People have a pretty intimate relationship with music. The song that was playing when you had your first slow dance, broke up with that certain someone, or lost your virginity will rank higher for you than it will for some random listener. Even bad songs have a way of causing flashbacks, for better or worse. …
Cinema deviants can come in all forms or variety. It is just a matter of taking your pick as to what kind of deviant you consider. Perhaps your preference of deviant is of the sexual or molesting persuasion? Or maybe in the arena of hustlers or swindlers or cheaters? Will notorious gangsters and corrupt officials …
40. Night of the Hunter (1955) Scene: The Preacher on the Horizon Video: http://youtu.be/9PyNL2ahKwc?list=PLZbXA4lyCtqolaQOAXly96de5FYQlPzqK Just like a few others in this section of the list, Charles Laughton’s brilliant Night of the Hunter isn’t really a horror film, but still sets out to keep the audience on edge. Starring a diabolical Robert Mitchum as a preacher/serial killer …
In what sounds like a match made in heaven, famed filmmaker David Fincher and author James Ellroy are in the early stages of collaborating on a new show for HBO. The Playlist and /Film report that details on the project are scarce, but the show is said to be a 1950s set noir detective story. Fincher …
The dishonest suggestion of truth behind an uninspired movie is an easy means to attract a bigger audience. It is a double-edged sword, however, when said audience discovers that the majority of what they have seen is inaccurate and, on occasion, almost slanderous.
My first real attempt at understanding the brilliance that was Stanley Kubrick came in my freshman year of college, when I wrote a research paper on 2001: A Space Odyssey for an English class. After all that work, I only received a B and found myself more confused than ever. But there it was – …
E. B. White once wrote, “Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it.” Analyzing trilogies seems to the same. The entire point is to enjoy them. Still, given the many sins to be found in film, there are worse things than movie trilogies but few have …
Things We Learned From the Commentary is a column devoted to directors and their craft. Its singular goal is to put into perspective how and why auteurs shape and mold their films. The work of David Fincher is often defined by the outpouring of information and data, and the ways in which they invade the …
The Raven Directed by James McTeigue Written by Ben Livingston and Hannah Shakespeare USA, 2012 In a room of posh, opulent women, Edgar Allan Poe (John Cusack) commands their undivided attention by reciting the film’s titular poem, The Raven. Enamored, one of the women tries her hand at poetry as well. Crude, unsophisticated and juvenile, …
24- Zodiac (2007/I) Directed by David Fincher Genre: Thriller / Crime An intriguing and methodical depiction of police work which avoids any clichéd action shootouts, chase sequences, and false climaxes. David Fincher manages to build gut-wrenching anxiety scene after scene in this mostly quiet, dialogue driven atmospheric thriller. The meticulous attention to period detail by …
25- Mulholland Dr. (2001) Directed by David Lynch Genre: Thriller / Mystery David Lynch delivers yet again with this brilliant, biting, hysterical, and haunting ode to Hollywood. A movie in which the pieces add up to much more than the whole and the solution to the mystery, once realized, is remarkably rewarding. Mulholland Dr. split …
24 minutes of James Cameron’s Avatar was screened for the very first time to 1,000 European industry attendees at the Cinema Expo International in Amsterdam. Cameron’s decade long passion project has been touted as the film that will change how we watch movies forever. Now that is one hell of an expectation to live up …