Colour in DRIVE and IL CONFORMISTA
Drive and Il Conformista ‘s use of colours make for great comparison and contrast symbolically, emotionally, and technically. First: Refn is colourblind, which impacts his work in a preference for heavy colour saturation. Second: because of its time, Il Conformista required everything from on-set lighting to colour timing to be planned far more thoroughly in … Continue reading
Veronica Mars: The Movie, The Woman
By now you’ve probably all read the reviews, most of which agree Veronica Mars functions more as an extended episode of TV than a movie . . . and then most of which, inexplicably, seem to think this is a bad thing. !!! The film took quite a bit of time updating us on where … Continue reading
Music Video: Pitch Perfect’s “Since You Been Gone”
Start with the fact this is generally an average-to-well edited movie. During the big dance numbers, we get plenty of closeups and glimpses of each character, especially when a character is starting to sing. Still, the overall action is always well-established enough so when it pulls back to a wide/master shot, the viewer is not … Continue reading
Movie Review: Inch’Allah
On my list of movies to watch I mentioned several female filmmakers whose work I’m interested in. One is Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette. This review of her film starts a loose series on Women In and Making Film. A shorter version of this review appeared on Letterboxd here. This film easily could have been a cliched tale about a … Continue reading
B-I-N-G-O
Does the word ‘BINGO’ conjure images of blue-haired ladies in church parlors waving excitedly? Well, this will probably do nothing to expunge that mental picture, but it is fun! I did summer movie bingo and you can see my results above in lovely paintbrush fashion. Of course, the actual card languished on my desktop until the … Continue reading
Cry Havoc, and Let Slip the Dogs of Blockbusters
The Affleck casting (which, full disclosure, I don’t hate at all, though I’d much rather he direct the thing) has been rattling around in my brain, and I’ve decided people should admit Daredevil is as good a movie as The Dark Knight or The Dark Knight Rises. To this end, I will argue Daredevil is underrated … Continue reading
An Alternate List of Films to Watch
Recently I saw yet another list of Movies For Aspiring Moviemakers To Watch from a notable director. One whole movie was co-directed by a woman. There weren’t many with a woman as a central character, either. I’m not pushing for female directing and/or starring inclusion simply because of chromosomes. I’m pushing for it because women … Continue reading
Why Grit Is Now A Substitute for Glorious
While I’d love it to flesh out what makes some dark movies great cinema and others not, and how a movie can have it both ways – Casino Royale, anyone? – the points this article makes are good. What I want to focus on is this: What bothers me more is the critical attitude that reads a film … Continue reading
Quick Hits
I’ve recently signed up for and begun using Letterboxd to keep track of my films. It’s a quick and easy way to track and write thoughts on movies I don’t have time or inclination to do a full write-up and picture hunt on. If you’re interested to see what I have to say, what I … Continue reading
Lessons in Film. Life. What’s The Difference?
If there’s one thing the Internet doesn’t need right now, it’s another person who didn’t know Roger Ebert writing about Roger Ebert. But that’s the thing. We do know him. He didn’t just recap movies, he reviewed them with beautiful prose and wisdom and snark and startling insight. As we read the blog, scoured the … Continue reading
