Screening in NYC: MILK (2008).

  Gus Van Sant’s Milk is screening at MoMA as part of their 10th Anniversary Salute to Focus Features.  Milk could arguably be called Van Sant’s Malcolm X, a historical drama of historical importance and a keystone work in the filmography of a fiercely original and occasionally frustrating filmmaker.  This is what I wrote about Milk [...]

From The Archives: PUBLIC ENEMIES (2009).

Today is Michael Mann’s birthday.  I celebrate by re-watching (and re-posting) my initial thoughts about his most recent, and apparently most controversial, feature film.  The following is what I wrote about Public Enemies on July 3rd, 2009.  Public Enemies, I still maintain, has plenty to recommend it, but its unconventionality makes it a point of debate.  [...]

From The Archives: THE NEW WORLD (2005).

I did not rush out to see this movie on the largest possible screens when it was released nearly six years ago, and more the fool I for that.  It’s kind of incredible. In their list of the top fifty films of the past decade, the Onion’s A.V. Club, one of my favorite daily web destinations, rated [...]

From The Archives: VALHALLA RISING (2010).

  In the beginning there was only man and nature. Men came bearing crosses and drove the heathen to the fringes of the earth. Okay, I have to admit, you got my attention. Those words are the opening of Valhalla Rising, the title card which pretty directly explains what you’re about to watch.  The movie, [...]

Overlooked By Oscar: NIGHT CATCHES US (2010).

Let’s take a moment to credit some of the lesser-heralded arts of movie-making, such as production design, set dressing, and costumes.  Night Catches Us is set in Philadelphia in 1976, and looks it.  The movie feels contemporary and believable, but also convincingly forty years ago.  Let’s also compliment its cinematography – Night Catches Us has [...]

What I Watched 3.2.11: Days Of Heaven.

Writing about a Terence Malick movie is like trying to describe a sunset. It’s kinda futile. Many better writers have done it before, and their efforts were probably ultimately futile too. You just have to see it for yourself to get the full effect. Days Of Heaven stars Richard Gere (so much better here than in his later [...]

Movie Review: GET LOW (2010).

GET LOW: Forget the Flo Rida song. Check out one of my favorite movies of the year. _____________________________   If I see any more movies this year that I like as much as I liked Get Low, it will have been a pretty damn special year for movies. I don’t see a lot of movies like Get Low. There’s a soul [...]