“Since its coining in 1946 by French critic Nino Frank, who observed from afar something dark, quite literally, going on at the American cinema, the term “film noir” has been debated and debated and debated some more. Is it a genre? A subgenre? A movement? A trend? A commentary? A style? For the purposes of … Continue reading →
Beefy film noir, violent, lurid crime flicks, Carroll Ballard, and early Stephen Frears make up the bulk of this month’s Criterion offerings. (Via Paste Magazine.)
“If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.” When W.E. Hickson popularized this crusty old Thomas Palmer aphorism back in the 1800’s, he couldn’t have known that one day, one of America’s most high profile movie studios would take the phrase to heart with not one, not two, but three attempts at building a franchise … Continue reading →
“Should we consider Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet kids’ fare? The default categorization for any animated movie with a child protagonist is “children’s film,” but if it’s easy to picture a theater full of tykes getting swept up in this movie’s gorgeous imagery, it’s equally as difficult to imagine them nodding along with its philosophical apothegms. … Continue reading →
“So here we are, up to our elbows in the ignorance of polemic B.S., puzzling over when exactly America came to the saturation of Trumps and Huckabees braying cultural calumnies in the press. If you need a convenient scapegoat for all the jackasses jockeying for position in today’s presidential rodeo, maybe you should just blame … Continue reading →
“Brazilian renaissance man Paulo Coelho has lived a life best described as quixotic. He’s well-known for penning The Alchemist, a slim tome that’s become the most widely translated novel by a living author. Left in the margins of his literary success are a variety of experiences, like his teenage rebellion against social norms, which sparked … Continue reading →
“Toward the end of I Am Chris Farley, Brent Hodge’s biography of the late, great comic force of nature, Bob Odenkirk measures the tragic circumference of Farley’s death in one quote: “It’s just rare that a person has that much joy, and brings that much happiness to everyone around them. But with Chris…there’s a limit … Continue reading →
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