In 1932, the avant-garde Spanish radical dramatist/poet Federico Garcia Lorca wrote the first in a trilogy of “rural plays,” Blood Wedding, an exploration of gender roles and social identity. It remains one of his best-known works. In 1980, noted flamenco choreographer Antonio Gades turned this play into a one-act ballet, streamlining the plot and jettisoning […]
So, there’s this Ben Affleck kid that I think you should all pay a lot more attention to. No, seriously. I know it’s been out for a while now, but Gone Baby Gone has only received modest attention and that’s just not right. It’s not some kind of lost masterpiece, but it is very good, […]
It was unfortunate for Sidney Lumet that his first feature, now fifty years gone, was essentially perfect. I don’t care what you watch movies for, you’ll have something to latch onto in 12 Angry Men. A compelling script? Check. A subtle and layered visual motif? Certainly. Solid technical craftsmanship? Yes. Compelling moral themes. Dear lord, […]
There’s a by now ubiquitous story about the origins of Bee Movie: Steven Spielberg and Jerry Seinfeld were having lunch one day (well, of course they were!) when Seinfeld mused that it would be amusing to make a cartoon about bees, and title it Bee Movie, because you see it sounds kind of like “B-movie,” […]
The makers of American Gangster should count themselves lucky to have Denzel Washington, and more importantly Denzel Washington’s face. It’s quite an interesting face. Not exactly the face of a classic movie star, though he has their charm; not the face of a ’70s Method actor, though he has their intensity. It is his face […]
I went back and forth a great deal on the new version of Sleuth. In most ways, it’s very interesting (and not always for the better) and it certainly does not labor in the shadow of the first film made from this material, in 1972 – I tend to agree with the current project’s creative […]
I suppose that it’s fair to say that if you have so far been a fan of the Saw series, you will most likely enjoy Saw IV, at least in part. You are also a sick and deviant monkey-fucker. Why did I pick monkeys? I cannot say. But I expect that people who would deliberately […]
