From the pool party dive in Boogie Nights inspired by Mikhail Kalatozov’s I Am Cuba to the steering wheel scene in Hard Eight that so deftly recalls Alfred Hitchcock’s Saboteur, playing spot the reference with Paul Thomas Anderson is always fun. It is through these moments that we can fully appreciate the voracious depth at which one man is embroiled in his art; forever the immersed student …
In his relatively short time directing films, Paul Thomas Anderson has been called a rock star, a genius, an artist who knows no limits, the most devout filmmaker of his generation, and even the best film director in the world. Anderson has secured a spot in the hearts of most cinephiles generally reserved for dearly …
I still remember the first time I saw Philip Seymour Hoffman. It was in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia, and I was 13 years old. Already, I’d been bitten by the film bug, and that bite had driven me to pursue films that my friends had no interest in seeing. As such, I wouldn’t come to …
What more can be said about Philip Seymour Hoffman, especially in the wake of his terribly tragic, premature death? He was perhaps the finest actor of his generation, he was deeply loved in his community, and he was a partner, a father.
An actor leaving us is the most strange of phenomenon. There is some solace in that, leaving behind a rich and diverse body of work, available to be re-watched forever, they do take on a certain unique immortality.
Growing up gay as a suburban teenager in the mid 90s, my access to queer culture was severely limited (ie nonexistent). Before the proliferation of the internet, one relied on the “gay” section in bookstores and video stores, if there even was one, to seek out examples of visible representation in the media throughout the …
Punch-Drunk Love Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson Written by Paul Thomas Anderson 2002, USA There’s something about films like Punch-Drunk Love that can leave you feeling faintly bloated – not quite to the extent of a three-course meal; those sort of delicacies are saved for the epics (Ben Hur, anyone?), but more like an overflowing …
Sightseers Directed by Ben Wheatley Written by Steve Oram, Alice Lowe & Ben Wheatley (with additional material from Amy Jump) 2012, UK Either Ben Wheatley is a boiling pot of pent-up rage, or he is the complete opposite and thus finds perverse pleasure in humouring the rage fantasies and violent tendencies of the frustrated working-class …
*Disclaimer: the following is based on and an expansion of an article written by Peter Howell, the Toronto Star Movie Critic. It’s a truth universally acknowledged that a film of the lowest common denominator adds nothing to the institution of cinema. But as profiteers like Adam Sandler have already understood, when money speaks, truth is …
On January 25, 2007, Onion A.V. Club critic Nathan Rabin inadvertently added a phrase to the movie lexicon. One that would eventually get it’s own Wikipedia page and it’s own NPR story. The Manic Pixie Dream Girl. In his review of Elizabethtown, Rabin said the following of Kirstin Dunst’s character: “Dunst embodies a character type I like to call The Manic Pixie Dream Girl (see Natalie Portman in Garden State for another prime example). The Manic Pixie Dream Girl exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures. The Manic Pixie Dream Girl is an all-or-nothing-proposition. Audiences either want to marry her instantly (despite The Manic Pixie Dream Girl being, you know, a fictional character) or they want to commit grievous bodily harm against them and their immediate family.”
90- Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) Directed by Mike Leigh Genre: Comedy / Drama In a shift away from his usual exploration of the dark and dreary, director Mike Leigh takes a lighter look at life with Happy-Go-Lucky. Sally Hawkins is a comic revelation as the lead character Poppy, delivering a nervy, utterly captivating tour de force performance. …
Undertones: Volume 8 As we approach the end of the decade, it seems fitting that this installment of Undertones concern itself with some of the most memorable film scores of the ‘00s. Though the films range in financial or critical success, and opinions may be divided as to the strength of some of the films …
Before I get to number 49 I feel the need to list fifty honorable mentions. This is a very personal list and I am confident that I could have easily chosen 100 foreign language films or 100 independent art house films and skipped out on all the Hollywood flicks, but I decided to go with …