It’s always tempting to dissect a movie that never had any intention of being analyzed. You can read any message you want in a slew of different films; especially if sloppy filmmaking and indecision have left the door open (as with Knowing). Surely, a director who prepared, shot, and edited his movie during a period […]

If Taxi Driver is considered the last movie word on how loners slowly lose their grip on reality and devolve into misguided violent martyrdom, where do those without the gaul or stones to engage in violent activism fit in? Surely, there’s more of the type too timid or scared to act on their fantasies, otherwise […]

More than 10 years ago, I wrote a script for a black comedy short film that was eventually produced for a film class I was taking. The movie was called Ray, The Low-Key Vampire, and it was about a vampire who didn’t like to disturb the public too much as well as not going to […]

One of the oddest combinations of producer and director in the history of Hollywood occurred on Paul Schrader’s American Gigolo, with Richard Gere as a moody, shallow gigolo. It contains Schrader’s (writer of Taxi Driver, director of Mishima, Hardcore, and Auto Focus) usual themes of guilt and introspection. American Gigolo was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, […]

If you rip off an original idea in an original way, is it still stealing? Does it really matter one way or the other, since the presentation is more important than your “acquired” idea? The fallacy of the original idea is a nice trap thrown in by those rejecting material without needing to explain their […]

Below you’ll find a podcast about Quentin Tarantino’s  Inglourious Basterds, which I conducted with the famed star of 30 years worth of films, Benji. You can read a review of the film here. Click the play icon to listen to the podcast. Or you can download the podcast here. (Right-click, Save Link As…)