View image View image From Mike Calia: Bare tree branches set against an oppressive grey sky, meeting somewhere between impressionism and expressionism and setting the palate for the whole movie (save for the blaring reds and wood tones that pop…
Whenever you watch a movie, you're also probably watching just about every other movie you've ever seen. The images that flash by trigger associations in your brain -- some of them deliberately planted by the filmmakers, others not. Still, you've…
View image From Andrew Wright, The Stranger: Cinematic brimstone manna for pubescent Cinemax viewers, Paul Schrader's unjustly neglected 1982 remake of "Cat People" leaves the watcher uneasily poised somewhere between needing a wet-nap and a steel-wool shower. Working again with…
Title card from perhaps the most famous propaganda film of all time, Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will" (1935). Hitler and the Nazis were repeatedly elected to power during the 1930s, one piece of government at a time, before Der…
Dustin Hoffman doing a real Robert Evans impression in "Wag the Dog" (not at all like what Martin Landau did in "Entourage," which could never be mistaken for Evans). It's enormously frustrating and stressful trying to live in three places…
Here's a dazzling concept for a music clip: One shot, stationary camera, five guys. This performance of "Cold Irons Bound," from which Amazon.com is posting on their page for Bob Dylan's new album "Modern Times" (to be released Tuesday), lets…
The movies are full of drunks, from literary drunks ("Factotum") to frat-boy binge drinkers ("Beerfest"). Some of these drunks are funny ("Arthur," "Bad Santa," W.C. Fields), some are tragic ("Ironweed," "Leaving Las Vegas") and some are not meant to be…
Three eloquent and distinctly personal appreciations of the opening of Paul Thomas Anderson's "Punch-Drunk Love": From Nareg Torosian, ScreenPlay: The opening shot of one of my favorite films of recent years, Paul Thomas Anderson's "Punch-Drunk Love" (2002). As described on…
The Formal Mr. Poland, aboard the 2006 Floating Film Festival. (Photo by Kim Robeson) Happy "Birthday" to David Poland, whose Hot Blog, Hot Button column and Movie City News are favorite sources of information and commentary about The Biz around…
Does this kind of behavior reflect badly on Paramount? Does it reflect badly on Scientology? Is it good for the Jews? Didn't John Travolta do this very same thing back in 1977? You tell me. (No, I really don't care.)…
Great Movies