Josh Radnor’s Affectionate Footnote
Walking across a college campus is an evocative image, conjuring halcyon days of unfettered didactic discourse and effortlessly lateral social expansion. I felt that way before I had been to […]
Tag Archives: criticism
Phenomenological Eschatology: The Personal Apocalypse in Recent Cinema
There has been an interesting trend over the past several years in regard to the cinematic sub-genre known as “disaster films,” or films which depict a large-scale crisis of some […]
“Keep your eyes open and your thoughts pure.”
As far as mainstream sex symbols go, few are willing to plumb the depths of depravity as fully and as frequently as Asia Argento. This is significant not only in […]
Animals and Other Roommates
Early on in Michael Mohan’s keenly observed film — in fact, in the first shot — we see our protagonist Sarah hunched over a table in the bookstore she manages, […]
“You either steal with a gun or a pen.”
Authorship in documentary filmmaking can be a tricky subject. It’s partly to do with the propriety of intellectual material; primarily, though, the ideal audience is willing and able to ascribe […]
A Decade and a Half of Crazy Summers
Whenever a film depicts the lives of fictitious individuals against a noteworthy historical backdrop, the question must be raised: do the filmmakers use their characters to humanize an otherwise emotionally […]
Regarding the Other
Andrea Arnold’s Heathcliff is sort of a bastard. Not in the sense that nothing is known of his lineage — he’s just a downright selfish and obstinate bastard. Of course, […]
“What can I say? I like a winner.”
Todd Solondz has at this point firmly established himself as the preeminent chronicler of the rotten underbelly of suburbia. His characters are often vile, deplorable, riddled with insecurities; they tend […]
“He took the drink himself, I didn’t poison him.”
Lancaster Dodd and Freddie Quell, the protagonists of Paul Thomas Anderson’s exemplary film The Master, are not quite so different. Freddie (Joaquin Phoenix), while in the Navy, has developed an […]
“You have to insist you’re right even if you know you’re wrong.”
This review was originally published 4 October 2007. Several references to relative dates have been updated to reflect this current posting. The 2000 Presidential election has special significance to me. […]
Considering Film 