Carl Th. Dreyer's 'Day of Wrath' and the Power of the Punished
It is difficult to believe in heaven, but it is also difficult not to believe in a heaven.
Matthew Wardour
· 7 min read
Cinema
A collection of 103 posts
Ray Russell's Incubus: A Lost Gem from America's Twentieth Decade
Hard as it might be to believe, the years that stretched from roughly 1967 through the bicentennial year of 1976 brought even more foment, outrage, unrest, and upheaval to America than the most recent decade has managed. The escalation of the Vietnam War, the student protests against that war, the
Kevin Mims
· 15 min read
Tennessee Williams and Woody Allen: Kindred Spirits to Illuminate our Tragicomic Existence
Allen and Williams are united by a sensibility that can be described as tragicomic, even if each inflects it differently.
Paul Hawkins
· 8 min read
The Hustler and the Queen
NOTE: This essay contains spoilers. The surprise success of the Netflix miniseries The Queen’s Gambit has brought me a great deal of delight—I’m a longtime fan of both the novel and its author, Walter Tevis. Just this summer, I wrote an essay about all the great American
Kevin Mims
· 14 min read
A Reasoned Judgment and a Reputation in Ruins
Depp has found that using the law to defend your reputation is a very expensive way of shattering it.
Matthew Scott
· 10 min read
What We Owe to ‘The Boys in the Band’—and Other Classics of Gay Film
I’m grateful to every straight director, actor, and writer who has taken up the cause over the last 60 years, and to their closeted friends and colleagues who inspired them.
Allan Stratton
· 15 min read
Don’t Listen to the Outrage. ‘Cuties’ Is a Great Film
Allan Stratton
· 12 min read
Remembering Reinaldo Arenas and His Enduring Lessons on Repression, Torment, and Exile
All in all, more than 130,000 set sail on rafts and boats made of rotten wood, house doors, truck tires, and anything else that could float.
Jorge C. Carrasco
· 7 min read
Thoughts on Longevity
Contemplation of such great age is intrinsically moving, perhaps because it releases us from the oppressive clamour of the moment.
Simon Evans
· 8 min read
A Rainy Day in New York—A Review
This is the territory with which Allen feels most familiar and confident—a spare, crisp, and yet intricately plotted tale that juggles characters and situations with sensitivity and bathos.
David Evanier
· 10 min read
Death of an Old-Fashioned Clown: An Obituary of Fred Willard
Fred Willard was a kind of Holy Fool even among fools.
Simon Evans
· 7 min read
Easy Rider: 50 Years Looking for America—A Review
Bingen is right about one thing, though: Easy Rider really is an important movie—much more important than a simple measure of its quality would suggest—which is probably why the American Film Institute, among others, continues to rate it so highly.
Graham Daseler
· 14 min read
Nineteen of the Loneliest Films Ever Made
Some of them are stylish pop art or lowbrow trash—depending on how initiated you are with their appeal. But they will also make you cry or simply stare at the screen with a detached jaw as you begin to rethink their implications behind your sterilized walls.
Art Tavana
· 12 min read
Farewell, My Lovely
Chinatown is a remarkable blend of screenwriter Robert Towne and director Roman Polanski’s antipodal sensibilities.
Graham Daseler
· 14 min read
So Here's to You, Buck Henry
Most of us are distant spectators to the roped-off paintings that line the museums inside our aesthetic imaginations. Some of the pieces have been removed; others don’t have appropriate labels.
Art Tavana
· 10 min read