I can distinctly recall being instructed in 6th grade art on the distinction between the naked and the nude. At that age your attention is naturally piqued when such a subject is raised, and I was made very receptive to what my teacher said.

Bare skin is a physical reality, a subject like any other. What portrays nakedness is simple and crass, where the nude elevates bare skin to the level of art.

This is just the kind of dull…

The key shot of Raging Bull, and one of the greatest shots in cinema history, is the low angle shot of Sugar Ray in LaMotta's final losing fight with him. As the ring and arena lights distort, Sugar Ray becomes gigantic. His skin darkens so much that he seems, for a moment, to be a living shadow. When he finally strikes, the sound of the fight is mixed with the roar of a lion.

In this moment of godlike black…

Threw it on because I just watched Tim Roger’s new thing on LA Noire, and I’m always up for a little more tinseltown neo-noir(e). Excruciatingly dull affair except for an Affleck part that feels compellingly autobiographical. Affleck is a man who, like Reeves, believes he is too smart for the career he has, drinks hard, and can’t make it work with either of his paramours (a perfect woman and a perfectly tempestuous woman). Shame such a textured performance can’t be…

Zevon's 1980 live album Stand in the Fire was dedicated to Martin Scorsese, and here too Zevon dedicates a song to Marty ("the director of the best movies in the world"). I'm not sure if the two had a personal relationship or if Zevon was simply a big fan, but it certainly makes me think that if Scorsese had done another Last Waltz concert doc in the 70s or 80s, Warren Zevon would have been an ideal subject. In the…