Spoiler Scale (How spoilery is this article on a scale of 1 to 10?):  2   In 1952, at the age of 24, director Stanley Kubrick borrowed about $10,000 from family and friends to make his first feature film, Fear and Desire (1953), based on a script by his personal friend, Howard Sackler (who later won the Pulitzer Prize for The Great White Hope in 1968).  At the time, Kubrick ... Read More »

Spoiler Scale (How spoilerly is this article on a scale of 1 to 10?)  3  “Middlebrow” is typically used as a derogatory term by the snobby to describe an attempt to create something that is both broadly accessible and worthy of artistic merit.  Personally, I do not think there is a damn thing wrong with straddling this illusory fence – particularly in the case of Cloud ... Read More »

Spoiler Scale (How spoilery is this article on a scale of 1 to 10?):  3  I am not aware of a single living author who has generated more big and small screen adaptations of his work than Stephen King.  By my count, King’s novels, novellas, and short stories have been made into 34 feature-length films (including a Bollywood production), three TV series, 11  TV miniseries, and 18 separate short films (most of ... Read More »

Spoiler Scale (How spoilery is this article on a scale of 1 to 10?):  3   Quentin Tarantino and Charlie Kaufman agree to write and direct a film together, but after a prolonged production, Tarantino manages to get final cut … with a bullet to Kaufman’s head.  That would be my pitch for writer/director Martin McDonagh’s latest film, Seven Psychopaths.  You say you don’t like film snobs who use film references like their own ninth part ... Read More »

Spoiler Scale (How spoilerly is this article on a scale of 1 to 10?):  3   In my book, there are documentaries, and then there are biopics.  I realize that I am probably in the minority on this point, but I am less inclined to give certain films a pass for by-the-numbers storytelling or weak character development simply because it is “based on a true story.”  ... Read More »

Spoiler Scale (How spoilerly is this article on a scale of 1 to 10?):  3   Ever since director Tim Burton became acquainted with CGI, I have found his fantasy films (e.g., Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Alice In Wonderland (2010)) to be lacking that unmistakably dark and crazy visual quality that was so prevalent in Beetlejuice (1988), Edward Scissorhands (1990), and Batman Returns (1992).  And although Burton ... Read More »

Spoiler Scale (How spoilerly is this article on a scale of 1 to 10?):  8   Paris, Texas (1984) arose from the unlikely pairing of New German Cinema director Wim Wenders and the American award-winning playwright/poet Sam Shepard.  Set entirely in the American Southwest, the film opens with mythological overtones as an eagle in flight spies the lone Travis (Harry Dean Stanton) traversing the expanse of Big Bend.  Ry Cooder’s slide guitar chimes in with a rendition ... Read More »

Spoiler Scale (How spoilerly is this article on a scale of 1 to 10?):  4 More than any other genre, sci-fi asks its viewers to leap particularly far to suspend disbelief.  The worst of these movies trade in lowered expectations simply to create spectacle (e.g., that can defy the laws of physics).  But the best writers and directors of the genre take this unique opportunity to delve ... Read More »

Spoiler Scale (How spoilery is this article on a scale of 1 to 10?):  8   In September 2012, the Criterion Collection released the director approved edition of director David Fincher’s The Game (1997) on BD and DVD.  The package features an essay by David Sterritt, Chairman of the National Society of Film Critics. Director David Fincher’s oft-forgotten The Game (1995) was notably released between his breakthrough hit, Se7en (1995), and the cinephile ... Read More »

Spoiler Scale (How spoilerly is this article on a scale of 1 to 10?):  3   Some members of the film critic world have dubbed writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson the new Kubrick, and with five years passing since the release of his last film, The Master is easily one of the most anticipated films of this year.  Anderson’s unlikely romantic comedy Punch-Drunk Love (2002) marked a transition away ... Read More »