Looking Closer
In celebration of the birthday of the late, great Jim Henson, Comment Magazine has posted a letter I wrote to Jim Henson's ghost... Read more
In celebration of the birthday of the late, great Jim Henson, Comment Magazine has posted a letter I wrote to Jim Henson's ghost... Read more
Seven years ago this week, I met Joss Whedon and the cast of Serenity. Here, in their entirety for the first time, are my transcripts from those conversations. Read more
Here's an imaginary conversation between four moviegoers after they emerge from a screening of The Master. It's a long conversation. But, well... it's a complicated movie. Read more
As we're in a season busy with film festivals, I'm reading reviews of what sound like extremely challenging movies. Some of those reviews sound like the kind of comments that might provoke filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami to repeat what he said here... Read more
Five years ago, on September 27, Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood" screened for the first time. And a sure-thing Best Actor Oscar-winner came into plain view. Daniel Plainview, to be precise. Read more
The new trailer for Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has arrived! What do you think? I first read The Hobbit when I was 7 years old, and moved right on up to The Lord of the Rings at age 8. If you're like me, you'd love to have the thrill of discovering a world as awe-inspiring as that again. And I think we can. We just need to find a way to see Bilbo Baggins, The Shire, the dwarves, Gandalf, Mirkwood Forest, and the Lonely Mountain with new eyes. Read more
A few weeks ago, I shared my recent two-part interview with my friend, my fellow Glen Workshopper, and my fellow Thomas Parker Society member Pete Horner. As of today, we can now refer to him as “the Emmy-winning Sound Designer Pete Horner”! (more…) Read more
Here's the trailer for Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, starring Daniel Day-Lewis. But that's just the beginning. Since America will have Lincoln on the mind in the coming weeks, I encourage everyone to read the text of Abraham Lincoln's amazing Second Inaugural Address. Read it out loud. And then, well, the fun's just getting started. Check this out... Read more
The letters of St. Cinemas Criticus are leading me to think about the “tone of voice” in which moviegoers and film critics (myself included) discuss and review what they have seen. I was reading a review today in which the reviewer went beyond finding fault with a movie. In fact, she condemned the work because of what she found wrong with it, and could not contain her disgust. I was surprised, because other reviewers who had acknowledged similar weaknesses in... Read more
Ten years ago today, Le Fils (The Son) played at the Toronto International Film Festival, sending a second wave of rave reviews around the globe. A few months earlier, the film had inspired audiences at the Cannes Film Festival; it was nominated for the Palme d’Or, won the Ecumenical Jury prize, and lead actor Olivier Gourmet won Best Actor. I saw it in 2003, and knew immediately that I had enjoyed a film that would become a personal landmark for me in my moviegoing journeys. I was right. Read more
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