Why you! Yes, you! What day is today? Unfortunately, not yet Christmas Day, when we can expect both the anniversary of the savior’s birth as well as the release of Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu (2024). Like any cultured moviegoer, I have been lighting my Advent candles, so to speak. In the lead up to the auteur’s newest release, my plan has been to watch as many adaptations of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) as possible. We’ve got Murnau’s 1922 silent classic; there... Read more
Our Horace? Paul Verhoeven, or so stands his reputation. His Hollywood run from Robocop (1987) to Starship Troopers (1997) has made him the darling of a couple generations of American Letterboxd enthusiasts. And rightly so! Few have dissected the American body politic with such precision. And certainly none has ever done so sporting such a wry smirk. Over the years, I’ve taken in a number of Verhoeven’s films, and I’ve loved every last one. It was only last week, however,... Read more
I’m late to the party. Ricky Lau’s Mr. Vampire (1985) spawned several sequels and seems to have been something of a smash success in Hong Kong and beyond. It inspired (again, as I understand) many entries in the Jiangshi genre, a species of B-movie about hopping zombie vampires from Chinese folklore. Knowing a bit about these things must, I assume, make the films more comprehensible. I, however, had none of that knowledge. No. For me, Mr. Vampire was hilarious, confounding—an... Read more
War is one of our favorite abstractions. I grew up playing map-based strategy games, the kind in which you pick seneschals, set tax policy, and send figurine-stand-ins off to their deaths. How many divisions does the pope have? How long are my supply lines? Yes, I’d like to enslave the population after we take the city. We need the labor. No one likes to think about the families annihilated or the sex crimes, the long nights spent in fear and... Read more
All but the most conceptually adventurous movie-watchers experience meta-cinematic devices as an imposition. I don’t mean the vivid colors of a Sirk melodrama or the dramatic lighting of Argento’s most daring gialli. What I have in mind are halting breaks in the story, actors spliced into the flow of the narrative discussing their own characters, those qualities that not only ask the audience to keep in mind that it is watching a movie but also to reflect on what it... Read more
We all like to, as they say, be seen, no? None of us enjoys what that old Slovenian Diogenes, Slavoj Žižek, follows his master Lacan in calling “symbolic castration.” Misrecognition according to our own notion of ourselves is bad enough. Imagine the horror if other people were indeed thinking about you all the time. But it’s just plain rude when there are indisputable external features at play and others just can’t get them right. Why else does the bully accuse... Read more
Based on a novel of the same name by the director, Takeshi Kitano’s latest film Kubi (2023) assumes substantial historical foreknowledge. The events it depicts are, I assume, famous enough in Japan to merit little exposition. Covering the Honnō-ji Incident is a bit like staging Benedict Arnold’s betrayal or depicting the Battle of Gettysburg—most people interested enough to see the film will have a basic grasp of the context. Given my longtime fascination with this period in Japanese history, I... Read more
When I was TA’ing a course on American Television, several students told me their favorite show was Friends (1994-2004). I found this fact perplexing both because many of them were just born as the series went off the air and because, if they insisted on a 90s sitcom, Seinfeld (1989-1998) is the clearly superior choice. Matters made more sense when they clarified that “favorite” really meant “comfort.” It soothed them. Falling asleep? Put on Friends. Hanging out with, uh, friends? Put... Read more
Like most kids of a certain age, I went to Blockbuster often. I’d beg my dad to drive me over there after a long day at work and rent games I shouldn’t have been playing. Same goes for movies. As much as I enjoyed taking over Vice City and learning about serial killers reanimated as gingerbread men, few of these early incursions touched my regular life. One did. Sitting in my grandmother’s apartment with a close friend, we played our... Read more
I will fight a pitiful rearguard action. Usually, nothing could be braver than skirmishing with a more powerful foe, shielding what remains of your comrades from certain death, accepting your own end in the process. That takes courage. But announcing that you plan to fight a rearguard action is less glamorous business. I’m admitting it’s over before I even start. Instead of waving a white flag, I’m taking off all my gear and shrieking “come and get some!” That... Read more
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