Cinematographer Michael Chapman died on Sept. 20, 2020. He was 84. We hadn’t heard or seen much of Chapman recently (his last credit was Bridge to Terabithia in 2007), but Chapman was king in the 1970s and ’80s. Chapman’s first credit as … Continue reading TAXI DRIVER
Three men work the line at the Checkered Taxi auto plant in Detroit, Michigan. Their lives revolve around hard labor and heavy drinking, getting yelled at by their supervisors and trying to keep their heads above water at home. They’re … Continue reading BLUE COLLAR
What makes up a city? The people? The locale? The flavor of the food, the smell of the streets, the sounds of the crowd? When author Reyner Banham concluded his exhaustive study of the city of Los Angeles in The Architecture of Four Ecologies, he described viewing LA from the vantage point of an aircraft: Within its vast extent can be seen its diverse ecologies of sea-coasts, plain, and hill; within that diversity can be seen the mechanism, natural and human, that have made those ecologies support a way of life … Overflying such a spectacle, it is difficult to … Continue reading RIO, I LOVE YOU
2014 has seen a slew of post-apocalyptic/futuristic themed movies, but out of all of them, Ari Folman’s half live action, half 2-D animation seems the most likely. That doesn’t mean it is great, or a particularly good movie, but its prediction seem less like science fiction and more like an eventual reality. The set-up is thus: Robin Wright plays Robin Wright, the actress who was once Princess Buttercup and Forrest Gump’s Jenny. Now, Wright is a single mother of two who is pretty much done with acting. Her son, Aaron (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is suffering from a disease that will rob … Continue reading THE CONGRESS
300: Rise of an Empire – The Greeks and Persians are at war again in Frank Miller’s latest graphic novel, Xerese. The battle has moved from land to the sea, and the warriors have increased from 300 to a hell of a lot more. Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton) is leading the Greek army against mortal turned God, Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and the fierce general of the Persian Army, Artemisia (Eva Green) who has a score to settle. Supporting cast includes, Lena Headey, David Wenham, Andrew Tiernan and a horde of digital fodder all moving in varying speeds of dramatic slow motion. … Continue reading Movie Beat – 03.07.14
“Cinema is a matter of what’s in the frame and what’s out.” -Martin Scorsese Continue reading In Their Words – Wednesday, September 19, 2012
