Spoiler Scale (How spoilery is this article on a scale of 1 to 10?): 5 In recognition of the holiday, this article is the last installment of four published in February 2013 highlighting my favorite love stories put to celluloid in the 21st century. The title of director Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is derived from a line in the Alexander Pope poem ... Read More »
Spoiler Scale (How spoilery is this article on a scale of 1 to 10?): 4 In recognition of the holiday, this article is the third installment of four published in February 2013 highlighting my favorite love stories put to celluloid in the 21st century. Top 5 Reasons I Love High Fidelity: 1. John Cusack’s Narration “One moment they weren’t there – not in any ... Read More »
Spoiler Scale (How spoilerly is this article on a scale of 1 to 10?): 4 In recognition of the holiday, this article is the second installment of four published in February 2013 highlighting my favorite love stories put to celluloid in the 21st century. Like a secret, In the Mood for Love is the type of film that is perhaps best shared with just ... Read More »
Spoiler Scale (How spoilery is this article on a scale of 1 to 10?): 5 In recognition of the holiday, this article is the first installment of four published in February 2013 highlighting my favorite love stories put to celluloid in the 21st century. Director Steven Shainberg has described his second feature film, Secretary, as a “black comedy coming-of-age” – at least on its ... Read More »
Spoiler Scale (How spoilery is this article on a scale of 1 to 10?): 5 What does it really mean for a director to be considered an “auteur” – the artist who is most responsible for the final product that is a feature film? Films are such a collaborative effort. The screenwriter provides the source material, the actual producers serve as the gatekeepers between the resources and ... Read More »
Spoiler Scale (How spoilery is this article on a scale of 1 to 10)? 8 Director William Friedkin will probably best be known for his exemplary career trajectory as an alumnus of the New Hollywood movement of the 1970s – starting with the Oscar-winning The French Connection (1971), continuing with with the shocking The Exorcist (1973), and ending with the self-indulgent flop/masterpiece Sorcerer (1977). Much like director Sidney Lumet’s black swan song, Before the ... Read More »
Spoiler Scale (How spoilery is this article on a scale of 1 to 10)? 10 Antichrist is a beautifully shot and deeply disturbing film in which “He” (Willem Dafoe) and “She” (Charlotte Gainsbourg) attempt to find what’s at the top of this triangle diagram: what She pathologically fears. After their child jumps out a window to his death while the ... Read More »
Spoiler Scale (How spoilery is this article on a scale of 1 to 10)? 8 Writer/director Lars von Trier’s Antichrist (2009) is the single most disturbing film I have seen in the last decade. To be sure, I was not a big fan of the torture porn wave, although I have seen Saw (2004) and Hostel (2005). And although I have never covered my ... 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 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 »
