mel… Read More Woody Allen is Still Making Movies
Over at Ace of Spades. I did not realize that The Sixth Sense would have been the #1 film that year were it not for Star Wars. I haven’t seen it in forever, but I have a feeling I wouldn’t dislike it on rewatch (my favorite film from that year, however, remains Fight Club). And, here’s… Read More A Smart Analysis of The Sixth Sense
I must admit, the title intrigues me. I don’t want to speculate too much, but the title suggests an ending on a high note. A Rise is something coming into being, gaining in power and prominence. This is distinct from a Return, something gone coming back, or a Revenge, the destruction of a foe. A… Read More The Rise Of Skywalker
People always make the mistake of thinking art is created for them. But really, art is a private language for sophisticates to congratulate themselves on their superiority to the rest of the world. As my artist’s statement explains, my work is utterly incomprehensible and is therefore full of deep significance. -Bill Watterson Modern art is… Read More Quick Review: Velvet Buzzsaw
Owen Glieberman, pondering in Variety, avoiding the point like it carries Bubonic Plague. And that’s why, more than not, I’m with Steven Spielberg on his likely proposed change to the Academy guidelines. He is not dissing what Netflix does. He is trying to isolate and hang onto the DNA of cinema — to preserve an essential definition… Read More Movies Have To Be Seen in a Movie Theater, Because Something Something Nostalgia Something Something
Content Blues 