[frame align=”left”] [/frame]I love movies about the 1881 showdown in Tombstone, AZ between Wyatt Earp and the Clanton gang. My favorite is Tombstone, but I won’t sleight Gunfight at the OK Corral, My Darling Clementine, or Hour of the Gun (which actually starts with the gunfight and follows the events afterward). I can’t stand Kevin Costner’s epic, sprawling Wyatt Earp, … Read More
Thirty years of Excalibur
Thirty years ago the Arthurian myth first grabbed hold of me when I saw Excalibur on its initial release. Prior to that, I’d encountered King Arthur only through the Disneyfied Sword in the Stone, or the bloodless Technicolor epic Knights of the Round Table. John Boorman’s 1981 film was different: limbs were hacked off, breasts were bared and there was … Read More
Meet the Queen of the Lot
This is the final post on films I watched over the Thanksgiving holiday. I watched other films (Leatherheads, Pandorum, Coffee and Cigarettes), but there isn’t much to say about them. I’m ending on a high note, though. A while back I stumbled across the work of Henry Jaglom, a filmmaker who’s been forging his own indie path for forty years. … Read More
Do I want to know Me and You and Everyone We Know?
Madison, WI poet Lisa Marie Brodsky recommended Miranda July’s 2005 film Me and You and Everyone We Know, and I finally watched it over the holiday weekend. It’s an indie film in the broadest sense, made by an outsider artist and about outsider people, some of whom do things so confoundingly odd that you wonder if they exist anywhere but … Read More
In defense of Superman Returns
Over at the science fiction blog io9, hardly a week passes that doesn’t involve a dig at Bryan Singer’s 2006 film Superman Returns. For example: Warner Brothers Takes the Time to Make a Superman That Won’t Suck. Next Superman Movie Will Have Actual Superheroics. How to Make You Believe a Man Could Fly Again. While some criticisms are valid (a … Read More
First post
Never had a blog before. Never thought anything I’d have to say would be that interesting. Still not sure it will be. But it’s the wave everybody else is already riding, so I’m belatedly climbing on the surfboard. I’m the guy with his beach sandals over his black socks. I’ll post mainly about writing (mine and other people’s), movies and … Read More