Film Criticism
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Things That Seem Real, Part One: A 3-Part Esaay on Catfish and other movies
Editor’s Note: The following essay contains major spoilers about the film Catfish. Part One: Catfish and Reality In the movie, the 14-year-old boy tells the school therapist that he likes to watch “little clips” on the computer, little videos. He describes them as “little clips of things that seem real.” Earlier in the film, we saw a montage of YouTube clips, from a cat playing piano to Saddam Hussein being hung to a baby laughing. Later in the film, the boy sees two girls die from a drug overdose right in front of him. How real that event does — […]
by Zachary Wigon on Sep 21, 2010 -
WHAT’S IN MY INSTAPAPER: SUNDAY MORNING LINKS
Here are a few articles and blog posts that caught my eye this week: At VentureBeat, a good list titled “Eight Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting a Business.” At the Playlist, five cinematographers on the rise. Also over there, Jim Jarmusch talks about new projects, including one with Tilda Swinton, Michael Fassbender and Mia Wasikowska. In the guise of a beautifully written essay about dreaming, his dad, and Roger Ebert, David Lowery announces — sort of — a new film. At Moving Image Source, Jonathan Rosenbaum defends non-linear film criticism. At Subtraction, Khoi Vhin talks about loving his […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 22, 2010 -
10/40/70’s NICHOLAS ROMBES INTERVIEWED
The rise of the web has led to an explosion of film writing — Roger Ebert has called it “A Golden Age of Movie Critics.” I don’t disagree with him, but I also think it’s fair to say that with the exception of comments boards and social media, the web hasn’t changed the actual form of film writing that much. A few people (Matt Zoller Seitz, for example), are exploring long-form film criticism online through engagingly edited videos. And, of course, the web has brought David Bordwell’s essential essays exploring films through the history of their technologies, styles, and audience’s […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 12, 2010 -
PETER BRUNETTE, R.I.P.
I was shocked and tremendously saddened to read at Indiewire this morning the news that film critic Peter Brunette died today of a heart attack while attending the Taorima Film Festival in Italy. Eugene Hernandez’s obituary recalls Brunette’s many accomplishments, including his books on Michelangelo Antonioni, Wong Kar-wai and, most recently, Michael Haneke, as well as his work as director of film studies at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. From an excerpt from a Wake Forest publication quoted by Hernandez: “People should watch art films for the same reason they should read Virginia Woolf as well as Tom Clancy,” […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 16, 2010 -
ROGER EBERT RULES
You know that already, but to be reminded again, surf to this week’s must-read post on film criticism in the age of the internet. Yes, it’s sad that film critics are losing their jobs, but Ebert finds good reason to celebrate the diversity of voices the ‘net brings us. A key graph: What the internet is creating is a class of literate, gifted amateur writers, in an old tradition. Like Trollope, who was a British Post official all his working life, they write for love and because they must. Like Rohinton Mistry, a banking executive, or Wallace Stevens, an insurance […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 1, 2010 -
Kenneth Turan Crosses The Line
One basic rule of film directing that any beginner is taught is to “not cross the line.” I’m referring to what is sometimes called “the director’s line,” the imaginary boundary that demarcates where the camera can be in a given scene. Simply put, when shooting a scene the camera should be somewhere within180 degrees of a line bisecting the space being shot. If the camera stays on one side of the line, editing continuity is preserved. Actors stay on the same side of the screen as opposed to jumping all over the place with every edit, and the audience is […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 28, 2010
