Pauline Kael A follow-up on contrarian criticism, from an Artforum section published in 2002, after the death of Pauline Kael, called Prose and Cons: Gary Indiana: When Artforum invited me to write 800 words on Pauline Kael, I asked the…
JJ Hunsecker is calling YOU to participate in the Contrarianism Blog-a-Thon! Presidents' Day Special: What the heck, it's a three-day weekend for some of us in the States. Now you have an extra day to contribute your contrarian wisdom --…
As part of the Contrarian Blog-a-Thon, here's a chance to really vent your spleen (in a rational and persuasive way). Please cast your vote below, and then elaborate on your selection in Comments. Give your reasons. Try to change our…
View image Listen (doo-dah-doo), do you want to know a secret? I have new reviews of two fine films -- one from Germany and one from Turkey -- in today's Chicago Sun-Times and on RogerEbert.com: The Lives of Others It…
Selznick, Rossellini & Fellini, by Rossellini & Maddin. Brad Damaré of Ann Arbor, MI, was kind enough to point me to a marvelous YouTube post of the entire 16-minute 2005 collaboration between Guy Maddin ("The Saddest Music in the World")…
View image John Candy as Steve Roman as Juan Cortez -- now that spells good acting. Ever since December, when Kristin Thompson posted this ("Good Actors Spell Good Acting") on the blog she shares with her husband and co-author David…
"It's film-tastic!" A warm-up for this weekend's Contrarianism Blog-a-Thon -- from Manohla Dargis's piece on the Film Comment Selects series, in today's New York Times: Film criticism, as it has been observed, is the rationalization of taste into theory. No…
Here is Lil. She indicates that this is one of Gordon's blue rose cases. When I saw David Lynch's "Inland Empire" for the first time a few weeks ago, I knew I was going to be reviewing it for the…
I went to one of the first editions of the Portland International Film Festival back in 1978 or 1979 (thanks to Ruth Hayler of Seven Gables Theatres), where I saw Peter Weir's "Picnic at Hanging Rock" for the first time.…
View image "Citizen Kane": No matter what anybody says, "It's Terrific!" Edward Copeland had a bunch of questions about anomalies in Oscar history and technicalities in the (ever-changing) rules. So, he went straight to the source, the staff of the…
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