Reflections of Synthetic Skin
On April 17th of last year, I posted a piece entitled “Under Her Skin” that compared the heroines of Jonathan Glazer’s “Under the Skin” and Spike Jonze’s “Her.” One was […]
Jim Hemphill on “The Trouble with the Truth”
He was the American journalist who vanishes after the Chilean coup d’état in Costa-Gavras’ 1982 classic, “Missing.” She was Marty McFly’s mother in Robert Zemeckis’ ageless 1985 crowd-pleaser, “Back to […]
Of Mice and Women: The Strange Unraveling of Cinderella
As a counterpoint to my recent article on “Cinderella,” I’m pleased to present the following essay by my cherished colleague, Rob Walker of ChannelAwesome.com. In a key scene in Kenneth […]
“Life Just Is” Is Just Lovely
Alex Barrett’s “Life Just Is” navigates its way through the sort of miniature epiphanies that commonly occur during the rather nerve-racking decade comprising one’s twenties. These small realizations may not add […]
“Cinderella” (1950) VS “Cinderella” (2015)
It was the holiday season of 1987. Disney had rereleased its 1950 feature, “Cinderella,” in theaters on November 20th, and my parents decided to take their one-year-old son (full disclosure: […]
Birdmen of Tinseltown
A fateful encounter occurs at the Chateau Marmont in David Cronenberg’s perversely entertaining Hollywood satire, “Maps to the Stars.” Grotesquely desperate actress Havana Segrand (Julianne Moore) crosses paths with a […]
My Favorite Performance in the History of Cinema
It all starts with that helicopter shot. The Twentieth Century Fox logo twinkles in silence before fading out, as a billowing wind starts to sound. Suddenly, the audience finds itself […]
Popcorn Porn: “Fifty Shades” and “Kingsman”
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, audiences around the country have two pieces of cheerfully dumb, studio-approved, hard R-rated pornography to choose from at mainstream theaters. One is Sam Taylor-Johnson’s […]
Love Is Honesty: The Catharsis of “Almost There”
There’s a brief close-up that occurs early on in Dan Rybicky and Aaron Wickenden’s documentary, “Almost There,” of hands covered in glitter, those infuriating particles so often caked onto supposedly […]
Neither Safe Nor Still: The Genius of Julianne Moore
Throughout her extraordinary career, Julianne Moore has often excelled at playing characters who are ostracized. Consider her 1950s housewife who develops forbidden feelings for her black neighbor in “Far from […]
Indie Outlook 