As a cinema studies major in college, I read — or, more precisely, hate-read — Robert McKee’s Story, the industry bible for commercial screenwriting. On page after page, I scoffed at its provincial advice. One of McKee’s signature strictures, that a film’s plot should be established within the first 10 minutes of screen time, would have ruled out too many of the best movies … [Read more...]
The way we is: ‘Together’ gives Zoom-ish take on life during COVID
In the inchoate days of COVID, like everybody else, I reached out to old friends with whom I hadn’t spoken in months, maybe a year. One of whom, a cineaste and crime writer in California, echoed one of my early observations: “There’s going to so many pandemic movies now.” This stands to reason. Whatever the crisis, whether it’s Vietnam, 9-11, the Iraq War, the 2008 recession … [Read more...]
‘The War Is Never Over’: Lydia Lunch, unapologetic
Lydia Lunch: The War is Never Over is not a film that can be accused of burying any lede. In the film’s opening seconds, over grainy footage of Lydia Lunch in the 1970s, the now 60-ish Lydia Lunch tells of being propositioned by a stranger outside a New York City porno theatre at age 13. She’s waiting for the bus, but the creep is insistent, and the bus isn’t showing up. So … [Read more...]
The View From Home: The enduring legacy of ‘Almost Famous’
For cinema studies majors seeking a thesis, “The Use of Music in the Films of Cameron Crowe” would be a worthy subject. Even in his non-music-centered films, each selection is chosen with layered precision, as revealing as it is iconic. When Jerry Maguire hits the open road after signing his first client, and Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’” soars on his car radio, it’s a moment … [Read more...]
The View From Home: Classic noirs make Blu-ray debuts
Just in time for another sultry summer, this month marks a wave of film noir Blu-ray premieres from Kino Lorber, with lurid, screaming titles like The Web (1947) and Larceny (1948). Two others offer eccentric takes on the genre’s traditions. In director John Farrow’s Alias Nick Beal (1949), Ray Milland plays the title character, a suavely dressed, black-hatted figure … [Read more...]
‘Roadrunner’: Biopic of Bourdain absorbing, painful
There are times, while watching Morgan Neville’s Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain, that you almost forget its subject is dead. As on his groundbreaking TV series A Cook’s Tour, No Reservations and Parts Unknown, Bourdain’s voice dominates the documentary, whether through excerpts from audiobooks, old interviews, TV appearances or behind-the-scenes musings. He still … [Read more...]
Vampirism as disability: ‘My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To’
Like many families caring for a sick relative, the brother and sister we follow in My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To revolve their entire worlds around their younger sibling. Thomas (Owen Campbell), anemic and hermetically sealed from outside society, burns instantly from sunlight, and can only survive on human blood. It’s up to Dwight (Patrick Fugit) and … [Read more...]
From Tel Aviv with love: ‘Sublet’ a masterful exploration of life and identity
When we meet Michael, in the opening shot of Eytan Fox’s tender and insightful seventh feature, Sublet, he is frozen on a motorized walkway at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, drifting toward his destination. Embodying both progress and stasis, it turns out to be the ideal form of transportation for a character at a personal crossroads: He’s moving forward, but he’s standing … [Read more...]
The View From Home: Stanley Kwan’s beautiful, disruptive biopic “Center Stage”
As intimate as it is lavish, Stanley Kwan’s landmark 1991 biopic Center Stage has finally received the illustrious Blu-ray release it deserves, thanks to the tireless efforts of Film Movement and its specialty Classics imprint ($29.99). Like the screen icon it depicts, this transfer positively glows, shimmering with memory, criticism and the very foundations of cinema … [Read more...]
‘Enfant Terrible’: Biopic of Fassbinder focuses on his evil, not his art
Of the three major postwar German filmmakers — Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders and Rainer Werner Fassbinder — the latter presents the most fecund material for a biopic. A gay man in a time when it was dangerous and transgressive to be one, Fassbinder was also a drug addict, an alcoholic and a workaholic, completing more than 40 films, two television series and 24 plays in less … [Read more...]