The Wrestler: The Redemption of Mickey Rourke
Eli S. Evans02.03.09
The line that keeps circulating about Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler is that, in it, we witness the resurrection of Mickey Rourke. This ain’t exactly the truth. Rourke, the once baby faced tough who earned early comparisons to Dean and Brando, never went anywhere, ‘cept away from Hollywood for a bit, a circuitous route that saw him back in the boxing rings of his pre-acting youth and on the shit list of most everyone in Tinseltown. But he’s crept back with his villainous role in Sin City, and what happens in The Wrestler isn’t necessarily Rourke’s resurrection, but his redemption. A welcome return to form, however it’s put. Review by Eli S. Evans.
Holiday with Preston Sturges
Jason Jude Chan12.23.08
This holiday season forget about George Seaton and a Miracle on 34th or Frank Capra and his Wonderful Life; for a change of pace, if you happen to be in New York City, come down to Film Forum for an homage to one of Hollywood’s greatest, Preston Sturges, the writer and director of Christmas in July and many other brilliant screwball comedies. The festival “Essential Sturges” runs from Christmas Eve through New Years day. Jason Jude Chan previews.
Frost/Nixon: in review
Adam Underhill12.21.08
If you are too young to know which came first, Deep Throat or “Deep Throat,” now is a good time to wiki some history on the presidential scandal known as Watergate. These days there will certainly be plenty to read about, as infamous informer Mark “Deep Throat” Felt has passed away just days before Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon sees its nationwide theatrical release on December 25th. There have been other notable films on Richard Nixon, but Howard’s is different as it catches the man post-presidency, trying to secure his legacy against the reportage of David Friost, a rival in some ways as complex as Nixon himself. Adam Underhill reviews.
Rogert Ebert Wants To Throw Something
Casey McKinney12.06.08
…against a wall! And well I have to admit my last Vikernes tidbit was probably just what he was complaining about, but hey that’s indie…
Real Escapism: Kentucker Audley and Team Picture
Brian Pera11.03.08
Brian Pera reviews Ketucker Audley’s Team Picture, which started gaining attention at last year’s Memphis Film Festival. Since then it has been featured in New Talkies: the DIY Generation series at IFC, and film scholar Ray Carney included it as part of Independent’s Week: New Independent Cinema 2007 at the Harvard Archives. Team Picture has been embraced by – yet stands apart from – the current laissez-faire Youtube genre trend "mumblecore." Pera argues that Audley wields a unique style that bridges somewhere between the verité of a Cassavettes or Antonioni – the scenes slow and thoughtful, the directing more slight-handed than sleight of hand, and the final product beautiful and with purpose.
2008 New York Film Festival
Benjamin Strong09.26.08
Benjamin Strong takes us to this year’s New York Film Festival. While overall, perhaps not as strong as festivals past (a committee member was quoted saying the equivalent of the old: you go with the army you have, not the one you wish you had, or whatever it was Rumsfeld said about the Iraq war), but Strong does find some gems amidst the bunch. Read his preview before you purchase your tickets.
Jaws Revisited
Masha Tupitsyn09.15.08
Like a survivor from a good shark gnashing, what we see in a feature film is really the remains of a great deal of cutting and slicing. What happens in the editing room often stays in the editing room. Of course with the advent of DVDs we now get a lot more options in viewing a film, with the outtakes, deleted scenes, etc. Recently a retrospective of Spielberg films aired on TV, and here Masha Tupitsyn revisits with fresh perspective the collector’s edition DVD of the director’s 70’s blockbuster Jaws.
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
Kevin Killian08.27.08
HBO released a new documentary this summer by Marina Zenovich about director Roman Polanski’s long ago scandalous sexual encounter with a young girl – Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired. An exile from the States ever since this event and the subsequent bumbling, showy court case, Polanski has weathered more storms in his life than most could handle; yet Zenovich, in Kevin Killian’s view here, seems to be letting Polanski a little off the hook (for such a serious charge) in her retrospective cut. Art by Danny Jock.
Jacques Tati’s Trafic on Criterion DVD
Jonathan Rosenbaum06.26.08
Critic and scholar Jonathan Rosenbaum has written definitively about French director Jacques Tati over the years; Fanzine is pleased to have Rosenbaum’s take on Tati’s Trafic, newly available on DVD from the Criterion Collection.
Cinephiles rejoice
The Fanzine06.05.08
The Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, NY has launched Moving Image Source, a handsome new site for top-notch film criticism and scholarship….
