Category Archives: Film

Last week, I saw Greg Mottola‘s Adventureland, which I’d definitely recommend. Last week, I also read Charles Portis‘s The Dog of the South, which also comes highly recommended. It’s a strange bit of serendipity, then, that in this comprehensive AV Club interview with Mottola, he had this to say in passing: In fact, I’ve optioned … Continue reading

Via Alan Sepinwall: This piece from The Wire co-creator David Simon on his efforts to learn more about an underreported police shooting in Baltimore is well worth a read. Half-truths, obfuscations and apparent deceit — these are the wages of a world in which newspapers, their staffs eviscerated, no longer battle at the frontiers of … Continue reading

Earlier this week, I wrote about alternate versions of narrative works — novels and films, to be more specific. Michael Hemmingson posted a  response regarding the Raymond Carver question: The unedited carver book, BEGINNERS, will be out in october in the UK from Jonathan Cape. In August, the Library of America will publish a 900 … Continue reading

Saw Idiocracy last week. I find myself thinking it would make a fine double bill with WALL-E: each depicts a future in which aspects of modern culture have spun out of control, leading to mammoth piles of garbage, an unholy fusion of big business with government, and an agriculturally barren landscape. One’s a cult classic, … Continue reading

Jonathan Lethem on Roberto Bolaño’s 2666. [Hat tip to Anna on this one.] Ryland Walker Knight on Arnaud Desplechin.

Well worth reading: David Edelstein and Alan Sepinwall pay tribute to Paul Newman. Man, I need to watch Nobody’s Fool again…

One: Kevin Smith on movie posters. Two: Ezra Caraeff on Jenny Lewis and the existential horror of watermarked promotional CDs. Three: At Pitchfork, Will Sheff on (among other topics) Still Flyin’. I heartily approve.

My recap of a recent Elliott Gould Q & A at BAM is now up at the Tribeca Film Festival’s site, for what it’s worth.

Reading Manohla Dargis’s review of Tropic Thunder today, I found myself getting thematic echoes of the work of another acclaimed New York-based critic. The topic came in the review’s last paragraph, focusing on the character played by Tom Cruise: What’s most notable about the film’s use of blackface is how much softer it is compared … Continue reading

Alternately: in which Richard Ayoade directs a Vampire Weekend video.

I should also say that, having cited him below, Christopher Orr’s take on the film is pretty close to my own.

So I went to see The Dark Knight yesterday after work. Did I like it? That I did, though at times it seemed like a strange fusion of The Wire and The Long Halloween — but that’s not necessarily a bad thing in my book. It Batman Begins factored in an homage to the character’s … Continue reading

…for the Tribeca Film Festival’s site. Said review is right…here.

So a while back, Molly recommended The Fall. I set out to see it, and did, but haven’t been able to quite explain what my feelings are on the film. As of a few days ago, I think I finally figured out why, and it’s weirdly connected with the most recent Dirty Projectors album. (At … Continue reading

One: The AV Club on heat-wave cinema. Given the weather in NYC lately, I can relate. Two: Pitchfork chats with the founders of Sub Pop. Three: Warren Ellis on the shape of the internet circa: now.

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