Iron Man 3 Exists
Some days, like today, it seems totally pointless to try to say anything substantive about a film like Iron Man 3. The world is a vastly complex place. Over an almost […]
Category Archives: Active Observation
Leviathan Washes Over You (Like Fish Guts)
Based on its hallucinogenic, immersive trailer, I was pretty excited to see Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel’s new doc Leviathan (not to be confused with the 1989 horror film of the same name). Well, […]
The East: What Films Feel Like
Do you know how sometimes you go to see a film and you just completely lose yourself within it? How, for two hours or so, your world narrows to what’s […]
The Kings of Summer Get Their Lazy Groove On
Yesterday’s San Francisco International Film Festival screenings included Jordan Vogt-Roberts and Chris Galletta’s The Kings of Summer — a lazy, sun-baked concoction that I found as enjoyable as whooping through the woods. […]
What Steven Soderbergh Doesn’t See
On Saturday I attended Steven Soderbergh’s “State of Cinema” address, part of the San Francisco International Film Festival. I’m a huge Soderbergh fan, consistently impressed by the way he challenges […]
On The Road Ain’t Got No Gas
It’s a bad sign chilling here in lovely Barcelona in the lobby of the Hotel Colon (which I’m told has a different meaning in Spanish, thank heavens), thinking about the […]
A Few Thoughts on A Place Beyond the Pines
A Place Beyond the Pines is not the movie you think it is. It doesn’t star the actors you think it stars, tell the story you expect it to tell, […]
Spring Breaking Bad: The Shady Consequences of Spring Breakers
I realize that I am a little late to the party. That everyone’s already left for spring break, seen Spring Breakers, gotten mostly naked, highly intoxicated, incarcerated, penetrated, and otherwise violated. […]
The Internship & Grown Ups 2: Go Fuck Yourself
Honestly, we only have ourselves to blame. People talk about the decline of Western civilization and here is the proof. Nothing, absolutely nothing, could be worse than these two films. […]
The Best Opening Credits Sequence of All Time
No charming intros today. Let’s keep it simple. The best opening credits sequence of all time? The Shining. That’s it. You can have your Saul Bass and your James Bond […]
Touch of Evil: It Was Some Kind of A Movie
Touch of Evil is Orson Welles’s best movie. Which is a scandalous thing to say in the movie world. Maybe not scandalous. How about sacriligeous? Citizen Kane is, after all, […]
Nic Cage’s Stolen: The Laziest Film of All Time
Have you seen Nic Cage’s face recently? I mean, really looked at it. The man looks like he’s been making out with a belt sander. Like he would need an extremely […]
Akira: Critical Nuclear Head Meltdown
You are the monster. You are the god. You are the destroyer, the creator, the ripping skein of life torn free and thrashing wild. You are the wind that cleanses and burns and you are only a boy.
On Koyaanisqatsi, Beauty, And Ambiguity
Images from Godfrey Reggio’s 1983 film Koyaanisqatsi are etched into my brain. Nighttime cityscapes at high speed, their streets like veins carrying electrons. Rivers of fog roiling over mountains. A […]