NASHVILLE FILM FESTIVAL Day 3
For my third day at the Nashville Film Festival, I screened three of the best movies in the fest: Steve James’ THE INTERRUPTERS, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES, and James Marsh’s PROJECT NIM. I began the day engineering The Film Talk podcast live at the festival. Jett and Gareth interviewed [...]
NASHVILLE FILM FESTIVAL Day 2
I’m a few days behind on my day-to-day Nashville Film Fest posts, and for that I blame the Nashville Film Fest. The schedule is so chocked full with must-sees, I don’t have a moment to catch my breath. I am trying to get this particular post out in the 25 minutes left on my lunch [...]
NASHVILLE FILM FESTIVAL Day 1
My first day of The Nashville Film Festival was filled with some pretty spectacular cinema. Takashi Miike’s new film 13 ASSASSINS is a few dials less crazy than his average fair and a few notches more assured. Cut from the SEVEN SAMURAI mold, the film follows a group of samurai as they plot to kill [...]
SUCKER PUNCH, CERTIFIED COPY & The Nashville Film Festival
After an exhausting week of a Disney World vacation and NOT riding the new Harry Potter ride at Universal Studios because the park closed one hour earlier than I expected, I’m back for quick reviews of SUCKER PUNCH, CERTIFIED COPY, and the 2011 Nashville Film Festival. The Belcourt’s game-changing series VISIONS OF THE SOUTH has [...]
VISIONS OF THE SOUTH and 50s Cinema Morality
Dear Belcourt Theatre, I hate you. Your VISIONS OF THE SOUTH series is eating up every available moment of my spare time. Should I write a Film Talk blog or go watch THE PHENIX CITY STORY? Sorry, Film Talk.
KABOOM, ENTER THE VOID Director’s Cut, VISIONS OF THE SOUTH, and the OSCAR Snorefest
So, the 83rd annual Academy Awards happened. I think. The effort to revitalize the franchise for the “young and hip” demographic failed miserably. Twitter was abuzz with grand pronouncements of “most boring Oscars ever.” The historically-inaccurate THE KING’S SPEECH robbed the historically-inaccurate THE SOCIAL NETWORK of all the highest honors. The most entertaining part of [...]
A Second Opinion on BLUE VALENTINE
I spent the afternoon watching the Liam Neeson thriller UNKNOWN with Jett at the Regal Green Hills. I don’t want to reveal my impressions until Jett and Gareth get a chance to review it on the upcoming Film Talk podcast; but for now, let me co-opt a Jett phrase and say, “Oh boy.” I also [...]
9 Movies to Mend a BROKEN-HEART
As last week’s This Week in TFT revealed, I was supposed to write about the global financial crisis documentary INSIDE JOB for my next TFT article. Because of an important podcast release of my own — the 50th episode of THEATRE INTANGIBLE – and some personal drama, I missed the last screening of INSIDE JOB [...]
MARWENCOL, THE KING’S SPEECH & A Leader Tragically Ousted!
A great injustice occurred this week. This heavy blow strikes me breathless, but I must find within me the lung capacity to cry out! A leader has been ousted from his place of rule, leaving unrest, upheaval, and the ashes of what once were. No, I’m not talking about what’s been happening in Tunisia. No, [...]
Youngblood on Film: My TOP TEN Films of 2010 Part 2 plus RABBIT HOLE & COUNTRY STRONG
I’m sure you’ve all been waiting with bated breath for the continuation of last week’s TOP TEN films of 2010 part 1. If you’ve yet to read part 1, go do so, then come back. Good? Before I get to my top 5 of the year, I have to talk about two films I saw [...]
Youngblood on Film: My TOP TEN Films of 2010 Part 1
I have a confession to make. I hate writing. . . . . . with every fiber of my being. When I’m staring down a deadline and a blank screen, I’m filled with overwhelming anxiety and a terminal case of the IDontWannas. I think about all the other things I could be doing: Watching a [...]
TRUE GRIT, BLACK SWAN, TRON LEGACY, and IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE
I’ve seen a few films over the past few weeks, but none hold a candle to IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, which I viewed for the first time in 10 years at The Belcourt Theatre. It’s neither a Christmas film nor a religious one, although the holiday trimmings may suggest otherwise. (Lucky that. I’m not a [...]
TRON LEGACY: 3 Dimensions of Cliche
Most of the time, I’m quite content with my indie and foreign film diet. But every now again, I crave the high-calorie, high-fat content of an EVENT film. These are the films for which you soak up the production diaries; buy tickets for in advance; stay up late for the midnight premiere; pack yourself into [...]
Disney’s TANGLED: Notes from the Front Line
There are moments in adulthood when you find yourself staring down the barrel of your life choices. One such moment came for me Sunday night when I went to the theater to see TANGLED, Walt Disney’s 50th animated film. The crowded theater of early-teens and children/parent bonds seemed to do a collective double-take as I [...]
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 [...]
From THE KID to LIMELIGHT: The Humanism of Charlie Chaplin
“Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness.” — Charlie Chaplin’s unnamed protagonist in THE GREAT DICTATOR. There’s always been an air of humanism in Charlie Chaplin’s films. The sentiment is perhaps best summed up by the above quote from THE GREAT DICTATOR. [...]
Are DUE DATE and PLANES, TRAINS, & AUTOMOBILES the Same Film?
As many reviews will tell you, DUE DATE — the 2010 Downey Jr/Galifianakis feel-good buddy/road movie — is quite a lot like PLANES, TRAINS, & AUTOMOBILES — the 1987 Martin/Candy feel-good buddy/road movie. More than quite a lot. I can imagine DUE DATE’s director Todd Phillips pitching the idea: “It’s like PLAINS, TRAINS, & AUTOMOBILES, [...]
Reader Feedback: Favorite Halloween Movies
I don’t know about you, but I LOVE Halloween — so much that I find October to be my busiest month. This year alone, I helped organize a circuit-bending music festival and produced 4 unique Halloween podcasts for my experimental music blog Theatre Intangible. I also went through as many haunted houses as time permitted, [...]
Documentary Ethics, Economic Disparity, and LAST TRAIN HOME
The problem with many modern documentaries is that it’s hard to know what to think without more information on their production. Take for example The King of Kong, an exceedingly-entertaining glimpse at the battle for the Donkey Kong high-score whose ultra-simplistic David & Goliath story felt too good to be true. Turns out it may [...]
Dennis Hopper’s The Last Movie and The American Dreamer
Maybe I misunderstood Joaquin Phoenix’s I’m Still Here when I called it an over-privileged aping of Andy Kaufman and Borat. (See my The Film Talk review here.) As I watched the 1971 documentary The American Dreamer — about Dennis Hopper and the making of his ill-fated The Last Movie – I had an epiphany. Phoenix [...]
THE SOCIAL NETWORK or How Facebook Caught My Girlfriend Cheating
In 2005, my college-aged friends introduced me to Myspace and Facebook. I quickly fell under Myspace’s spell, creating a personal and band page, taking way too many vanity self-portraits, and attempting to ‘friend’ as many quirky, cute girls that I could find in a 45 mile vicinity. I would have done the same with Facebook, [...]
Ticket for One – A Night at the Movies – By Yourself
If you’re like me, you often find yourself alone at the cinema ticket line. Try as you might, you just couldn’t sell your partner or your friends on the Jacques Tati retrospective or the 6 hour Hungarian black and white epic. Of course, your friends blamed a lack of cash, prior commitments, or a head [...]
I'm Still Here – A Brave, Miscalculated Mess
The problem with talking about I’m Still Here is that we have to discuss something you by all rights shouldn’t know when entering the theater. But every review you come across will pontificate on it. Odds are you already know what I’m talking about. If you don’t, stop here, and go watch the movie. Spoilers [...]
Leave Her to Heaven: Hollywood Chauvinism or Feminist Masterpiece?
To discuss John M. Stahl’s 40s Technicolor noir Leave Her to Heaven in any great detail would be to give too much away, and I don’t want to rob you of the film’s many pleasures. I’ll tell you this much: Fiction writer Richard Harland (Cornel Wilde) meets the beautiful and mysterious Ellen Berent (Gene Tierney) [...]
