After Mark Steyn administers the appropriate thwacking to Branagh’s recent flop PC adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express – in which perhaps the worst crime is giving Poirot a preposterous walrus mustache – he moves on to speak glowingly of Sydney Lumet’s 1974 version: Oh, to be sure, Lumet’s Orient Express is of its time, and the color… Read More Murder on the Orient Express and 1970’s Cinema
I have been sick and busy and sick these last few days, and am currently unable to even describe my current state as “like hot garbage” – barely warmed-over recyclables is more like it. So I’m going to link this one in. I admit that I have yet to actually watch Darkest Hour, despite having had… Read More Mark Steyn on Winston Churchill
The Sunrise Motel makes note of the same Film School Rejects article that I did, and pulls a good description of the puritanical urge to sieve any piece of art for wrongthink, “hermeneutics of suspicion”. I might go a step farther than this, and say that a great deal of criticism is done not for… Read More Hermeneutics of Suspicion and the Problem with Film Critics
His new film about animated dogs on a giant trash island near Japan is cultural appropriation, you see. twitter.com/i/moments/976653304972288000 This jibes entirely with my earlier prediction: “Dogs” will get nominated for this, and then lose to something Italian that gets a limited release in New York for a week. Because fuck Wes Anderson, that’s why.
From Variety: Harrison Ford is there for Mark Hamill to get his Walk of Fame Star, Doesn’t point out that he’s had one for decades. Says nice things about Carrie Fisher instead. The Fatter, Angrier Kevin Smith to Demonstrate Why Star Wars won’t work on TV. You could have a fun debate arguing about whether Clerks… Read More A Bunch of Star Wars-Related Internet Noise
I don’t care about the Oscars. I didn’t watch them, and haven’t for some years. I don’t require some Star Chamber of Weinstein-enablers to direct my tastes in cinema. I noticed the article because it let the mask slip: there’s a formula to all this nonsense, and there’s been a formula for some time: there’s… Read More Variety Starts Telling Us What Movies We Should Care About Next Year: A Fisking
Yes, I know. The first Batman movie came out in 1966, and was filled with moments of epic hilarity such as “Some Days You Just Can’t Get Rid of a Bomb!” I watched it a little while ago with my oldest. It’s grand, campy fun. We all know what I’m talking about, nerds. Red Letter Media,… Read More You Ever Dance With the Devil in the Pale Moonlight? In Praise of the First Batman Movie
It’s not 1999 anymore. I don’t actually care whether you liked TLJ or not, and I have no intention of telling you your opinion is wrong. If you hated it so much that the flames on the side of your face are heaving breaths, that’s fine. We don’t all have to like the same stuff.… Read More A Series of Thoughts on The Last Jedi
One of the difficulties of approaching art of any kind is learning to drop your prejudices when encountering it. This is true regardless of what class of art you’re talking about. It’s very easy to dismiss something you haven’t read as without value, because if it had value, you’d have already appreciated it, right?… Read More Of Conan and Carver
Yes, it’s the usual feast of gifs and OMGLOL, but they have stumbled upon a point. The Emperor’s New Groove is so unlike any other Disney animated film, that I often have to remind myself that it’s Disney. In the first place, it’s not a musical. Not really. There’s a quick song at the beginning,… Read More Examining The Emperor’s New Groove: Because Sometimes Buzzfeed is Right…
Content Blues 