Category Archives: Movies

“Margaret”

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Fenster

Fenster writes: Critics just can’t seem to get enough of re-appraising the long form Heaven’s Gate. In yesterday’s Boston Globe, Ty Burr added to the buzz with his own long form article, the chief benefit of which was that he … Continue reading →

Posted in Movies | 9 Comments

“Life Without Principle”

Posted on November 24, 2012 by Fabrizio del Wrongo

Fabrizio del Wrongo writes: Johnnie To’s latest, entitled “Life Without Principle,” combines the financial-and-business-sector setting of his last film, the romantic comedy “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” with his customary gangster milieu. It’s organized around the Greek debt crisis, which … Continue reading →

LACMA: Stanley Kubrick

Posted on November 22, 2012 by Blowhard, Esq.

Blowhard, Esq. writes: This past weekend your friend and humble narrator (sorry) took in the new grand deluxe Stanley Kubrick retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Posted in Art, Movies, Photography | Tagged 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Auteur Theory, Barry Lyndon, Dr. Strangelove, Eyes Wide Shut, Ingmar Bergman, Napoleon, Paths of Glory, Spartacus, Stanley Kubrick, The Shining, White Men Can't Jump | 6 Comments

DVD Review: “The Departed”

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Paleo Retiree

Paleo Retiree writes: I sat all the way through Martin Scorsese’s 2006 movie even though I never felt more than half-involved with it. It’s a remake of the Hong Kong thriller “Infernal Affairs,” and it’s in Scorsese’s exuberant, burning-in-hell, “Goodfellas” … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Movies | Tagged Martin Scorsese, movies | 8 Comments

“The Abyss”

Posted on November 12, 2012 by Fabrizio del Wrongo

Fabrizio del Wrongo writes: “The Abyss” features one of the most striking opening shots in early cinema (it was released in 1910). Taken from the center of a busy urban street, it shows a woman walking away from the camera as … Continue reading →

Posted in Movies, Performers, Sex | Tagged A Fool There Was, Asta Nielsen, Basic Instinct, Camille Paglia, Denmark, Gustav Klimt, movies, Sharon Stone, Silent Film, The Abyss, Theda Bara, Urban Gad, vamp | 10 Comments

“Thor”

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Fabrizio del Wrongo

Fabrizio del Wrongo writes: Kenneth Branagh has directed “Thor” with the sort of gloppy boyishness that I’ve sometimes enjoyed in his acting. The tone is consistently breathless, jaunty even, and not a frame of it is underworked. I took it as an … Continue reading →

Posted in Movies | Tagged Anthony Hopkins, Chris Hemsworth, Kenneth Branagh, Marvel Comics, movies, Natalie Portman, Thor, Tom Hiddleston | 8 Comments

Down These Mean Streets a Man Must Go…

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Blowhard, Esq.

Blowhard, Esq. writes: Here are a few pics of some notable L.A. landmarks from my trip there a couple weeks ago (previous installments here and here). First, Union Station.

Posted in Architecture, Movies, Photography | Tagged Biltmore, Blade Runner, Bradbury Building, Charlie Chaplin, Chinatown, Dutch Colonial Revival, Film Noir, Ghostbusters, Los Angeles, Mad Men, One Percent, Spanish Revival, Streamline Moderne, The Shining, Union Station, Vertigo | 9 Comments

Linkathon

Posted on November 4, 2012 by Paleo Retiree

Paleo Retiree writes: The latest from “Idiocracy”‘s Mike Judge. A survey of the state of secessionist movements in today’s world. The Catalonia movement seems like one of the most serious of them. So who exactly was the victim? How trustworthy is … Continue reading →

Posted in Computers, Food and health, Linkathons, Movies, Politics and Economics, Sex | Tagged food, Gary Taubes, Google, health, Kink.com, Mike Judge, Peter Acworth, politics, secessionism | 3 Comments

Return On Investment

Posted on November 3, 2012 by Fabrizio del Wrongo

Fabrizio del Wrongo writes: Pop culture can be stultifying. It grinds us down, appeals to our lowest impulses, sometimes sells us out. But every once in a while it manages to harness the full weight of its resonances, to … Continue reading →

Posted in Movies | Tagged Leonard Nimoy, Spock, Star Trek, William Shatner, Wrath of Khan | 9 Comments

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi, OR Simiae est Insanissimae Populos

Posted on November 3, 2012 by Fenster

Fenster writes: Fame is fleeting. You remember newsreels, like actually remember them? Mebbe mebbe not. Depends on age mostly. They were really the only way to disseminate the news visually in a pre-internet and pre-TV era. TV in fact pretty … Continue reading →

Posted in Humor, Movies, Performers | 6 Comments