Dir. Errol Morris Colloquially, it’s the documentary that released an innocent man from prison; it’s one of those cases about art both affecting and effecting life, sort of the reverse of Mark David Chapman and John Hinckley, Jr. being inspired by Nashville or Taxi Driver. That Randall Dale Adams could be freed from his life sentence (after having… Read More The Thin Blue Line (1988)
Dir. Steven Spielberg. Starring Richard Dreyfuss, Francois Truffaut, Melinda Dillon Close Encounters, if I’m honest, is a hard movie to love. A lot of the film is about Richard Dreyfuss rapidly going insane after having been the only witness in his family to three UFOs. It’s one thing to listen to him pontificate about the… Read More Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Dir. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. Starring Sebastian Koch, Ulrich Muhe, Martina Gedeck Von Donnersmarck and his DP for this film, Hagen Bogdanski, make an interesting choice early in the film. During a conversation between the playwright Dreyman (Koch) and his lover, the actress Christa-Maria Sieland (Gedeck), the camera takes Sieland’s flirty smile and stays with… Read More The Lives of Others (2006)
Dir. Gavin O’Connor. Starring Kurt Brooks, Patrick O’Brien Demsey, Eddie Cahill Miracle and Argo make an interesting pair. The events of the two films happen almost concurrently; their climaxes (the Canadian Caper leaves the airport in Tehran and the Miracle on Ice) occurred within about three weeks of one another. One movie is a Disney movie, one of… Read More Miracle (2004)
I stayed up to listen to the Rights to Ricky Sanchez podcast last night, which is going to get sampled pretty heavily when ESPN does 30 for 30: Trust the Process, and amid the many yawps and screams which mirror(ed) the yawps and screams of my heart, I was struck by a comment that Michael Levin made… Read More The Hinkie Blues
Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson. Starring Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds The right song over a montage in a film can be magic. Think “Layla” in Goodfellas. “Eye of the Tiger” in Rocky III. “Joy” in Boogie Nights, which plays as we walk into Eddie Adams’ bedroom, which is a swirling monument to all things hip, groovy, and masculine in… Read More Boogie Nights (1997)
Honorable mentions: “Bui-Doi,” “The Fall of Saigon” On a scale from Madame Butterfly to M. Butterfly, Miss Saigon is probably a D. It almost certainly fails the Bechdel test. In a less enlightened time, Jonathan Pryce played a Vietnamese national. It is one of the most problematic musicals of the past twenty-five years. People love… Read More Songs from Musicals: #1, “I Still Believe,” from Miss Saigon
Honorable mentions: “The Deal/No Deal,” “You and I (Reprise)” Like Grenada, Chess is a victim of American late Cold War insecurity. In the British version, the Soviet grandmaster beats the American grandmaster to take the latter’s championship before defecting, and with a little help from the American, topples the Soviet challenger for his crown. In… Read More Songs from Musicals: #2, “Pity the Child,” from Chess
Honorable mentions: “On My Own,” “ABC Cafe: Red and Black” A few years ago, I went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which I love as much as any place in Philadelphia. I had started to develop a passing interest in medieval art, which had never really appealed to me before, and I was looking… Read More Songs from Musicals: #3, “Stars,” from Les Miserables
Honorable mentions: “Dancing Through Life,” “The Wizard and I” I dunno if any of you guys want to listen to this song in German, but I highly recommend it. All about that “Solang Ich Dich Hab.” As far as I know, there is no other love song that begins with the same note that “As… Read More Songs from Musicals: #4, “As Long As You’re Mine,” from Wicked
Seeing Things Secondhand 