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Red States and Blue States: Anderson’s ‘Punch-Drunk Love’ and an Ode to Godard

From the pool party dive in Boogie Nights inspired by Mikhail Kalatozov’s I Am Cuba to the steering wheel scene in Hard Eight that so deftly recalls Alfred Hitchcock’s Saboteur, playing spot the reference with Paul Thomas Anderson is always fun. It is through these moments that we can fully appreciate the voracious depth at which one man is embroiled in his art; forever the immersed student …

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The Case against Paul Thomas Anderson

In his relatively short time directing films, Paul Thomas Anderson has been called a rock star, a genius, an artist who knows no limits, the most devout filmmaker of his generation, and even the best film director in the world. Anderson has secured a spot in the hearts of most cinephiles generally reserved for dearly …

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Philip Seymour Hoffman: Undersung and Underpraised

I still remember the first time I saw Philip Seymour Hoffman. It was in Paul Thomas Anderson’s  Magnolia, and I was 13 years old. Already, I’d been bitten by the film bug, and that bite had driven me to pursue films that my friends had no interest in seeing. As such, I wouldn’t come to …

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Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Thomas Anderson: One of film’s greatest teams

What more can be said about Philip Seymour Hoffman, especially in the wake of his terribly tragic, premature death? He was perhaps the finest actor of his generation, he was deeply loved in his community, and he was a partner, a father.

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A (straight) person’s guide to talking about queer cinema

Growing up gay as a suburban teenager in the mid 90s, my access to queer culture was severely limited (ie nonexistent). Before the proliferation of the internet, one relied on the “gay” section in bookstores and video stores, if there even was one, to seek out examples of visible representation in the media throughout the …

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MIFF 2012: ‘Sightseers’ will tow you right into the dark heart of love

Sightseers Directed by Ben Wheatley Written by Steve Oram, Alice Lowe & Ben Wheatley (with additional material from Amy Jump) 2012, UK Either Ben Wheatley is a boiling pot of pent-up rage, or he is the complete opposite and thus finds perverse pleasure in humouring the rage fantasies and violent tendencies of the frustrated working-class …

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Top 5 Manic Pixie Dream Girls

On January 25, 2007, Onion A.V. Club critic Nathan Rabin inadvertently added a phrase to the movie lexicon. One that would eventually get it’s own Wikipedia page and it’s own NPR story. The Manic Pixie Dream Girl. In his review of Elizabethtown, Rabin said the following of Kirstin Dunst’s character: “Dunst embodies a character type I like to call The Manic Pixie Dream Girl (see Natalie Portman in Garden State for another prime example). The Manic Pixie Dream Girl exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures. The Manic Pixie Dream Girl is an all-or-nothing-proposition. Audiences either want to marry her instantly (despite The Manic Pixie Dream Girl being, you know, a fictional character) or they want to commit grievous bodily harm against them and their immediate family.”

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The 100 Best Films of the Decade: 2000 – 2009 (part 6)

Before I get to number 49 I feel the need to list fifty honorable mentions. This is a very personal list and I am confident that I could have easily chosen 100 foreign language films or 100 independent art house films and skipped out on all the Hollywood flicks, but I decided to go with …

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