One of my favorite movies of all time is Robert Zemeckis’ Back to the Future. When I was young, the movie blew me away, and I had a total crush on Michael J. Fox. I even tried to conceptualize how to make the flight conversion on cars work, and sent a letter to the President of the United States with my […]
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Writing about a pair of films that examine the terror of writing on the eve of the death of one of your writing heroes is a surreal experience, but that is what I am experiencing right now. I hope this doesn’t sound crass, but this one is for Roger Ebert (1943-2013). While I didn’t always agree with him, I nearly […]
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Rather than a great moment, I wanted to look at an incredible moment in cinema. That’s why I decided to focus on a sequence that is great not because it provides some deep insight into the themes of the film, or serves as a sort of complete story that stands on its own (though I would argue that it does […]
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Every now and then there comes a moment or a sequence in a film that is so shocking and so transgressive that it manages to stand apart from everything that came before or after, and establishes itself as something completely unforgettable. Often , these are moments that become ingrained in the mind of the viewer, thanks in large part to […]
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Remakes (or reimaginings, reboots, etc) seem to be all the rage in Hollywood these days, but this phenomenon has been occurring within the realm of cinema for a long time. Most of the time, remakes are pointless and don’t bring anything new or interesting to the table, thus alienating fans of the original work while simultaneously failing to bring new […]
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Once upon a time, when Web 2.0 was new, there was an online platform that people could use to share videos they made of their cats playing piano, their children reacting to dentists’ drugs, and their renditions of the history of dance. And that platform was good, as it gave anyone the chance to have their 15 seconds of fame […]
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In cinema, as in all art, sublime beauty can sometimes be found hidden within the most unlikely of places. Such is the case with Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008). Directed by Guillermo del Toro, the film is ostensibly little more than a pulpy, fun, and imaginative superhero film, but it nevertheless contains one of the most heartbreaking and breathtakingly […]
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Film noir is one of the oldest genres in cinema, and one that sort of epitomizes the films of the 1930s and 1940s. Indeed, even modern film noirs are often period pieces, since the genre is so closely linked to those two decades, in which many of the genre’s classics first emerged. As such, the genre often feels quaint, embodying […]
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These days, it seems there is a lot of talk among movie geeks about films being “game-changers.” As an acquaintance of mine on Facebook put it, it’s not enough for films to just be good anymore, instead they have to reinvent cinema as we know it. For example, The Avengers (2012) was touted as such, and was said to represent […]
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Quite often, movies, books, music, television shows, and other pieces of pop culture serve as a reflection of the time when they were made. Sometimes they are very much rooted in that time, and no longer feel relevant in the decades that follow. Occasionally, though, they maintain every ounce of the power they were infused with when they were first […]
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