Drama

Keep Fooling Yourself: The Films of Dylan Kidd

By Adam Lippe

Somehow, despite being made by a first time filmmaker in love with his own dialogue and with a tendency to smear sentimentality in where it shouldn’t be, Dylan Kidd’s Roger Dodger is one of the better low profile studio/independent films of the decade. Campbell Scott, though he is given all the best lines as a […]

The Art of Respectable Anonymity: Film Festivals Part I

By Adam Lippe

Do filmmakers make movies for the accolades? The money? The challenge? The answer is entirely subjective, but those that do it for the accolades, how do they feel about the intimacy and vacuum of a film festival screening? The crowd has paid more than they would for a regular ticket, often to see a movie […]

Reds

By Adam Lippe

Here’s the idea behind “A Canadian, an American, a Lawyer, and an Elitist”: Rhett’s favorite movie is Meatballs 4,  Shawn has an unhealthy fixation on Resident Evil, Richard scoffs at anything that isn’t pretentious and hoity toity, and Adam is a prick who hates everything. We all watch far too many movies, and spend our […]

The Unreliable Narrator

By Adam Lippe

My Best Fiend, director Werner Herzog’s documentary about his turbulent relationship with Klaus Kinski and the five films they made together, got me to thinking about what Kinski, dead long before the movie was made, would have had to say on the matter. Herzog got to make the movie his way, creating whatever message he […]

Once Upon A Time in America vs. Phantasm IV: Oblivion

By Adam Lippe

Those who haven’t seen either Phantasm IV: Oblivion or Once Upon a Time in America may be lost reading the content below. They also may be annoyed that the ending(s) and plot points are ruined for them. But I doubt it. There are many who believe that the ending of Once Upon a Time in […]

Sugar

By Adam Lippe

Authenticity is a funny thing, because while it should be about accurate renditions of true and real experiences, it is still entirely subjective. Judging a piece of art as being realistic and authentic should be something that only those who’ve lived the specific life being portrayed get to decide. Watching something like Maria, Full of […]

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Roadracers

By Adam Lippe

Whenever there’s a genre parody or ode to a specific era of films, such as Black Dynamite’s mocking of Blaxploitation films or Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof, the second half of Grindhouse, the danger is that the film might fall into the trap of either being condescending without any particular insight, or so faithful that it becomes the very flawed thing it is emulating.

Black Dynamite has nothing new to say about Blaxploitation films, it just does a decent job of copying what an inept [...]

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Featured Quote (written by me)

On Cold Fish:

Though the 16 year old me described the 1994 weepie Angie, starring Geena Davis as a Brooklyn mother raising her new baby alone, as “maudlin and melodramatic,” Roger Ebert, during his TV review, referring to the multitude of soap-operaish problems piling up on the titular character, suggested that it was only in Hollywood where Angie would get a happy ending. “If they made this movie in France, Angie would have shot herself.”

Well Cold Fish was made in Japan, where Angie would have shot herself and that would have been the happy ending.