Classics
A Note on The Wild Bunch
THE ONLY WAY TO STOP A BAD GUY WITH A GUN.... The Wild Bunch immediately establishes itself as a film not just pushing the limits of what people have seen in Westerns up until the…
Classics
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A Note on Anomalisa
For Charlie Kaufman, with each passing film he has continued to deconstruct what we typically expect from a standard narrative, acknowledging there are no rules to how you can write or tell a story. Basically,…
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A Note on MacBeth
The Bard’s most loyal groupies have their favorite tragedies, comedies and histories and they tend to consider these plays sacred text, which makes adapting them for film a risky endeavor. It takes a delicate touch…
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A Note on The Lobster
The world can be a cruel place to someone “unmatched.” You are hunted down in the forest, harassed by police in the shopping malls and you’re forced to find a match or else you’ll be…
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A Note On Bone Tomahawk
Finally! Kurt Russell returns to Westerns with two coming out this year. The first is Bone Tomahawk, a debut feature for director S. Craig Zahler and a reminder of why we love Russell in Westerns.…
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A Note on "American Sniper"
If the talk on the Internet over the controversies surrounding the movie American Sniper were audible, it would be deafening. The controversy, of course, calls into question the veracity of the “true story” while accusing…
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A Note on 'Her'
Truffaut and I have two things in common. 1) We both get particularly precious when we talk about film, becoming painfully pretentious as I quote people like Truffaut. 2) We believe great films and directors…
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A Note on "Inside Llewyn Davis"
Inside Llewyn Davis is the story of the title character, a folk singer that struggles (sometimes less than admirably) in the early ‘60s folk music scene in New York City. He sleeps on couches and…
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A Note on '12 Years A Slave'
12 Years A Slave is the story of Solomon Northup, an African-American man born free in New York in the early 1800's but was kidnapped at 33 and sold into slavery. It's a tragic and…
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A Note on Trance
The Wife and I got a night to go see a movie, called Zalmans – plurual – grabbed some delicious Bier de Garde – part of New Belgium’s Lips of Faith brews – we laugh,…
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A Note on Argo, Beasts and a Queen...
[caption id="attachment_848" align="alignleft" width="300"] Illustration by Concepción Studios[/caption] ARGO First, I need to address Ben Affleck directly and say, what the hell happened? I thought I knew where our relationship stood. When we first met…
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A Note on 'The Master'
When the lights faded up in Cinerama Dome at the Arclight there was the sound of one person clapping slowly in the back of the theater. I looked to the steel expression of my friend,…
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Jiro Dreams of Sushi
Lindsey was 9 months pregnant, a couple days past her due date, so we were trying to take our mind off just waiting for labor and thought we should use up our AMC gift cards.…
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A note on Shame
I stood with Bianchi and The Wife outside the Chinese Theater in a stand-by line for Shame during the AFI Fest and we didn't get in. I was pissed but we calmed ourselves at 25…
Classics
Rambling about Capra and Sturges
On my continuing journey into American filmmakers I compared Preston Sturges and Frank Capra, two great comic directors of their day. I watched the films directed by Sturges and Capra and read their autobiographies. They…
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A Note on Herzog at the Egyptian
Thank God for the AFI Fest and their free tickets to shows that I just can't convince my wife to spend money to see. She's not interested? No matter, a few friends are, so…
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Notes on A Mondo Night at The 'New' Beverly!
If you aren't familiar with Mondo posters, don't fret, as of now they are still only a part of the cinephile lexicon but are quickly becoming the pinnacle of movie posters, turning out limited editions…
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A Note on Drive
Stress has been attacking Lindsey's body as she completes her Labor and Delivery training while being 8 weeks pregnant. My solution, a date night starting with a couples massage at a small place on Ventura…
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Shooting Steven Spielberg
Working for the New York Film Academy has some perks; aside from getting to bask in the cheery personalities that work the equipment room (Bianchi), we get to shoot video for the Q&A's of working…
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A Note on "Water for Elephants"
It's taken me a while to think about what to really write about Water for Elephants. I figure it's because the movie itself doesn't have anything interesting to say, there isn't much depth to it,…
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A Note on "Hanna"
My apologizes to Ms. Hartwig, as I stole Friend-licia to watch Boston the other night so The Wife and I could catch a movie in Century City. It was a last minute call and we…
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A Note on 'Insidious'
[caption id="attachment_550" align="alignright" width="300" caption="thanks, movie poster, now I have to look up the distinction between "further" and "farther""][/caption] With more and more close friends starting to get positions in film and television it can…
Classics
A Note on Preston Sturges, pt. 2 (major spoilers as I discuss the lackluster endings)
Between 1940 and 1942 Preston Sturges made three highly regarded comedies for Paramount: The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels and The Palm Beach Story. All three were made in succession right at the zenith of Sturges'…
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A Note on 'Even The Rain'
The Spanish actress-turned-director Icíar Bollaín has, I'm ashamed to admit, been off my radar. I haven't seen her other films, but I am going to now. Her latest film, Even The Rain, seems simple when…
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Rambling 'bout a Valentine's Day On The Fringe...
I didn't have a lot to do this Valentine's Day. The wife and I slept in as long as our 8 month old would allow (which was actually a pretty good sleep in) and then…
Classics
A note on Preston Sturges, part 1
THE GREAT MCGINTY and CHRISTMAS IN JULY Again, the wife has started her night shifts, Bean goes to bed early, so at the age of 30 on Saturday nights in a whirling metropolis I shut…
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Rambling about "Howl"
A narrative film pulled from the transcripts of interviews and court documents about the obscenity trail surrounding the publication of Allen Ginsberg's 4-part poem "Howl" was something I was dying to see, anticipation building since…
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A Note on The King's Speech
There's not a traditional villain or antagonist in The King's Speech. This makes it very difficult for a director to provide a visual to for the audience to identify the "villain," in this case a…
Guest Blogger
A Note on the Best 23 Films of 2010...
Here is a list of the best films of 2010 according to our Friend on the Fringe and contributing writer, Eric Rowe. Enjoy. Note: Some of these films may have technically came out in 2009,…
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A note on Rex Reed and True Grit
I wasn't going to be writing anything about True Grit. I figured it goes without saying that the Coen Brothers know how to make a good film, and this is no exception. But then I…
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Rambling about The Fighter from the comfort of my home...
Another benefit to being on the fringe, Academy screeners! They send out DVDs packaged by hundreds of assistants all over Hollywood so voting members (which unfortunately I am not) can decide on the top award…
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A note on Tom Hardy and the film 'Bronson'
Back when The Wrestler was released two years ago I read this quote describing Mickey Rourke in the film; “A harmonic convergence of player and part that happens only once in a blue moon.” That's…
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A stream of thought on a King's Speech tease...
hanging low the fog coming off the ocean miles off it smells like salt a salty rain that smell of rain just moments away chilling a hot decemeber day hot in december 80 + degrees…
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A note on the 'Minute to Win It' & "Plastic Bag"
For almost two months I have been working for NBC on the show Minute To Win It. We shot several episodes at the end of last month and the highly anticipated (?) premiere was this…
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Rambling about Thanksgiving dinner
Every other year my in-laws are in town for Thanksgiving and we go to Jim Brown's house in the Glendale hills for dinner. He's the uncle to my brother-in-law. And no, it's not the Jim…
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A Note on Cassavetes, Bier and Crazy Women
It's Thanksgiving, lets ramble about the movies I'm watching. Over the weekend/days off leading up to Thanksgiving I watched the movies from Netflix that have been sitting on my TV for about two weeks. It…
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Notes on 'Black Swan'
I had plans this Saturday, plans to be productive. I made a list, because Tony Robbins says if you’re going to be successful you should make lists. But that list was quickly thrown out when…
Guest Blogger
A Note on The Holy Mountain
today's posting written by a friend on the fringe, Eric Rowe Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain is a bizarre, surreal satirical exploration of a man’s quest for his inner truth. On that note, this is…
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Notes on The Color of Paradise
A lazy Saturday - I finished watching True Grit, went to Costco with the wife and daughter then returned to watch The Color of Paradise, a beautiful Iranian film from filmmaker Majid Majidi. The DVD…
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Notes on The Social Network
“I have never heard a story as horrible as this…This time, I may finally lose my faith in the human soul. It’s worse than bandits, the plague, famine, fire or war.” ~ the priest in…
A Note on the Notes
Since the dawn of cinema there have been critics around to berate the filmmakers, extract some contrived meaning and cast harsh judgement on those who disagree with the critics opinion. It's strange how it works,…