Ennui. Estrangement. Existentialism? L’Avventura.
The 1960 Italian movie is populated by figures who are unmoored in the modern world. They drift maybe searching for new anchorages or are just content to keep meandering until running aground.
An ideal movie to watch again during the last languor of summer. Which is when the story reveals itself. Continue reading Too Cool for This Room
The 2023 silly season turned sinister PDQ, didn’t it? Continue reading This Silly Season
America continues apace pell-mell and hellbent towards further popular cultural infantilization.
We’re increasingly surrendering the ability to discuss and debate topics which might demand those participating in them to not only hold two opposing thoughts at the same time, much less let them shunt over onto other tracks. Though never as deft with simultaneous multiple moving parts as older societies, what Americans lacked in veritas we made up for in verve.
Thanks to the make it easier for the coloring book clarity brigades to contribute and thereby muddle the point, issues have lost their shades of gray. These have hardened into blacker or whiter blocs. Now, mentioning the word “nuance” makes more and more Americans reach for their revolvers. Where the verbal or written rapier sliced artfully, we now wail and flail with rhetorical bludgeons. Continue reading Illuminated in the Dark
Saw a job listing on a professional networking site that intrigued. Thirty/35 years ago, I would’ve been all over it. Most astonishing thing about the job description? A former high school classmate generated this possibility.
Recalling him, he never struck as being particularly dynamic. He filled backgrounds in many scenes.
Yet two reasons have throttled any enthusiasm towards pursuing his offer. One, I’m 63 and along the glidepath into retirement. Two, I’d bring experience to the job. Continue reading Our Times
The title of the movie escapes me. Or maybe several comprise memory. The remembered scenes issue from Nazi propaganda reels.
In any case, the rudely sinuous voice of Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Germany’s Minister of Enlightenment and Propaganda, narrates the black & white images. They were issued early during the Nazi reign. During the ascent. Continue reading Disenchantment USA
From now until Halloween night fright film fans ought to be in their peculiar heaven. Continue reading Nightmares in Black & White
It’s summer. Time to fire up the theremin. Continue reading Places Between Spaces
Is “Bunuel-esque” an appropriate adjectival form? Ought it be? Perhaps so.
A past observation confirmed and several recent stirring scenes distributed through social media have converged to tickle my interest in the topic. Continue reading Turnabout
Modern horror movies have done a terrific job robbing audiences of the pleasure behind being frightened inventively. Continue reading Frights Abound
A Quarropas episode has been transferred to movie screens. This docudrama is making its way along the film festival circuit. Hopefully a distributor will acquire the movie and give it general release. Though factually based, and likely with poetic license taken, the effort will not portray my former hometown kindly.