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July 2023

July 11, 2023

Clown Car Gladio

A recent book review asks: “There are Herzog memes, but no Fassbinder memes. Why is...

July 05, 2023

Foolish Brutes and Brutish Fools

After absorbing Federico Fellini’s La Strada (1954) I didn’t say much for a few hours....

June 2023

June 23, 2023

The Conman and the Preacher

Elmer Gantry (1960) is an easy movie to reduce to one of its elements. You...

June 21, 2023

Teach It Phenomenology!

It may come as a surprise to some Halloween (1978) fans that John Carpenter’s debut...

June 16, 2023

The Found Footage Curse

Found footage movies face a fundamental problem: editing. For a film to be “found” its...

June 12, 2023

Confessional Everything

With the Confessional Poets, there’s candor, yes. But more than that there’s shame. There may...

June 09, 2023

Not Another Social Media Movie!

Influencer (2022) is the sort of movie in which a ruddy, sopping-wet Englishman sidles up...

May 2023

May 24, 2023

Plot/Reverse Plot

Low-hanging fruit but fruit nonetheless—I stand by (or slink past) my title. I’ve been down...

May 19, 2023

Mankind and the American Dream

Someone remarked to me recently that Mick Foley, the ex-professional wrestler, may be among the...

May 15, 2023

What’s Plot Go to Do with It?

Help me find the golden mean. One end, draped in the ole stars and stripes...

May 02, 2023

Form, or Stop Underlining the Damn Theme

My distaste for director Ari Aster’s movies is, if not well known (because who would...

May 01, 2023

Hate the Player, Love the Game

Dungeon and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) crystallizes just about everything about moviemaking in our...

April 2023

April 24, 2023

Vats and Vats of Bloody Alfredo Sauce

Jeff Baena’s Spin Me Round (2022) is a work of décollage. But of what? Romantic...

April 17, 2023

Now That’s What I Call a Horror Movie!

I caught some flak for trashing Barbarian (2022). I’m not surprised. I hated the pilot...

April 11, 2023

Please Stop Trying to Make “Smart” Horror Movies. Please, God. Please

You can rip his pair of striped pants off and slash away his mustache, but...

April 04, 2023

What They Did in the Shadows

In 1959, bit TV actor and anti-Lee Strasberg workshop founder John Cassavetes filmed a 16mm,...

March 2023

March 29, 2023

The Myth of True Crime

When I went to summer camp in New Jersey in the late 90s and 2000s,...

March 27, 2023

The Trip That Broke 1000 Hearts

Before there was Superbad (2007), there was The Daytrippers (1997). Director Greg Mottola’s debut feature...

March 23, 2023

Amateur Hour at the Indie Convent

Imagine if Kevin Smith made Dogma (1999) but in the flat, unaffected style of Clerks...

March 14, 2023

Love, Not Like in the Movies

The thesis of John Cassavetes’ Minnie and Moskowitz (1971) is that most people are a...

February 2023

February 28, 2023

Apostasy, Scandal, and a Road Well-Trod

In recent years, I have mostly avoided weighing in on specific religious issues or controversies....

February 27, 2023

Documenting Genius

At the risk of sounding like de Maistre or Kierkegaard, “genius” is a bad word...

February 21, 2023

Flesh, Suburbia, and Agent Orange

Bob Balaban. The name’s enough really. If I had seen it on a page before...

February 17, 2023

Thirty, Flirty, and Lagging Behind

Right now I’m precepting a course on American Television. The truth is that my favorite...

February 12, 2023

Recasting the Medieval Rom Com

Pedro Almodóvar’s Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989) is not a film for today....

February 11, 2023

How to Talk to Aliens at Punk Afterparties

Adapted from a Neil Gaiman short story, the John Cameron Mitchell-directed How to Talk to...

February 01, 2023

Hulk Hogan v. the Newsies

I confess before God and you, my brothers and sisters, that I have gravely sinned....

January 2023

January 31, 2023

500 Days of Paralyzing Anxiety

It’s not giving much away to say that 500 Days of Summer (2009) is about...

January 30, 2023

Danny DeVito’s Ladykillers: A Hipster Farce

Duplex (2003) is the kind of black comedy you don’t see much these days. Streaming...

January 29, 2023

Norm!

When we found out Norm Macdonald died, my wife and I set our hearts on...

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