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I’m a Chump for “Gump” by Joel Potrykus
I had one goal in mind when starting this little rant: to take down a recent American classic. I wanted to shred something so beloved that I may even come off as a rotten dick. Off the top of my head,...
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They Have to Take You In: “Junebug” and the Perils of Homecomings by Daniel...
Will Thompson wrote hymns. Born in 1847 in Ohio, he studied at the New England Conservatory of Music and got his start as a composer and lyricist with secular, folksy numbers like “Would I Were Home...
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“Unfriended” and the Shifting Definition of a Film Director by Mike D’Angelo
Picture a film director at work. Once upon a time, the popular image would have been of a man wearing jodhpurs and an oversized hat, sitting in a canvas chair with a megaphone in his hand. Action!...
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The Truest Frights of J-horror Classic “Jigoku” are Existential by Charles...
Say an alien visitor to Earth files a formal request for an explanation of the mental processes that compel regular folks to line up and spend their hard-earned money for the privilege of having their...
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The Multi-Storylined, Star-Studded Ensemble, Feel-Good Movie of the Holiday...
Every holiday season, I experience movie-goers PTSD. I’m not kidding. My shoulders tense. My breathing quickens. When trailers play, I am struck with anxiety. I have flashbacks. I hear the Pointer...
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The Hollywood from Another World: “Bowfinger,” “Get Shorty,” and Living in...
The movies have always been in love with themselves. For all their heroes and villains, lost loves and epic stories, Hollywood’s greatest source of mythology has always been its own history. Almost...
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Killer Queen: Shekhar Kapur’s “Elizabeth” by Chris Evangelista
A time of turmoil, upheaval, and bloodshed. The youngest living child of a once powerful, feared man becomes the unlikely head of the “family business.” Following betrayal, and the violent elimination...
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The Musings Podcast: Punk Auteur Joel Potrykus ("Buzzard,” "Ape”) Chats with...
Just in time for your holiday travels, we present the first edition of the Musings Podcast, in which we pair Punk Auteur Joel Potrykus (BUZZARD, APE) with The Undisputed Party King, Andrew W.K., for a...
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Mo’ Money, Mo’ Solemn: Capital and Romance in “The Girlfriend Experience” by...
The old adage dictates that money can’t buy happiness, but anyone without money can say with all certainty that it sure makes it a hell of a lot easier. That saying is predicated on two core...
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The Raging Bull of Albert Brooks’ “Modern Romance” by Scott Tobias
“You’ve heard of a no-win situation, haven’t you?… Vietnam; this.” —Albert Brooks, Modern RomanceLaMotta vs. Janiro. There are some ugly fights in Raging Bull, like when Jake LaMotta (Robert De Niro)...
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I’ll Help You Be Popular: “It Should Happen to You” and the Thirst for Fame...
“Within the last century, and especially since about 1900, we seem to have discovered the processes by which fame is manufactured. Now, at least in the United States, a man’s name can become a...
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Dancing in the Movies: Tail-feathers Shaken from “Singing in the Rain” to...
From the first moment I saw Gene Kelly’s dress shoes splashing through the puddles on that marvelous cutout MGM set to the skintight cat suit gyrations of Olivia Newton John’s hips while she belted...
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May We Always Go on Singing: “Sunshine” and Making Peace With the Past by...
“There is a scene where they are leaving the building where they have just changed their name, and they are laughing and happy. My heart was sad shooting those shots, my heart was sad editing the...
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Getting the Gold Watch: Famous Actors Who Went Into Retirement and the Films...
Whether a ditchdigger, an astronaut or a film critic, we’ve all had that moment: Take this job and shove it. We just can’t imagine ourselves getting up and going through another day of work. The...
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With ‘Jungle Fever,’ Spike Lee Brought Cultural Taboos to A Theater Near You...
“Agree or war has been our way of compromising/ Let live and love has become our greatest lie.” —Stevie Wonder, “Feeding Off the Love of the Land”Toward the middle of Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever, a group...
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RKO – 1952 Part I by Matthew Dessem
A series examining the output of a single studio in a single calendar year. PROLOGUEFor RKO Pictures, 1952 really began on March 23, 1951. That was the day U.S. Marshal Charles W. Ross went to the home...
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RKO - 1952 PART II by Matthew Dessem
A series examining the output of a single studio in a single calendar year.SPRINGPaul Jarrico wasn’t the only person going missing in RKO’s credits that spring. March began with the release of Fritz...
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RKO 1952 PART III by Matthew Dessem
A series examining the output of a single studio in a single calendar year.SUMMERAs summer began, the split Hughes had opened up in the Screen Writers Guild began widening. Or, as the New York Times...
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Hell in Oz by Richard Hell
Screen Slate is a website and daily email service that curates a listing, sometimes with commentary, of films playing at repertory theaters, museums and galleries, festivals, film clubs, etc., in New...
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White Guys Always Win: The Allure and Legacy of Bruce Willis by Anthony Kaufman
For many a boy of the 1980s, Bruce Willis was a profound (though slightly embarrassing) influence. Not nearly as macho or tough as other action stars of the Reagan-Bush years (Sylvester Stallone,...
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