The Coen Brothers’ 1991 film Barton Fink has been on my “to-do” list for quite some time, and finally I have gotten the chance to watch it. Famous both for its use of visual metaphor and Biblical and literary allusion, Barton Fink is an excellent, albeit rather unfocused, multi-genre picture. It is 1942, and Barton Fink (John Turturro) is a newly successful New York playwright who is offered a chance to work for “Capitol Pictures” in Los Angeles, writing movies.... Read Full Story

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players…they have their exits, and their entrances…” William Shakespeare’s famous line, from his play As You Like It, seems to be the existentialist wind that pushes forth Caden Cotard (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), a misanthropic playwright in Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York. A film that has divided critics and audiences, Synecdoche is certainly one of the boldest and most brilliant films... Read Full Story

My distaste for the “stoner-slacker” genre of Judd Apatow’s flock is, admittedly, also tinged by a hint of interest and awe- a bunch of friends making Hollywood comedies together. That they give credit where credit is due (Bill Murray, Steve Martin) is only icing on the cake. In I Love You, Man, these twenty and thirtysomethings finally eschew the narcissism and underlying negativity, ending up with a comedy that is actually “feel-good”. Paul Rudd (who seems to ... Read Full Story

The difficulties in capturing historical politics on-screen are numerous; accuracy is essential considering the film has little to do with “history” if it manipulates the facts or leans towards a particular political spectrum. So many films (Ollie Stone, I’m looking at you) distort and expand on reality in such a way that often you are watching the creator’s own impression of the events, rather than an honest recreation. Ron Howard’s newest film, Frost/Nixon, ri... Read Full Story

Jim Jarmusch has a new movie coming out in May: The Limits of Control. It stars Isaac De Bankolé, a native Ivorian (from Cote de Ivoire), as a well-dressed assassin, and there could be no better preparation than to watch Ghost Dog, Jarmusch’s 1999 film about hip-hop and urban samurai. Forest Whitaker stars as Ghost Dog, a loner who receives contracts from a mobster in the form of notes attached to a passenger pigeon. Ghost Dog reads up on the “Way of the Samurai”, and the f... Read Full Story

The Squid and the Whale is Noah Baumbach’s 2005 ode to growing up amidst the snobbery of academics in 1980’s Brooklyn- capturing a time and a place with cinematic fetishism while crafting a fascinating portrait of a particular family, based roughly on Baumbach’s own. Jeff Daniels is a literature professor named Bernard Berkman who’s career is on the decline- as his wife Joan (Laura Linney) begins gaining respect for her own work. Their two sons Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) ... Read Full Story

Never has a film done so much with swaying fields of wheat. Andrew Dominik’s Western The Assassination of Jesse James wields the natural elements more effectively than it does its star, Brad Pitt, who plays the infamous outlaw bandit Jesse James. He’s a quiet, troubled, very nearly angsty individual, often smoking cigars and staring into the distance. When a young man named Robert Ford (Casey Affleck) shows up at the James’ gang camp looking for work. A long-time fan of the... Read Full Story

Released in 2008 by Overture Films, The Visitor has gone largely unnoticed by the general populace.  The film was written and directed by Thomas McCarthy, who’s previous film The Station Agent pointed towards good things. With The Visitor, he cements his talent, crafting a slow-moving realist drama, a contemplation of subjects ranging from culture and art to death and the political atmosphere of post-9/11 New York, all fueled by the beat of a djembe drum. Walter is a quiet, lonely prof... Read Full Story

Fascinating news bubbling out of generally inactive Hollywood…Aasif Mandvi, the Daily Show correspondent, has been listed as one of several new members to the cast of The Last Airbender, M. Night Shymalan’s latest project. What is an Airbender? Why is it the last one? Why should we care? I do not have those answers. But here is a picture from the animated television show on which the film is based: Odd. Read Full Story

A well-dressed man floats dead in a pool. Police and press observe the scene, jotting down notes and flashing bulbs. The camera sits underwater, at the bottom of the pool, angled upwards. The face of the dead man looks bloated and ridiculous. A narrator describes the action as it occurs. Black and white, we are watching a true murder mystery, and at the center of the pool lies its subject. Billy Wilder, the film’s director, captures our attention through the use of voice-over and the t... Read Full Story