Bird Watching
Bird Watching – Top 5 Most Anticipated Films Directed by Women
If there’s one thing I hope I’ve done with this column so far, it’s show that though the overall percentages may be very skewed toward male filmmakers, there are many, many interesting projects out there being made by women. The numbers are getting better all…
READ MORE
Bird Watching – An Open Letter to Penny Marshall
Dear Ms. Marshall, Charm is a very hard thing to achieve. Charm is borderline undefinable, yet when someone is reaching for it and not getting there, everyone can tell, and the result is awkward and painful. As I write this, I’m watching, probably for the…
READ MORE
Bird Watching – Revisiting Penelope Spheeris’s “Wayne’s World”
In desperate need of something to cheer me up after an awful day, and also in desperate need of something to write about for this column this week, yesterday I marched to the video store with one mission: get Wayne’s World. This was actually a…
READ MORE
Bird Watching – Julie Taymor’s “Frida”
Like many pop culture junkies, I’ve followed the tales about the ups and (plunging) downs of the development of the Spider-Man musical on Broadway. Arguably ridiculous premise; record-breaking budget; actors getting injured; a seeming lifetime spent in previews; the interesting creative combination of director Julie…
READ MORE
Bird Watching – Kathryn Bigelow’s “Strange Days”
It’s probably fair to say that Kathryn Bigelow is the most famous female film director working today. Maybe that’s why I’ve taken my time in getting to discussing any of her work in this column. Nobody needs to be told who she is. She has,…
READ MORE
Bird Watching – Hot Coffee – SIFF Film Review
I like a documentary that lets me realize how little I know about a subject. Hot Coffee, from director Susan Saladoff, makes that its goal. The film points out the ways certain areas can be information voids for most laypeople (even reasonably educated ones), without…
READ MORE
Bird Watching – The Off Hours – SIFF Film Review
There’s a point in the film The Off Hours, from local writer and director Megan Griffiths, when our main character, Francine, answers a casual question about how long she’s worked as a waitress at a truck stop diner. An attractive and somewhat troubled woman, Francine…
READ MORE
Bird Watching – Lynne Ramsay’s “Ratcatcher”
There are many films that rest on the premise that people are awful to each other. Sometimes these films can be difficult to watch. The most difficult ones, for me, are the ones that show how awful children and adolescents can be to each other.…
READ MORE