Hey everyone…just a quick one today, since I’m writing this one on the Fourth of July and have better things to do, like walk around the neighborhood and watch people celebrate American independence by firing off fireworks made in China. Plus, you’re probably all hung over from celebrating America’s enduring awesomeness, and probably so bleary-eyed you can’t really focus on […]
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Hey folks (or folk, depending on how many people actually read this column). Due to academic obligations and some family stuff that went down recently, today’s post is going to be a short one. Furthermore, since part of my grad school research is devoted to gender issues in the films of Nicolas Winding Refn, I decided to look at one […]
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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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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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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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Vampires and zombies may be all the rage these days, but for my money, it’s the werewolf that occupies the top spot in the monster pantheon (okay, maybe second place, right behind Godzilla…but that’s another editorial altogether). Unfortunately, the number of good werewolf movies can be counted on one hand, and even then you wouldn’t have to use all of […]
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Even though he was largely marginalized throughout his career, Orson Welles is nevertheless widely considered one of the best and most important directors in the history of cinema. His first film, Citizen Kane (1941), is an influential masterpiece that spent the better part of 50 years occupying the top spot of the Sight and Sound poll of the greatest films […]
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For this installment of Great Moments in Cinema, we’re going all the way back to 1924, to look at a sequence that celebrates the power of cinema, which was at that time was still a young and novel medium, and had not yet evolved the style of film grammar with which we are all familiar today. Nevertheless, Buster Keaton, the […]
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The dog days of summer are officially upon us (though for most of us, it feels like they’ve been here for a while now), and what better way to welcome the season than to take a look at one of the best moments from a flick that is not only one of the best summer movies of all time, but […]
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