Author Archive
Top 10 of 2011 – Brandi’s Picks
I think Top 10 lists are fun. Many critics write beleaguered sorts of “I don’t really want to be doing this and it’s stupid and rankings are meaningless” disclaimers at the beginning of their lists. Ugh. Look, it should go without saying that any list…
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Film Review – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
I was probably not the best choice to review the new film Tinker Tailor Solider Spy for The MacGuffin. Double-crossing, secret-plotting, many-character-having spy movies make me anxious; I spend much of the time just fretting that I’ll miss something plot-wise. And if this is the…
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Bird Watching – The Success of Aline Brosh McKenna
It’s often much more difficult to evaluate a screenwriter’s career than that of a director or an actor. Sure, movies are always collaborative—the actor hopes the director and editor choose good takes, the director hopes the producer doesn’t insist on modifying their vision, etc, etc—but…
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Interview – Gary Oldman – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
In the new film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, opening in Seattle this Friday, Gary Oldman plays George Smiley, a retired spy called back to try to discover a mole within his old organization. When Oldman was in Seattle recently, he had a chance to talk…
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Film Review – Sleeping Beauty
There are many reasons to dislike Sleeping Beauty, the new film from first-time writer/director Julia Leigh, but at least being sick of half-hearted fairy tale updates is not one of them. This is because the film has almost nothing to do with the traditional Charles…
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Film Review – Tyrannosaur
Here is a way to know you’re watching a great film: every scene contains both an element of surprise and a sense of inevitability. Surprising a savvy audience that has seen every trick in the book is tough; doing it while following the rule of…
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Film Review – Another Happy Day
If you are the sort of person who sees a film title like Another Happy Day and hopes it’s trying to be ironic, you are in luck with Sam Levinson’s new film. It doesn’t seem there’s been a happy day in a long while with…
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Bird Watching – Jennie Livingston’s “Paris Is Burning”
For a period of time in the mid-to-late 1980s, first-time documentarian Jennie Livingston took her camera into the world of New York City’s “ball” scene, a phenomenon amongst minorities in the gay community of that area and time. Many participants competed in the raucous events;…
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