You Do Not Talk About Fight Club: I Am Jack’s Completely Unauthorized Essay Collection. A new collection edited by Metaphilm publisher Read Mercer Schuchardt with a foreword by Chuck Palahniuk. Paperback, 224 pages, from Benbella Books. Click here for a sneak preview . . .
Friday, November 21, 2008
Robert McKee Explains Synecdoche, NY
"The world of a story must be small enough that you can become the God in it,” he said. “If you have a huge canvas it’s impossible to be the God of that universe and you’ll write cliches.” Is this Robert McKee-ism the one-line explanation for Synecdoche, NY? Is Charlie Kaufman, after imitating McKee in Adaptation, now embodying him? Is Philip Seymour Hoffman just Being Robert McKee in this new film?
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
My History of Violence
A must-read for any Fight Club or media ecology fans out there. Thanks to Sam Diaz for the link.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
A Movie On Your Phone? Get Real.
David Lynch lays down the law. Cinephiles take note.
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Indiana Jones and the Deadly Blather
“Notes on the devolution of a franchise” by Peter T. Chattaway in Books & Culture: “Perhaps the most intriguing thing about this series is that, if you watch the films in sequential order—the second film, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), is actually a prequel that takes place one year before Raiders—you can chart a spiritual journey of sorts from paganism to Judaism to Christianity and, now, alas, to some sort of post-religious, pseudo-scientific, New Age sensibility. In a strangely microcosmic and presumably unintentional form, the spiritual journey of Indiana Jones happens to match that of the civilization which produced him.” Thanks to Robert M. Lindsey.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Kaufman Strikes Again
This will easily be one of the top three films this year.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Politics as Cinema, 2008
Seems as if the only way we can tolerate politics these days is if it’s interpreted through cinema. Here’s something for both sides of the American contest.
First, an amusing riff from The Paragraph Farmer: “In cinematic terms, the [Democratic] political convention underway in Denver may be interpreted as a subtle remake of Grease. . . . Barack will not mug for the cameras in a muscle shirt the way John Travolta did, but Democrats now swoon through summer nights, hoping the rest of us will join them in a chorus of ‘Tell me more! Tell me more! Was it love at first sight?’”
Then, from Blogcritics Magazine: “The use of a movie metaphor gives the candidates a pre-written, pre-vetted script from our popular culture of what to do on the campaign in the media environments that they can control, and how to react to the unforeseeable situations that inevitably arise. For John McCain, and perhaps more pertinently, for his campaign strategists, it is increasingly clear that their motivating movie metaphor is Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. . . . For Barack Obama, it is clear that his guiding cinematic metaphor is Mr. Smith Goes to Washington with perhaps a dash of Indiana Jones thrown in.”
Quantifying The Analysis of Dukes of Hazard
Here’s one way to do it, pie-chart style.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Another Disney Sex Movie?
Wall*E is About Sex? Who knew? And why aren’t more people writing about this?
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
By the Ladies For the Ladies
Diane English, of Murphy Brown fame, directs an all-female cast in an almost all-female production called The Women. Is this one of those 18 million cracks in the ceiling, or is this revenge for Hillary not getting the nomination? The other odd thing is that Mick Jagger is one of the producers. Is Jagger paying his dues after getting all that satisfaction? Themes of the film, according to English, are Female Empowerment, Body Image, and Self-Esteem. Film is out September 12—interpretations welcome.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
‘X-Files’ Movie Tanks at Box Office
“During the Clinton era—when conspiracy theories ran riot—the show had a real connection to the American psyche. It had additional social resonance in the runup to the year 2000, when some religious folk were predicting world-changing events would occur because of divine intervention, and more earthbound doomsayers claimed that the U.S. economy was going to shut down because computers would not be able to handle the changeover to the year 2000. . . . Today, however, when we face real conspiracies such as 9/11 and the continuing Islam-based carnage in Iraq and in Europe, it seems the fanciful stuff of the X-Files no longer speaks to people. Now we have to believe in horrors we really don’t Want to Believe.” S. T. Karnick’s The American Culture.
