CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER: That’s Entertainment
The only thing more tiresome than Marvel’s latest Shakespeare tragedy is the postmodern elevation of trash/pop/camp—a useful experiment, like shaving your head— so I won’t say Joe Johnston’s CAPTAIN AMERICA: WORLD-FRIENDLY SUBTITLE is a good film.
HARRY POTTER & THE DEATHLY HALLOWS 2: Childish Things
As half-films go, David Yates’ HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2, FILM 8: ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET VOLDEMORT lurches from scene to setpiece like it’s Daniel Radcliffe’s awkwardly effortful performance.
MIDNIGHT IN PARIS: L’Age D’Or
Speaking of pseudointellectuals, I’ve never—not even at SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE—seen a movie with an audience more vigorously engaged in the signaling to everyone else that, yes, old sport, they got the reference, they’re very smart, they had THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL over for dinner the other night
X-MEN: FIRST CLASS: Birth of a Nation
I guess X-MEN: FIRST CLASS was set in the ‘60s to better reflect Matthew Vaughn’s thoughtless patriarchal identification, because it damn sure wasn’t about civil rights, the Cold War, liberation, or the Holocaust, weighty abstracts whittled into icons, the better for Vaughn to pretend his film has some deep, world-historical meaning
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST
It isn’t simply that I like DEAD MAN’S CHEST better than CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL, that my sui generis brain chemistry arbitrarily prefers squid-pirates to skeletal specters and sexy rogues to straight-laced do-gooders, thought that’s certainly true.
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES
While the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN franchise started with a fun, fresh take on a notoriously stale brand of box office poison, eight years and two directors later, the plastic surgery is finally catching up to it.
THOR: Norwegian Wood
If you only see one small-town American story with an Oedipal skeleton enveloping space and time and prehistoric beasts this summer, please, for the love of all that is cinematically holy, make it Terrence Malick’s THE TREE OF LIFE, because Kenneth Branagh’s nominally Norse still-life THOR is so cosmically incompetent
Carlos Reygadas, BATTLE IN HEAVEN and the Sound of Silence
The Film Talk’s magnificent JumboChat5000 operating system, which also coughs up my lottery numbers, recently flagged up a months-old post by my comrade Tony Youngblood about cinema anima.
Survival of the Shiftiest: Richard Stanley and the Deep Magic of DUST DEVIL
Jett here: I’m excited to introduce a new contributor to the site – Tim Hayes. Tim’s a freelance writer based in the UK, who earns his living writing about business, science, art, and other topics in a land where, according to legend, the work of the journalist is respected and rewarded.
RED RIDING HOOD: Season of the Witch
2011 in general and the weekly viewing of films in particular have taught me a valuable lesson: there are many different kinds of terrible movies. THE EAGLE may be incompetently scripted, but it’s degrees of quality better than the immoral (THE LINCOLN LAWYER), the amoral (THE MECHANIC), and the thunderously boring (BATTLE: LOS ANGELES).
THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU: Patriarchy Rules
When will people learn? Mystery is greater than resolution. Curiosity lured us from hulking mouth-breathers into torture rationalizers—but torture-rationalizers who went to the Moon! Answers just remind us that George Nolfi’s THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU is a work of poorly planned screenwriting about half-forgotten ideas
Youngblood on Film: HARRY POTTER & THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1
In keeping with the Film Talk’s Pottermania, I sludged out to my local cineplex yesterday evening and forestalled sleep to see the penultimate Potter film. That may sound like I wasn’t looking forward to it — but I was, if memory serves correct. The actual movie wrote-over whatever I was thinking before the lights went [...]
Episode 152 – HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS / 127 HOURS
On this week’s podcast reviews Gareth and I disagree in the extreme about HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, not so much about 127 HOURS.
HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN
I’m not going to inspire any fainting spells by saying HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN is the best film in the franchise. I might when I say that the other six are barely watchable. Why is the Alfonso Cuarón entry so much better? Glad you asked.
A Slasher Halloween: CALIGARI, THE LEOPARD MAN, & HOUSE OF WAX
I know, I know, Halloween’s over and you’re all ready to start celebrating Election Day or Guy Fawkes Day or The Holiday Formerly Known as Armistice Day or something, but I could hardly have told you how I spent my Halloween before Halloween. So, without further ado, brief thoughts on the evolution of the film [...]
Episode 148: THE SOCIAL NETWORK / ENTER THE VOID / David Nadelberg Interviewed on MORTIFIED
On this week’s podcast Gareth and Jett discuss in-depth the film THE SOCIAL NETWORK and the extraordinary new work ENTER THE VOID as well as interview David Nadelberg of MORTIFIED
I'M NOT THERE: Song of Myselves
Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There. is the antibiopic. Who is Bob Dylan? We get six answers, one for each phase in the artist’s life, each “Dylan” played by a different person with a different name, all metaphysically connected. What is Dylan’s life story? It’s America, a freewheelin’ carnival loosely pasted together, impasto textures only roughly [...]
TFT 142 – SCOTT PILGRIM / EAT PRAY LOVE / THE NATURAL
TFT 142 running time: 50 minutes 27 seconds – 24.2mb mp3 SCOTT PILGRIM starts at 2 minutes 20 seconds EAT PRAY LOVE starts at 26 minutes 10 seconds THE NATURAL starts at 40 minutes 49 seconds – – – Subscribe to the Podcast – Become a TFT Member Follow TFT on Twitter – Follow TFT [...]
TFT 117 – CLASH OF THE TITANS / THE DHAMMA BROTHERS / ALICE IN WONDERLAND / On Editing
TFT 117 – CLASH OF THE TITANS / THE DHAMMA BROTHERS / ALICE IN WONDERLAND / On Editing – – – DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE: CLASH OF THE TITANS / THE DHAMMA BROTHERS / SABOTEUR / ALICE IN WONDERLAND / THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND
TFT 109 – The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus / The Road / The Book of Eli / Up in the Air
TFT 109 – The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus / The Road / The Book of Eli / Up in the Air – – – DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE: THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS / THE ROAD THE BOOK OF ELI / UP IN THE AIR
TFT 96 – Where the Wild Things Are / 5 Ways to Make Your Film Better / Let's Get Lost
In this week’s episode Gareth and I review ‘Where the Wild Things Are’, in association with Filmmaker Magazine we list Five Ways to Make Your Film Better and in a TFT first we have a listener, Juan Pablo Colon, help us review the documentary ‘Let’s Get Lost’: Get TFT delivered weekly via iTunes Subscribe to [...]
The Film Talk – Part 77 – Tetro / Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
This Episode: Tetro / Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (to hear our interview with Francis Ford Coppola on Tetro click here) Get TFT delivered weekly via iTunes Subscribe to our podcast Subscribe to our blog Follow us on Twitter
The FilmTalk – Part 66 – Angels and Demons
This Episode: Angels and Demons / Angels over Berlin / Night of the Demon Get TFT delivered weekly via iTunes Subscribe to our podcast Subscribe to our blog Follow us on Twitter
Terry Gilliam's 'Don Quixote' Back On
God Bless Terry Gilliam. Really. He’s one of those directors that, as long as he’s out there making movies, then all’s right with the world. Wit, inventiveness, style, integrity and above all imagination – these are the hallmarks of Gilliam’s work.* If he ever stops producing we’re in a heap of trouble. Which makes me [...]
