COMING: NASHVILLE
2. Designed Obstacles, Spontaneous Response
WADE: (to self) I'm a hundred years old and when I'm two hundred, I'll die.
- from the script of Nashville, dated June 8, 1974
It should go without saying, being a Robert Altman film, that the screenplay of Nashville was only ever going to be a road map for the finished product. Even so, the director never had a finer set of blueprints. Written by Joan Tewkesbury, the 110 page draft (available…
"This is a moment that belongs to another world. Where cycles close and stories end. Where there are heroes and the heroes win. A moment like this has no business in our world."
Swung on and belted and simply phenomenal in all respects. Jon Bois and Alex Rubenstein's meticulously crafted ode so encapsulates what it means to be a sports fan, and love one specfic team unapologetically. Naturally "The Battle for Seattle" ep is the series high point; how could…
DIAL M FOR MAY:
An Impromptu Hitchcock Retrospective
Vertigo / 1958 / Paramount Pictures
“Oh, Mister Detective? Would you like to come and look?”
Folks, it's all been building to this.
When I found out that the Hollywood Theatre in Portland was screening Vertigo in 70mm, I knew I had to be there—and that this screening would be the crown jewel, the piece de resistance, in my month-long Hitchcock project. I mean, is there a better film of Hitch's to…
"That was longer than a heartbeat."
In my younger and more vulnerable years, I didn't have the stomach for horror movies. At least I didn't think I did. Now I know I was just chickenshit, because duh: being scared's the point. And once you can embrace that, a whole world of visceral, exciting, provocative cinema opens up to you.
Needless to say, I had/have a lot to catch up on.
Which brings us to 28 Days Later.
This thing is…
DIAL M FOR MAY:
An Impromptu Hitchcock Retrospective
Rope / 1948 / Transatlantic Pictures
"It's the darkness that's got you down... Pity we couldn't have done it with the curtains open, in the bright sunlight."
Clever, coiled, and coded, Rope is one of Hitchcock's most sophisticated comic-thrillers. Brevity is the soul of this real-time potboiler, which Hitch makes the audacious choice to film in one long continuous take. At least, that's how he wants it to look. Slyly moving in…
"PROTECTING YOU FROM BORING EVENING"
Boil it down and I'm a pretty simple guy when it comes to superhero movies: I want them to be fun and I want them to have some sense of stakes. To me, that's a medium-high bar; not exactly a cakewalk, but enough movies have cleared it that it feels like a reasonable expectation.
As far as the MCU goes, up until the last few years, they were clearing the bar like clockwork. But we…
