Tag Archive
Life During Wartime
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and you imitate yourself, does that mean you’re flattering yourself too? Catherine Breillat, a director often accused of taking herself too seriously while trying to punish the audience, tried to pull off this self-flattery thing with her 2002 film Sex is Comedy, which mocked her infamous 2001 […]
At Long Last Love
Here’s the idea behind “A Canadian, an American, and an Elitist”: Rhett’s favorite movie is Meatballs 4, Shawn has an unhealthy fixation on Resident Evil, and Adam is a prick who hates everything. We all watch far too many movies, and spend our time analyzing them. So we each watch the same movie, write our […]
Skatetown, U.S.A.
Categorizing a movie as a time capsule reduces it to a simple evocation of a specific time and nothing else. William Friedkin’s To Live and Die in L.A. is drenched in 1985, a Wang Chung score, rampant androgyny, ridiculous car chases, cheerful amorality, and a cynical fetishism that seems modeled on Miami Vice, which debuted […]
A Schlock to the System: Film Festivals Part III
“THIS GUY wrote Dr. Giggles!” “Sorry about that.” His producer clearly ignored what I said. “Have you seen it?” “Yeah, I have. The ending really stunk, smacked of studio interference… Was it?” This prestigious writer, Graeme Whifler, snapped to attention and addressed my question. “I had nothing to do with the ending.” “Good for you.”