FILM
Real Escapism: Kentucker Audley and Team Picture
Brian Pera
11.03.08
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 Preview
Benjamin Strong
09.26.08
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 Tupitsyn
09.15.08
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 Killian
08.27.08
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 Rosenbaum
06.26.08
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.
Antonio Gaudi on Criterion DVD
Andy Beta
05.23.08
Is a work of art the sum of its whole? Or a collaborative event between people and subjects - when is one bestowed the honor of creator? This question gets especially blurry when talking about the arts of film and architecture, with so many coming together to make a final product. Architect Antonio Gaudi believed he answered to one master - God. In Japanese filmmaker Hiroshi Teshigahara's movie about Gaudi, now on Criterion DVD, we're left to ponder questions about the notion of the autuer, as in the end it's one of Teshigahara's collaborators whose brilliance shines over both subject and author. Andy Beta reviews the DVD Antonio Gaudi (1984).
Interview with Director John Gianvito
Benjamin Strong
05.04.08
Benjamin Strong talks with director John Gianvito, whose recent documentary Profit motive and the whispering wind, takes us to the places of memory for some of this country's defining heroes on the flip side of history. The movie recently screened at New York's Tribeca Film Festical.
Curtains for Richard Widmark
Kevin Killian
03.28.08
“Has any star, bar Arthur Kennedy, been so unjustly forgotten?” writes Kevin Killian about screen legend Richard Widmark, who died this week at age 93. If you’re under 40, you probably know Widmark only as a staple of 1970s schlock—a supporting star in everything from Murder on the Orient Express to Rollercoaster to The Swarm and Coma. But as Killian argues, Widmark was a precursor of the Robert DeNiro school, an actor who plumbed the timorous and venal corridors of the American male psyche before it was fashionable to do so.
Yeah Right: A Brief History of Skateploitation Cinema
Benjamin Strong
03.20.08
As a long time fan of Gus Van Sant and a long time (and still active) skateboarder, Benjamin Strong sees the director's latest film, Paranoid Park, as an opportunity to look back at the history of skateploitation films (both Hollywood and "indie") as well as the parallel history of "true" skater-produced film and video.
No Place For Old Men at the Oscars 2008
Benjamin Strong
02.25.08
While last year's ceremonies may have reveled in the past, the 2008 Oscars were all about youth and beauty. The old men got flat out snubbed this year, especially in the supporting role category, Benjamin Strong argues.
Oscar Party 2008: Blood on the Tracks
Kevin Killian
02.25.08
Kevin Killian gets together with friends at his San Francisco apartment to vote on the Oscars (he and Drew, Stephen, Emily, Minette, Maizie, Georgette, etc mentioned in the review). It's the 3rd time for Fanzine that he's sent us their take, and again his scorecard isn't matching up. Seems to be a year in which he might have titled the piece: "No Country for Anyone but Brits and Flukes." This year there is blood indeed! Art by Danny Jock.
The Year the Western Returned?
Mark Asch
01.19.08
Mark Asch takes a look back through 2007 - a year that found filmakers producing perhaps an inordinate amount of neo-Westerns - then decides whether or not they live up to the the standards of the classics. Seems many missed their mark, nevertheless a few have now cleaned house at the Oscars.
Film Poll 2007
The Fanzine
12.31.07
Welcome to the first annual Fanzine year-end Film Poll. Don't expect to find Oscar nominees, sleeper hits, or good taste in this survey. This is strictly about our love of movies. Contributors include Benjamin Strong, Mark Asch, Samantha Culp, Kevin Killian, Michael Louie, and Nancy Keefe Rhodes.
Berlin Alexanderplatz on Criterion DVD
Mark Asch
12.07.07
Long unavailable on these shores, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's monumentous Berlin Alexanderplatz super-sizes the defining obsessions of a prodigious career. Criterion's long-awaited DVD box is your one-stop shop for decaying social structures, sexual opportunism, and righteous, bracing aesthetics; Mark Asch breaks it down.
Interview with Roger Warren Beebe
Nancy Keefe Rhodes
12.06.07
Filmmaker Roger Warren Beebe believes experimental movies are for the masses, and to prove it he led an avant-garde roadshow across the States. Nancy Keefe Rhodes talks with the director about his tour and the varieties of non-commercial filmmaking.
Staring Back at Chris Marker
Andy Beta
11.04.07
"Time present and time past/Are both perhaps present in time future," wrote T.S. Eliot. No filmmaker has absorbed this vertiginous lesson better than cult documentarist Chris Marker. Apropos of the long-awaited DVD release of two Marker classics, and a new book of his photographs, Andy Beta explores intertextual connections that reach across decades.
Save The Receipt: Rethinking Wes Anderson
Zach Baron
10.17.07
Wes Anderson's latest movie, The Darjeeling Limited, has provoked a number of critics to express their exhaustion with his hermetically sealed realm of white bourgeois male privilege. Zach Baron wonders whether these critics aren't missing the point.
Dusan Makavejev’s Sweet Movie comes to Criterion DVD
Mike Powell
10.11.07
Schweeet! (you saw that joke coming, but...) It is sweet that Dušan Makavejev's 1974 cult classic has infiltrated the somewhat taught sieve of great films that is the Criterion Collection of DVDs. It's a sexually unabashed film that no doubt the Swedish national socialists (Swedish national socialists?) who recently smashed an Andres Serrano exhibit would love to get their nasty hands on (but that's another story). Mike Powell reviews.
We've Lost Control (of the Ian Curtis Legend)
Mark Asch
10.10.07
Anton Corbijn’s new black-and-white biopic of Ian Curtis, which opens today, has the approval of the singer’s widow, whose memoir it is based on, and the backing of numerous film critics, many of whom can still remember their first intoxicating spin of Unknown Pleasures. But Mark Asch wonders whether something doesn’t get lost when we demystify our rock icons.
The 2007 New York Film Festival: A Preview
Benjamin Strong
09.27.07
By nature, the New York Film Festival is always slanted towards American filmmakers, despite its first-class international selections. But as Benjamin Strong explains, the 45th annual edition includes uncommonly strong autumnal entries from Hollywood elders Brian De Palma and Sidney Lumet. Fanzine gives you a full report on the festival.
Oscar Agonistes: The 2007 Academy Awards Take 2
Benjamin Strong
02.26.07
Scorsese scored one finally, but give some props to the departed, the deceased (not the film) that is, like Robert Altman, Ben Strong says about this year's politically tame Oscar ceremony. Also be sure to check out Kevin Killian's Oscar coverage.
Oscar Goes Green: The 2007 Academy Awards
Kevin Killian
02.26.07
With no real horse races this year at the Academy Awards, Killian finds quite a bit to be grumpy about. Also be sure to check out Benjamin Strong's Oscar coverage.
That Odd-looking Object of Desire
Jon Frosch
11.04.06
Jon Frosch totally has a thing for Charlotte Gainsbourg, who stars in Michel Gondry's newest film, The Science of Sleep, which may win the award for cutest movie of the year. There's something about her that you can't put your finger on... Jon Frosch happily takes the case.
Video Killed the Film Director
Benjamin Strong
10.08.06
David Lynch's Inland Empire is his most enigmatic movie yet. And it's our first masterpiece of the DV era. It will be screening tonight, Monday October 8th at the New York Film Festival.
Alida Valli, Farewell Valli
Kevin Killian
09.29.06
If nothing else, Fanzine has no shortage of writers with encyclopedic knowledge of the movie industry over the last century. Kevin Killian returns to Fanzine with a piece on Alida Valli, via Glenn Ford. Trademark Killian writing here—fast paced and entertaining with an incredible detail. My favorite line: "It's like she ordered two hams, and here they are."
A Cinema of Poverty: an interview with Caveh Zahedi
Gean Moreno
09.11.06
One of the first things I saw from Caveh Zahedi was a clip of him trying to convince Will Oldham to do mushrooms with him. Later, I saw a video-still of Oldham laughing wildly and driving through the woods in what looks like a fancy go-kart. It wouldn't be the only time Zahedi documented psychedelic indulgences, but there's more to his films than just tripping out. Gean Moreno interviews the no-budget filmmaker about confession, fandom, and divine intervention.
Changing Times: a film by Andre Techine
Jon Frosch
08.03.06
Jon Frosch brings us the work of André Téchiné, a French filmmaker we should all probably know by now, but probably don't. Frosch reviews Téchiné's latest film Changing Times, featuring Gérard Depardieu and the ever timeless Catherine Deneuve.
Modern Life is Rubbish: Antonioni on DVD
Benjamin Strong
06.23.06
Finally...Why does it take so damn long to get the whole oeuvre of the best filmmakers out there on DVD (think David Lynch for instance?). Are they waiting on Blu-Ray? In any case at least The Passenger, one of Michelangelo Antonioni's classics, has finally arrived, and Benjamin Strong has been itching to give the whole bunch a wrap up. With focus on the Italian's gorgeous mise-en-scene, read and enjoy, then hit up Blockbusters, get your Netflix cue in order, or better, support your local independent movie store ... mmmm ... popcorn, deserves the non-microwave kind.
Titles a la Francaise
Jon Frosch
06.20.06
Jon Frosch is a new writer for Fanzine and he explains France's insidious plot to stereotype the children of America by retitling French releases of Hollywood films according to their whims. It might be lost in translation or maybe we were justified in the whole Freedom Fries affair. Either way, something is going on...
High School Musical: a review
Kevin Killian
03.28.06
So you think the movie musical is dead? What about the made-for-TV musical? Kevin Killian takes on Disney's High School Musical.
Oscar's Grouch: Robert Altman Takes His Like A Lamb
Benjamin Strong
03.06.06
Well, everyone was expecting fireworks, the Michael Moore moment of 2006, but the 81 year old lion laid down with the lambs on Oscar night, and just promised more work to come.
Oscar Nosedive
Kevin Killian
03.06.06
Did Jack Nicholson steal an Oscar again (like Jack Palance did in 1992)? Kevin Killian is shocked by Crash's upset over Brokeback Mountain at the Academy Awards Ceremony, and a tad bit perplexed over other happenings.
Review: Who Gets To Call It Art
Paddy Johnson
02.06.06
Peter Rosen's film looks at the New York art world of the 1960's, focussing on art connoisseur and critic Henry Geldzahler...perhaps a tad too much.
Son of Kong
Benjamin Strong
01.15.06
Strong, a film buff reared on late 70's blockbusters, questions Peter Jackson's "purist" remake of the 1933 original. He also posits which one of the 3 Kongs is more relevant to this day and age, coming to his answer through a personal reflection on family, violence and refuge.
Review: Firefly and Serenity
Kevin Killian
11.09.05
Buffy and Angel fan Kevin Killian takes on the last two projects of "the affable megalomaniac" Joss Whedon.
John Wayne Flying High
Kevin Killian
09.15.05
In Killian's 3rd Film World Entry, he is pleased to find more John Wayne being smartly released before The Duke's demographic base dies off.
Profile: Tura Satana
Kevin Killian
08.19.05
Awestruck by Russ Meyer's quick mouthed vixen, Kevin Killian finds that sometimes when it comes to meeting a film goddess, timing is everything
Charlie Chan on Boot DVD
Kevin Killian
07.21.05
Author Kevin Killian begins his column FILM WORLD by trying to watch every pirate Charlie Chan film on DVD (all 42), and in the process comes to some startling Freudian conclusions! Don't miss seeing Kevin see the unseeable.
White Girl Under Asian Neon
Samantha Culp
07.21.05
Rounding out this month's occidental perspectives on Asian film, Samantha Culp finds herself ever more like a koi in a tank, oggled and scrutinized because of the popularity and frustrating legacy of Lost In Translation