“There’s no such thing as normal people” It may be clichéd to use the phrase, “if you look ‘blank’ up in the dictionary, you will see a photo of ‘blank’”, but sometimes it is appropriate. Sarah Polley, for instance, epitomizes the words underrated and underused. I know she has evolved her state in the film industry by becoming an auteur behind the camera of late, but it truly is a joy to go back and watch her early work in front of it. Finally catching The Sweet Hereafter a short…
Read MoreMonth: October 2009
REVIEW: Trick ‘r Treat [2008]
“Charlie Brown’s an a**hole” I’m not sure what it is about this year, but the Halloween season has made me treat horror films with a little more respect than usual. Or perhaps the fare I’ve seen has just been leaps and bounds better than the norm. The latest winner comes from Michael Dougherty, he of X2 writing fame, and his pet project Trick ‘r Treat. Financed by friend Bryan Singer and including a cast of some recognizable faces, the flick had been languishing in cinematic purgatory for years, originally to…
Read MoreREVIEW: Where the Wild Things Are [2009]
“Will you keep out all the sadness?” A few weeks back I went into Barnes and Noble to acquire a novel with a friend. While she was in the children’s section seeking some Spanish books to use with her students I moseyed on over to the illustrated nook whereupon I spied Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. Remembering the cover image and very little else, I decided to flip through the pages and refresh my mind before catching the new adaptation in theatres. Surprising to me, each spread contained…
Read MoreREVIEW: Зеркало [The Mirror] [1975]
“Like a madman brandishing a razor” After watching a screening of Antichrist, actor Willem Dafoe talked about the film and director Lars von Trier’s motivations. During the course of this brief Q&A, some light was shed on the inclusion of a dedication to Andrei Tarkovsky, the legendary Russian filmmaker. The film itself was a very personal tale for von Trier, written and created to exorcise his demons and, according to Dafoe, was influenced in part by the Russian’s Зеркало [The Mirror]. Von Trier only had one request before filming Antichrist…
Read More“The Curious Novelist” … A.S. Byatt journeys to Buffalo
The 2009-2010 season of Just Buffalo Literary Center’s Babel has commenced. Attendance didn’t unfortunately sell-out the new venue at Kleinhans, but the crowd was full and above the capacity of Babeville, so the change definitely was necessary. Michael Kelleher announced that this would be the final series under the original commission from the John R. Oshei Foundation, warranting the inclusion of donation envelopes and the dire news that ticket sales wouldn’t be able to sustain the event for its planned fourth season. After all the business, however, and asking for…
Read MoreREVIEW: Drag Me To Hell [2009]
“I welcome the dead into my soul” When I heard that Sam Raimi was back onto the Spider-Man train, signed on for the fourth installment, I was a bit lost for words. We all know how the third film in the series was a pale shadow of the previous two and the rumors were swirling about a remake of the movie that made him a cult filmmaker, The Evil Dead, so why visit the land of superheroes again? At the moment, I can only think that he is looking for…
Read MoreREVIEW: Whip It [2009]
“Cause shoes are a gateway drug” Bravo Drew Barrymore, who thought you had it in you? I am a self-proclaimed hater of this former child actress turned mediocre adult actress/producer. I did love Donnie Darko, though, and she did play a part in getting it made, but her role was atrocious. So, one may infer where my head was upon sitting down at the screening for Whip It—complete with Buffalo’s own roller derby girls in attendance—to see if she could pull an Affleck, (which isn’t fair since I think he’s…
Read More