Category Archives: Film

Death Wish: Then and Now

Posted on March 5, 2018 by LM

With respect to the Death Wish remake currently out, I’m struck by the significant ‘White Panther’-esque “moviegoer vs movie critic” split in terms of the film’s favorability/unfavorability. In his review of the film at Variety, Owen Gleiberman (sigh) establishes his … Continue reading →

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The Shape of ‘The Shape of Water’

Posted on March 5, 2018 by LM

Thank God we have people like Nathan Duffy over at Thermidor, who went through the pain of watching The Shape of Water so that the rest of us can be spared: It’s hard to overstate how absurd the SJW messaging … Continue reading →

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Ferdinand (2017)

Posted on February 27, 2018 by LM

Is it just me or does the trailer for the animated film Ferdinand signal coded references to standard pro-diversity, pro-immigrant sentiments?

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Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film

Posted on February 22, 2018 by LM

It’s never enough. From a piece in Variety actually titled “Hollywood Sexism Rules: Number of Female Protagonists Falls in 2017”: Rey, Diana Prince, and Belle may have anchored some of the biggest box office hits of 2017, but they were … Continue reading →

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Saving Private Ryan & the Jewish Experience

Posted on February 22, 2018 by LM

“Spielberg’s War: Saving Private Ryan & the Jewish Experience” is an excellent essay and a great companion to Rob Ager’s always-insightful film analyses. “By having the most gruesome and realistic depictions of war at the beginning, Spielberg neatly turns the … Continue reading →

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Beside Bowie: The Mick Ronson Story (2017)

Posted on February 22, 2018 by LM

I am greatly looking forward to this documentary on the greatly underrated guitarist and arranger Mick Ronson. The fact that David Bowie was very involved in the making of this documentary possibly attests to Bowie’s sense of complicity (however unintentional) … Continue reading →

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‘Mad’ Mike Hoare

Posted on February 19, 2018 by LM

In Social Matter, Benjamin Welton has an excellent essay on ““Mad” Mike Hoare: White Giant”, which discusses a famous group of English mercenaries in Africa, and various historical inaccuracies about Belgian and English colonialism. Having recently watched Dark of the … Continue reading →

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The Endless Night: A Valentine to Film Noir

Posted on February 15, 2018 by LM

As a film noir fanatic, I found this rather nice: Set to the tune of Massive Attack’s “Angel,” Serena Bramble’s 2009 remix project “The Endless Night: A Valentine to Film Noir” is a “video love letter that distills film noir … Continue reading →

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Hitler’s Hollywood

Posted on February 6, 2018 by LM

As part of NYC’s Film Forum, “Hitler’s Hollywood”, a new documentary by Rüdiger Suchsland, will be playing in April. From Film Forum’s webpage on the upcoming showings, check out the last sentence of this paragraph: Filmmaker Rüdiger Suchsland suggests that … Continue reading →

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Darkest Hour (2017)

Posted on January 30, 2018 by LM

It’s a fairly predictable Churchill biopic. I generally love Gary Oldman, but this plays like Gary Oldman playing ‘Mike Myers-in-a-fat-suit’ playing Winston Churchill as a comic Falstaff.

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