Dir. James Bridges. Starring Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas Spoilers for The China Syndrome abound below. Usually I wouldn’t include a spoiler alert for a movie that’s more than thirty years old, but the film is fairly taut, and knowing too much about it would detract from the viewing experience. It’s Los Angeles in… Read More The China Syndrome (1979)
Dir. Robert Redford. Starring Ralph Fiennes, Rob Morrow, John Turturro About an hour or so into Quiz Show, I found myself…not bored, exactly, but struggling from an almost oppressive dose of formula. About an hour and five minutes into Quiz Show, I wondered if that was necessarily the movie’s fault. After all, most of the… Read More Quiz Show (1994)
Dir. Damien Chazelle. Starring Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons, Paul Reiser People listen to music for repetition, predictability. This is why a three minute ditty on the radio can repeat its chorus three times and no one is bothered, and this is why people in pressed shirts go crazy for Ravel’s Bolero. Even music like Schoenberg’s… Read More Whiplash (2014)
Dir. Dan Scanlon. Starring Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Helen Mirren The girls are at summer camp. They report something strange is in their cabin. None of them are frightened – in fact, some even seem a little giddy. Regardless, forest rangers and other law enforcement quickly evacuate the girls before heading in. Slowly, quietly, cautiously,… Read More Monsters University (2013)
On December 1, 1963, Malcolm X gave one of his most famous interviews, in which he stated that the assassination of John F. Kennedy was an example of “chickens coming home to roost.” At the time, Malcolm was still the most visible member of the Nation of Islam, and it was this incident which signaled… Read More Blackfish (2013)
Here goes another one of my full-movie commentaries. Today, it’s Disney’s Hercules, which was perhaps my favorite movie in elementary school and is certainly responsible for the interest in mythologies which weirded the heck out of my neighbors when I was a seven-year-old. Consider, for example, this paraphrasing of my Halloween experience in 1998: Me: Trick… Read More Hercules (1997)
Dir. Baz Luhrmann. Starring Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, Jim Broadbent 2010’s American Idiot, 2009’s Rock of Ages, 2006’s Jersey Boys, 2003’s Movin’ Out. 2003’s The Boy from Oz. All Best Musical nominees at the Tony Awards in the past ten years. One winner in the bunch (Jersey Boys). All jukebox musicals. On television, Glee and… Read More Moulin Rouge! (2001)
Dir. Gary Ross. Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Donald Sutherland Textuality is a difficult concept to handle. In my experience, limited as it obviously is, it’s very hard to get people to separate two different texts when they are purposely similar. Think about a music video that goes with a song. Or a movie based… Read More The Hunger Games (2012)
Seeing Things Secondhand 