I don’t wish to waste many words on Lincoln, the execrable mediocrity currently on offer from Fox. Sibelius once complained that people compared his music to Tchaikovsky’s: “I cannot understand why my symphonies are so often compared with Tchaikovsky’s. His symphonies are very human, but they represent the soft parts of human nature. Mine are [...]
Category Archives: Movies
Lincoln.
10-Jan-13Searching for Sugar Man.
24-Sep-12Recognition depends to a great extent on chance, but given enough time, chance produces fairly reliable results. In general, however, a single human lifetime is not long enough. And so there will always be people whose excellence goes unrecognized in their lifetimes. Van Gogh is the most extreme example, the painter who never sold a [...]
The Wolfman.
02-Aug-12The Film Forum is hosting a celebration of the work of Universal Pictures – a studio which has been operating for a hundred years now. One of its programs was a triple feature of three classic horror films, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, and The Wolfman. I had time to catch only the last film [...]
The 3:10 To Yuma.
22-Jan-12I saw the Western The 3:10 To Yuma at the Fox Theater in downtown Tucson last night. The movie was good, though the “suspension of disbelief” requirements were a little high for me: the plot revolves around getting a notorious desperado onto a train to be hanged in Yuma. A fairly large number of people die [...]
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.
02-Dec-11A trip to the Film Forum when I was in New York around Thanksgiving gave me the privilege of seeing The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. The promotional material cited the movie as “England’s greatest film” and “better than Citizen Kane” and so forth; but these are about as useful as the blurbs on [...]
Further Thoughts on Grizzly Man.
27-Aug-11I have written before that the movie Grizzly Man did not disturb me too much – I felt that the death of Timothy Treadwell – who was eaten by a grizzly bear after spending more than ten summers living in close quarters with them – was appropriate: we all must die, and this was a [...]
The Story of Temple Drake.
31-Jul-11Since my return from West Virginia, where I enjoyed the comforts of modern life, the physical challenges of my cabin life I have felt more as a burden than a pleasure. Summer is no time for physical labor or being overly responsible. Just yesterday I brought in groceries – bread and milk and ice – [...]
Of Gods and Men.
01-Apr-11I saw the movie Of Gods and Men two nights ago at the excellent little art-house movie theater in Kew Gardens. The movie was not perfect – poorly paced, occasionally indulgent, not quite as intelligent as it might have been – but it was very good, and it affected me. It depicted the monastic life beautifully [...]
Fritz Lang at the Film Forum.
29-Jan-11After suffering from a bit of the blahs, due to missing my cabin and spending a bit too much time in the distracted city, I’ve regained my appreciation – for whatever reason – for the texture of city life again. Yesterday a friend lured me away from a successful day of writing to go to [...]
Into Eternity.
18-Feb-11I saw the well-reviewed documentary “Into Eternity” last week, and was not too impressed, though I don’t quite regret the two hours. There has to be some excuse for making a movie out of what might be a thousand-word essay; and “Into Eternity” does not offer that kind of visual or experiential payoff. The facility [...]