There’s a scene early on in Paul Thomas Anderson’s new movie The Master where Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix), having inadvertently poisoned an old man with his dubious, self-distilled, paint-thinner-based moonshine, […]
When Risky Business ended at the Castro Theater tonight, those I watched it with started talking about how Joel—Tom Cruise’s character—was a lousy person. Everyone in the film, they said, […]
Woody Allen has been traipsing all over San Francisco lately, filming his 137th feature film, which at best will not completely suck, and at worst will completely suck. I’m sure […]
Imagine making a movie set in high school today where one of your main characters is a 15 year old freshman girl who, in the first ten minutes, loses her […]
Americans love criminals. Something to do with the old west, or anyway the idea of the old west, of gunslingers roaming free across endless stretches of unexplored country, killing to […]
Compliance, opening today, is one of the most disturbing movies I’ve ever sat through. I’ve never felt more uncomfortably ill watching anything, and I’ve seen everything directed by Kevin Costner. […]
I saw a beautiful 35mm print of Citizen Kane at the Castro Theatre the other day, hadn’t seen it for many years, and while I realize saying this makes me […]
Oh, it’s on, people! Sight & Sound’s decennial list of the greatest 10 movies ever, as voted on by hordes of fancy-pants critics, has arrived, and Citizen Kane just got […]
Lying in bed this morning, pretending it wasn’t yet time to get up, I was thinking about the way hype and enthusiasm for films (and film franchises) has crossed a […]
There was a time when movie reviews meant something. That time is not now. Movie reviews today exist purely to voice an opinion such that it may be combined with […]
Last week, the Supreme Being was kind enough to share some thoughts on the films which remapped his neurons. Since we heard his confession, I’ve been trying to ensnare the […]
I’ve been thinking about backstory, thanks to the Evil One’s Spiderman post, in which he points out what should be to all sentient beings blindingly obvious, that no one on […]
You may have noticed that The Amazing Spiderman is now in theaters. Or maybe you didn’t. Maybe you thought, “Huh. People are talking about Spiderman again. But I just saw […]
This is a post about spoilers. Or rather, it’s a post about what people call spoilers. And it will contain spoilers, if you think that’s the right word to use, […]