Perhaps the most invisible force on film projects, but also the most critical, the cinematographer frames shots and essentially is the eyes through which audience see storylines and actors. In that regard, you have seen through Thomas Del Ruth’s eyes many times. He set up and filmed Stand By Me, including the iconic, fear-compounding scene […]
Film
Posted inCulture
They Shoot, He Scores
Emmy Winner Larry Groupé Shares His Secrets
Larry Groupé is hard to pin down. He has conducted a 60-piece orchestra for the British prog rock band Yes, he’s produced, conducted, and composed over 80 albums, won three Emmy’s and, in becoming director Rod Lurie’s composer of choice, created the score for Deterrence, a 1999 intense French-America thriller. On Sunday, April 19, in […]
Posted inCulture
Too Old For This
The Gunman: Where BAM! and KA-POW! Meet the AARP
The Baby Boomers—previously known as the cohort that inherited a pretty sweet setup from the Greatest Generation, and currently known as the cohort that somehow managed to mess everything up just in time for the Gen Xers and millennials—are getting old. And there are a lot of them. In 1950, Americans over the age of […]
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Far From A Paint-By-Number
Mr. Turner is Mike Leigh’s best film yet
Commonly, Mike Leigh’s films have emphasized interpersonal tensions between characters, like in his breakout Secrets & Lies about a black woman tracking down her working class white birth mother, or Happy Go Lucky about a London school teacher’s whose eternal optimism goes against the grumpy grain. But, in Mr. Turner, his latest and perhaps greatest […]
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Wrestler’s Paradise
Foxcatcher’s true crime isn’t tawdry enough
Psychological thrillers derive tension from their characters’ emotional states—from the intrigue of figuring out the subterranean motivations that drive behavior, decision-making, and relationships. Foxcatcher is more of a physical thriller: The key interpersonal dynamics unfold in the mute interplay of male bodies rolling around on a wrestling mat. (Not in a sexy way.) (A little […]
Posted inFilm
Random Acts of Netflix: Meteor
Hey folks! Jared here. Every Thursday I’m going to go on Netflixroulette.com, spin the wheel and then watch whatever the damn thing tells me to. In case you haven’t heard of Netflix Roulette, it’s basically a silly website that allows you to spin a virtual wheel which then chooses a film or TV show at […]
Posted inCulture
Drum and Drummer
Whiplash: When drumming is LIFE AND DEATH
Whiplash is intense. Way more intense than one would expect, given that it’s about a kid learning how to play the drums. That kid is Andrew (Miles Teller), and he’s studying at a New York music conservatory that Fletcher (J.K. Simmons, who won an Oscar last week for this best supporting role) rules like a […]
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Environmentalism on Film
Telluride Mountain Films captures the adventurer’s spirit
Since the Telluride Mountain Film Festival launched in 1979, the definition of “environmentalist” has both broadened and become much more diverse. Likewise, the collection of films for this annual festival—and its subsequent tour of short films around the country—has become more complicated and more nuanced about the definition it provides for modern-day environmentalism. Duke & […]
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A Modern Parable
Two Days, One Night reaches in and squeezes
Sandra is depressed and has a nervous breakdown, entering the hospital and taking time off from her job at a solar panel factory. While away, her boss sees that the factory can be run by 15 people instead of 16. When Sandra comes back to work, she finds that her employer has made her co-workers […]
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Short, But Stern
The Academy live action shorts are looking for connections
The short film category at the Oscars is a fascinating cinematic examination. In some sense, they are the pure films, not worried about commercial success, and in other ways, they are the minor leagues, a place to see the up-and-coming talent. But they also are a fascinating insight into the mind of the Academy’s collective […]
