The Oscars Project: Week 10 — In the Heat of the Night
For 82 years, the Academy Awards have purported to choose the year’s best film. For the next year, I’ll be watching one best picture winner per week, starting 52 years ago and working up to The Hurt Locker. Some of the films are rightly regarded as classics. Others, decidedly less so. But each of them … Continue reading
Banksy’s cinematic sleight-of-hand
All reviews of Exit Through the Gift Shop should come with a disclaimer: There’s a good chance this whole thing is a hoax. The premise of the ostensible documentary is just too perfect — compulsive videographer Theirry Guetta tries to track down notorious British artist and provocateur Banksy, but once he succeeds, Banksy turns the … Continue reading
The Oscars Project: Week 9 — A Man For All Seasons
For 82 years, the Academy Awards have purported to choose the year’s best film. For the next year, I’ll be watching one best picture winner per week, starting 52 years ago and working up to The Hurt Locker. Some of the films are rightly regarded as classics. Others, decidedly less so. But each of them … Continue reading
La Danse: Inside the Dancer’s Studio
Dance fans rejoice — you’re not likely to find a better onscreen exploration of the art form any time soon. La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet is two-and-a-half hours of rehearsals, performance and a minimum of backstage business, presented without a word of narration or context. Instead, director Frederick Wiseman throws his audience straight into … Continue reading
The Oscars Project: Week 8 — The Sound of Music
For 82 years, the Academy Awards have purported to choose the year’s best film. For the next year, I’ll be watching one best picture winner per week, starting 52 years ago and working up to The Hurt Locker. Some of the films are rightly regarded as classics. Others, decidedly less so. But each of them … Continue reading
The Oscars Project: Week 7 – My Fair Lady
For 82 years, the Academy Awards have purported to choose the year’s best film. For the next year, I’ll be watching one best picture winner per week, starting 52 years ago and working up to The Hurt Locker. Some of the films are rightly regarded as classics. Others, decidedly less so. But each of them … Continue reading
Tattoo director chooses design carefully
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo seems like unlikely fodder for runaway success. The top-grossing film in Swedish history, like the bestselling novel by Stieg Larsson on which it’s based, is an exceptionally dark piece of crime fiction that deals bluntly and provocatively with violent rape, sexually charged murder and the depraved excesses of the … Continue reading
The Oscars Project: Week 6 – Tom Jones
For 82 years, the Academy Awards have purported to choose the year’s best film. For the next year, I’ll be watching one best picture winner per week, starting 52 years ago and working up to The Hurt Locker. Some of the films are rightly regarded as classics. Others, decidedly less so. But each of them … Continue reading
The Oscars Project: Week 5 – Lawrence of Arabia
For 82 years, the Academy Awards have purported to choose the year’s best film. For the next year, I’ll be watching one best picture winner per week, starting 52 years ago and working up to The Hurt Locker. Some of the films are rightly regarded as classics. Others, decidedly less so. But each of them … Continue reading
Trunk Show captures Neil Young in all his ragged glory
Of all the rock legends still making the rounds, few have Neil Young’s vitality. Unlike, say, The Rolling Stones, there’s never a sense that Young’s latest album is just an excuse for another tour. His current output may not live up to the albums he produced in his prime, but there’s little doubt that Young … Continue reading
The Consumption 