The Brattle Celebrates 20th Century Fox

11/25/10 9:26 AM

Today, Cambridge’s own Brattle Theatre opens up their celebration of 20th Century Fox in a reparatory series that will take place, on and off, till after Christmas. 2010 marks the 75th anniversary of the studio, and art houses across the country have been screening films from the theater throughout the year. The Brattle has chosen an incredibly diverse and inspired selection of films to represent the company, and best of all, each and every single one will be playing from a new 35mm print (which, hopefully, will lead to Blu-Ray releases for some of these flicks). Every film here has a really large fan following, and I had to tag four of them with my highest recommendation, as they’re some of my favorite films ever made. Here’s the lineup, featuring hallucinatory musicals,...

RIP Sally Menke

9/28/10 6:22 PM

Today we lost Sally Menke, one of the truly great American editors working in the cinematic arts. Though she amassed over twenty credits over the past two decades, she is best known and will be remembered for being Quentin Tarantino’s most important collaborator, his editor for all six of his meticulously structured films. The cinema is in many ways a collection of previous art forms, of painting, dancing, photography, music, theatre, any and all influences can be shaped in a film. Editing, however, is the sole art form exclusive to the Cinema, and Menke was perhaps the most influential editor of the past two decades. The non-linear structures apparent in their work would be enough to certify her influence, to this day the broken narratives achieved so perfectly in...

My Take On... "Kick-Ass"

4/22/10 6:19 PM

My Take On… “Kick-Ass” Matthew Vaughn’s “Kick Ass” may be the most infuriating movie I have seen in a long time, but that’s probably just because it spends the first fifteen minutes pretending it’s going to have something interesting to say. The film, sold on the premise of “what if super heroes existed in the real world?” (you know, the premise of every other comic book movie ever made) starts as a combination of genre commentary and “American Pie” style humor (people still laugh at jokes about large African nipples and jerking off in 2010? Really?), then slowly but surely devolves into a sophomoric, emotionless attempt at an action film. The film, following four eccentric superheroes (the plucked-from-Superbad... 1 comment

From the Vault: "Days of Heaven"

3/31/10 3:43 PM

  Terrence Malick makes films like no other person working today. His works, currently standing at four films over four decades, are connected by doomed romance, philosophically simple narration, absolutely gorgeous cinematography, and a feel that is best described as “dreamlike”. In recent times (“The Thin Red Line”, and “The New World) he has turned his attention to significant historical events, “Heaven” almost defys setting, instead living through its themes and timeless visuals. This is not a film about the story, engrossing though it is. It is a film about images, about mood, about feelings, to quote the great Samuel Fuller: “one word: emotion.” Richard Gere is Bill, Brooke Adams is his love Abby, Linda Manz is (wait for...

Top Ten Cult Movies

3/4/10 1:15 PM

There’s nothing I love more than a radical, non-conformist, ballsy as hell, swing for the fences movie. There almost always intensely personal (who can’t appreciate the wealth of subtext in “The Toxic Avenger”), and the kind of picture that makes for perfect cult fare. Most crashed and burned at the box office, only to gain small but rabid followings in the years and decades to come. Some can’t even be found on DVD, but all are perfect for late night movie sessions. I could go on for hours and hours, but after days of scientific research, I present to you my Top Ten ridiculous cult films: 10. Sergio Corbucci’s “The Great Silence” (1968) – Spaghetti westerns had to be represented on this list somewhere, and the works of Sergio Leone...