Too long; do not read.
Ah, summer in Europe! My favorite season by far — so much better than the forbidding winters, when even the finest Panzer captains and alpini find the hiking rather rough going. For a curious American traveler like myself, there’s no better time than sunny summer to discover the little delights …
“So! Yu-dan! You have the guts to show your face around here!” “Yes, Li Bai. I have done much thinking.” “And what have you decided? To face your shame! To be a man! Or to run away, again, like a coward?” “I feel no shame, Li Bai. I know I …
Patrick Hamilton was a gentrified British version of Jim Thompson: a disreputable alcoholic who supported himself by writing twisted pulp novels with an even bloodier jagged edge than most. Like Thompson, he marked his work by a seedy personal perspective and a talent for the sudden appearance of the bizarre …
113th Congress, 2nd Session H.R. 7162 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES — June 4, 2013 AN ACT To deter and punish acts of comedic violence in the United States and around the world, and to further control and prevent the occurence of slapstick-related deaths and injuries by means …
Shot: Dark room. Cast, standing with arms crossed, moving pan. Stern expressions as they look up at the camera. Menacing tone plays on soundtrack. ANNOUNCER’S V.O.: NYPD Blue did it for the police department. Shot: Conference table. Jim throws his pen angrily across a legal pad. He glares at a stern-looking agent …
Ida Lupino’s The Hitch-Hiker breaks a lot of the ‘rules’ of film noir, and in doing so, it sometimes scans like a prescient warning bell of the post-Psycho revolution in crime drama than it does a product of the 1950 B-picture system. This is by no means meant as a criticism; …
V-CHIP THEATRE PRESENTS: THE GREAT FILMS 1. The Godfather (1971; Francis Ford Coppola, dir.) An Italian-American family struggles to thrive in an extremely competitive business environment. 2. Vertigo (1958; Alfred Hitchcock, dir.) San Francisco police detective investigates confusing identity theft, fails to take medication to control phobia. 3. The Seven …
Le Pont du Nord, which I saw earlier this week in a gorgeous new 35mm print at the Northwest Film Forum, is a baffling creature; neither a straightforward narrative nor an entirely experimental impressionistic piece, it’s hard to figure out while you’re watching it and even harder to suss with …
Oh, you future generations who read these words in admiration or infamy: it is to you I speak, for there is none today I can tell. Pity me, please, and envy too: for I am the most luckless man on this lonely world, and the most blessed. I am no …
Orson Welles’ Mr. Arkadin (also known as Confidential Report, Dossier Secret, and a handful of other names) is one of the most difficult to assess items in the great man’s filmography, which is one reason I’ve resisted seeing it for so long. While the general consensus seems to be that it’s a noble failure, …
LIVER The most common of the variety meats is also the easiest target. The mere mention of liver perennially brings a frown to children’s faces, and even among adults with more sophisticated palates it is unjustifiably maligned. The truth is, this vitamin-packed, easy-to-extract organ is easily prepared, affordable, and quite …
And now, a review of the trailers I saw tonight prior to a screening of Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby. Wish You Were Here: This Australian mystery/thriller seems to revolve around two identically scruffy-looking numbskulls, one of whom disappears while on Holiday. At first this makes his girlfriend and the other …
1. Imagine you are having dinner with Abraham Lincoln. You have the ability to warn him in advance that he is going to die, but it might result in the North losing the Civil War if he lives. Do you think you could get him to admit he was gay? …
“Good even, gentle patrons: welcome all who span the Globe to see me here withal. Tonight, a treat not meat or meal, but words awaits you here: this Winter’s night, a tale shall spread before you, not…” “Not fit for man nor beast, you mean? Not fish nor fowl nor …
The longer the seemingly intractable confrontation over what is euphemistically termed “gun rights” in America drags on in these bloodied days, the more it becomes clear that what is really in play is the classic American dichotomy of Libertarian vs. Prohibitionist. The rhetoric coming from both sides, from gun-control liberals …
