film
hell in the pacific \/\/ marvin boorman mifune
Hell in the Pacific (1968) stars Lee Marvin, Toshiro Mifune, and no one else. Literally. Directed by John Boorman with cinematography by Conrad Hall, the story follows an American pilot and a Japanese naval officer as they fight against the hatred instilled in their respective countries by the war. While stranded together on a... »
the revolutionary spirit\/\/fast cheap and out of control
The only thing that performance studies scholars can agree on when they talk about performance seems to be that “performance” is an essentially contested concept. The fact that we can call just about any action a performance can lead to some pretty stupid conversations. Are you performing when you’re asleep? Who gives a flying... »
monstrous monsters \/\/ dear hollywood
The Wolfman stars Benicio del Toro as a man who returns home to his father (Anthony Hopkins) and their vast English estate. Unfortunately, the curse of the wolf runs in his family. In Legion, Paul Bettany’s fallen angel tries to save a group of people from the coming apocalypse of angry angels and possessed... »
avatar \/\/ the inevitable backlash begins (began)
There’s something called the “Tall Poppy Syndrome”. If you’re avant-garde enough to live outside the States, then you might have heard of it. It’s a term most commonly used in the Commonwealth countries, so you wouldn’t really be that avant-garde. Everyone’s lived in a Commonwealth country. (The term does originate from Aristotle, if that... »
the infiniteability of stories
Last night at Barnes and Noble my partner and I stumbled across the book Cake Wrecks, and spent the next 15 minutes laughing to the point of tears. Three hours later, after watching a movie we thought about the book and had another laughing attack. It was almost unbearable. There’s just something inordinately funny... »
killer suits \/\/ bury or be buried
“And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral drest in his shroud…” Walt Whitman, Song of Myself My vote for two of the all-time great suits in cinema: the grey single-breasted job ad executive Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) wears as he’s being chased around the country in North By Northwest (1959) and... »
andre breton is a douchebag\/\/visualizing beauty
Honestly, have you read Nadja by Andre Breton? Cause I have and the book is everything that’s wrong with being French. It’s one long convoluted name dropping turdboiler. OHHH, FANTASTIC you’re friends with Max Ernst and Picasso!? Fuck off. The premise is offensive to anyone but Breton’s magna-douche sized ego. Its all about a torrid... »
stay hungry \/\/ starshine mingling
Having a digital cable box flush with movie channels is like panning a river for gold circa 1849. Sometimes you strike riches, most of the time you end up staring at a barrow of dirt clods. HBO’s been pimping The Soloist lately, Jamie Foxx’s post-Ray Oscar baitbox. It may be a brain-bending superflick (won’t... »
the hangover \/\/ bradley cooper pulls a mcqueen
Rode hard and put up wet: my current state of being. What a whiz-bang opener to the new decade. During the torporous malaise that sets in after a big night, I’ve been feeding my new-found addiction to The Hangover, the record-setting R-rated comedy sewn together by director Todd Phillips. I didn’t see it in... »
commodity fetishism gone right \/\/ come as you are, toronto
Ah, freshman year in college. Freedom from the oppressive schedules of high school and parental supervision, talking until the break of dawn with newfound friends, bad cafeteria food, worse laundry hassles, goateed professors in corduroy jackets, testing the limits of binge drinking — and of course, plenty of sexual experimentation. My higher education kicked off... »
Gallery
the avant guardian twitter
- it's whitman, bitch: composed before a million universes http://bit.ly/56gkmx