The Pull of Gravity
You can feel it. Gravity. Such a simple thing. No giant robots. No superheroes. No zombies or serial killers or high-concept plot twists that involve head-scratchingly inane alternate-universe worlds. Just […]
Mind Control Double Feature #42: Pop Sensation
I’ve got this Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians song going through my head. I don’t remember the last time I heard it so its resonance in my skull is mysterious. […]
Are Nerds Destroying The Movie Industry?
I grew up in the ‘80s. Back then, nerds were not cool. They were nerds. If you read comic books, you were not cool. If you could explain at length, […]
Ray Harryhausen Lives Forever
Today is the day stop-motion hit full stop and animation became forever less animate. Ray Harryhausen, special effects artist and inspiration to damn near everyone, has died. We at Stand […]
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 […]
What Not to Watch: Conan the Barbarian (2011)
From time to time, cub reporter Mikey Frontalot will give you the lowdown on a Netflix instant streaming movie that you should not watch. Conan The Barbarian (2011) It’s always […]
Mind Control Double Feature #41: The Hand of Fate Will Squish Your Tiny Head
Ah, fate! Inevitable, implacable, industrious, insidious, and many other words that begin with i, it comes for us when we least expect it, grabs us by the throat, and demands […]
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 […]
You Can’t Handle 40 Double Features
I know, I know. You think you’re hardcore. You think you can eat 50 eggs. You think you can bust through invisible barriers with just a hurled bone. You probably think […]
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, […]