Screen
God’s lonely men
For most, Taxi Driver is summed up by one of the most famous lines in cinema: “You talking to me?” Conveying masculinity and bravado, it readies angry men for battle. But it is misleading. It is an act, a façade. The truth is found in the line that follows: “Well, I’...
Step into the story
At last year’s Starz Denver Film Festival, I entered a theater playing the movie Grigris with no knowledge of what it was about, who made it, what country it came from or anything other than it was screening and I was free. Grigris — a joint production between Chad ...
I see you, 2016
OH man, 2016 has gotta feel so nervous, knowing its elder sibling, 2015, was so flinging-flanging good. Father Time has to be like, “No,...
No-town music
At its worst, cinema verite is aimless pretense masquerading as artistic intent. At its best, it is Detropia, a documentary that adds soul to statistics, going inside the implosion of a once-proud city using a sprawling, haunting approach. That isn’t to say that ...
Don’t bother keeping up
Since The X Files, David Duchovny’s air of undentable diffidence has been his strength (to those who find him dreamy) as well as his limitation (to the others). In the social satire The Joneses, Duchovny plays a salesman who, at a key point, when he truly deserves ...
Out with the old, please
Two years ago, with the world economy about to be credit-defaultswapped right in the kisser, the first Sex and the City feature made $415 million worldwide. Its pre-sold fan base, already nostalgic for Cosmopolitans, heaved a collective, economically envious sigh: ...
It (almost) never works
Since American media sexualizes almost everything except sex, Hollywood romantic comedies about two people making hey-hey without any big plans for any big future rarely come easily or operate from a spirit of carnal delight. The strain of being hip and loose, yet ...
The more things change…
On Nov. 15, the Starz Denver Film Festival will screen a 35mm revival of Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, a movie that is as relevant today as when it debuted in 1989. This past summer’s headlines out of Ferguson, Missouri, and the death of Eric Garner in New York, ...
