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Posts from the “On Movies” Category

What a lovely day

Posted on May 21, 2015

Hello!  I start chemo tomorrow!  Why the exclamation marks?  I don’t know!  But I can tell you I’m excited to get started.  I am olympic-athlete levels of prepared here.  This morning, I even drank a glass of tomato juice with green-drink powder mixed in. It’s not what nature, or anyone at all, ever intended, but I thought I could kill two birds with one stone so I only had to drink ONE healthy thing all at once instead of TWO healthy things.  Any art student can tell you that red and green are opposite (violently opposite) colors and when you mix them they revolt by making road tar.  And then I drank it.  I’ve gone for a walk, sat in a pretzel in yoga for an hour, bought tomorrow’s already-prepared dinner from the gourmet grocery like we’re planning a party, and meditated on being the most kick-ass chemo patient the world has ever seen, all before noon — ommmmmm.

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Categories: Box of Monsters Blog, On Movies

I’m Back!

Posted on June 6, 2014

A couple of new things to draw your attention to over at TNB. Right after my breast cancer diagnosis, feeling overwhelmed, I’d tried to quit my gig as Arts and Culture Editor. TNB’s founder Brad Listi, though, wasn’t hearing it. He assured me my post would be ready for me to fill again whenever I was able. Everyone, from my real-world job at UTSA to my online pals, have been absolutely super through this whole ordeal. And, upon my return, I’ve lined up two fantastic interviews just for you.

One is an interview with producer Lisa Bellomo on her project to animate Cheryl Strayed’s “Dear Sugar” column from The Rumpus as well as Tiny Beautiful Things. I am rooting wholeheartedly for this super project to succeed. Check it out RIGHT HERE.

Next is a TNB “21 Questions” with writer/director Kat Candler. When I saw the trailer for her new film (out this week!) Hellion, I just had to invite her to be our featured guest. Candler did not disappoint:

The feature was inspired by the short, but more so it was inspired by southeast Texas. Kelly (producer), who grew up there, started taking me down for long weekends and field trips. I just started getting to know the area and the people. I’d never seen this part of Texas outside of Urban Cowboy and I wanted to capture its heart. Inspirational movies … Over the Edge, Stand By Me, The Outsiders, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore …

She had me at The Outsiders. Check the rest out RIGHT HERE.

* Photo of Kat Candler by Pamela Gentile

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Categories: On Movies

Tagged: Aaron Paul, Austin, Cheryl Strayed, Dear Sugar, Hellion, Kat Candler, Lisa Bellomo, Texas, The Outsiders, The Rumpus, Tiny Beautiful Things

Monster Bisque: Hawkins and Haney Talk Frankenstein

Posted on October 26, 2013

Last Halloween, I’d asked a few Nervous Breakdown contributors to share their favorite terrifying movie scenes, and D. R. Haney was among them with his contribution from Rouben Mamoulian’s 1931 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I, on the other hand, had picked the tunnel scene from Willy Wonka, which I explain so you understand why I like collaborating with Duke. My brain grows three sizes bigger by association. He’s like a cinematic moral compass for which true north is James Dean. And this year for Halloween, Duke and I decided to discuss the classic tale that produced another old-school Hollywood icon.

Read the rest here.

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Categories: On Movies

Tagged: Boris Karloff, D. R. Haney, film, Frankenstein, James Whale, Kenneth Branagh, Mary Shelley, Young Frankenstein

This Is How The World Ends … At The Movies

Posted on April 21, 2012

So, maybe you’ve wondered where I’ve been the past few days.  Funny story.  Not long ago, a good friend of mine asked me for a list of films she might show at the “apocalypse party” she was throwing to celebrate her 2012 birthday.  I came up with a decent list initially, but I decided what this really warranted was a sprawling infographic of end-of-the-world films, researched on at least three poster-board mock-ups and one improvised three-dimensional miniature rendering in Fritos and Duplo blocks. (This is sort of like the time my parents asked me to transfer their Super 8 films to DVD and I made a Star Wars tribute film featuring an animation of our station wagon as a spaceship.  It’s also sort of like the time Richard Dreyfus built Devil’s Tower out of mashed potatoes.)  I should note that This Is How The World Ends … At The Movies is hardly comprehensive because I wanted to leave room for robot doodles and so forth.  Hopefully, though, you’ll still find a few of your favorites on here.  You are most certain to find Gary Oldman and Jesus.  Enjoy!  (Click image to enlarge it on Flickr.)

this is how the world ends ... at the movies
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Categories: On Movies

Tagged: aliens, apocalypse films, apocalypse movies, Gary Oldman, infographic, natural disasters, post-apocalyptic films, post-apocalyptic movies, robots, zombies

Ten Greatest Character Actresses of All Time

Posted on March 25, 2012

New at The Nervous Breakdown:

It all began when Joe Daly found himself thinking of Brion James.  You know, the bug-eyed replicant in Blade Runnerwho gets kind of nervous when he takes tests.  This led to Daly’s stellar list of the ten greatest character actors of all time, which led me to add five of my own in commentary – including Chris Cooper, John Hawkes, Mark Strong, Clancy Brown, and Brian Cox, in case you’re curious.  It would seem, though, that neither of us found ourselves thinking of women in these sorts of roles.  At first I reasoned, “It’s because there aren’t any!  All the good supporting character-centered roles are written for men!”  Then I had a vision of Joan Cusack in Say Anything pausing in the chaos of her young single-mom-hood to remember how she used to be fun.  Then I couldn’t stop thinking of great female character actors in more substantial roles than this little blip in the Cameron Crowe classic.  So, without further ado, here are ten great female character actors for your consideration …. read the rest here.

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Categories: On Movies

Tagged: character actor, film

Ten Lessons of Fictional Writers in Film

Posted on January 6, 2012

New Years Resolution: update blog in a timely manner … starting right after I post this news of a piece that ran almost a month ago.  But if you love film and you love to write and you love writers in film, this one may have been worth the wait.   Thanks to Ryan Rivas for including my Ten Lessons of Fictional Writers in Film on the Burrow Press Blog in December.  The following is only the first lesson.  Check out the rest here and have a look around Burrow Press while you’re at it.

Funny Farm

In Funny Farm, Chevy Chase plays a writer who moves to the middle of nowhere in order to jumpstart work on his manuscript in solitude.  When he’s finally done, he rents a hotel room, chills champagne, hands his wife his manuscript, and sits with his hands folded together in anticipation—watching intently, reading her facial expressions as the pages turn, leaning to check whether or not her laughter erupts in just the right places.  Lesson?  Don’t do that.

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Categories: On Movies, On Writing

Tagged: burrow press, chevy chase, film, funny farm, writers in film, writers in movies, writing

Today’s the day!

Posted on December 1, 2011

You can now get your ebook copy of Writing Off Script: Writers on the Influence of Cinema right here.  A very special thanks to Simon Smithson at Calavera Books, each of the phenomenal contributors and interviewees, book cover designer Steven Seighman, and book trailer producer Vernon Lott for all of their hard work and support.  I’m thrilled to share the result of their efforts with you and to see just how much we can raise to help replace the Joplin High School JET-14 students’ studio equipment, field cameras, and supplies that had been destroyed in the May 22 tornado.  So go buy it!  I promise it’ll be $4.99 well spent.

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Categories: On Movies, On Writing

Tagged: creative writing, film, writing

Your Indie Film Halloween Costume in Four Items or Less

Posted on October 28, 2011

It’s possible no one will know who you’re supposed to be, but that’s what name tags are for:

images

Aviators, flak vest, Folgers can of ashes – John Goodman as Walter in The Big Lebowski.

JBJ* ankle tattoo, mom jeans – Amy Ryan as Jackie Flaherty in Win Win.

Mom jeans, plaid shirt, blade, dislocated jaw – Billy Bob Thornton as Karl Childers in Sling Blade.

Missouri accent, knit hat, bag of severed hands – Jennifer Lawrence as Ree in Winter’s Bone.

New York accent, leather jacket, bag of severed hands (frozen) – Gary Oldman as Jackie in State of Grace.

Satin jacket, driving gloves, vacant expression, “A Real Hero” on a loop – Ryan Gosling as the driver in Drive.

Suit, mustache, bowling pins, milk shake – Daniel Day Lewis as Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood.

Bobbed wig, Zorro mask, suicidal goldfish – Audrey Tautou as the titular character in Amélie.

Tux, mustache, garden hose – Harvey Keitel as Winston Wolfe in Pulp Fiction.

Junkie teeth, butchered wig, tiny elderly couple in your handbag – Naomi Watts as Diane Selwyn in Mulholland Dr.

* Did you really have to scroll all the way down here to find out this stands for Jon Bon Jovi?  Tsk tsk.

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Categories: On Movies

Guillermo del Toro Has It In For Me

Posted on August 28, 2011

Supposedly losing-your-teeth dreams mean high anxiety, so it’s no surprise that I’ve had more than a few of them.  Bloody gums, teeth falling through your fingers kind of dreams.  Teeth turning into shards of glass dreams.  Yes, those dreams.  The most memorable of them, perhaps, being the one in which, against my will, I snipped off my front teeth with nail clippers.  Maybe the only sorts of dreams that bother me more are the things-happening-to-your-eyes dreams.  I’m explaining this because in the first few minutes of Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, a film written and produced by Guillermo del Toro, a twitchy old man with a hammer and spike knocks the teeth out of the mouth of a screaming woman pinned under his knees.

In other words, del Toro has my number.  Again.  First it was the eyeballs-in-the-palms creature loping after Ofelia in Pan’s Labyrinth and now this, a film about sinister little beings in the walls, hungry for freshly pried-out teeth.  Directed by Troy Nixey in his first feature film, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark is based on the 1973 made-for-television movie of the same name, which del Toro claims was the scariest film he’d seen as a child. 

Read the rest here.

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Categories: On Movies

Tagged: Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, Guillermo del Toro, movie review

We Few, We Happy Few, We Band of Branagh Fanatics

Posted on May 14, 2011

KBI really love Kenneth Branagh.  I don’t understand people who don’t love Kenneth Branagh (I’m looking at you, Joe Hawkins).  But because I know such people exist (Joe Hawkins), I recently tried very hard to review Thor without my Branagh bias.  It required that I get my Holly Golightly outfit on and explain a few things in an accompanying video I’m sure to regret.  Find it all here and enjoy!

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Categories: On Movies

Tagged: film review, Kenneth Branagh, Thor

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