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MacGuffin Spotlight
What We’re Watching 7/13/11
Many more intelligent people than I have already summarized life as a series of dueling, chaotic and organized events. John Lennon said, life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans. Roberto Begnini’s character Bob, in Jim Jarmusch’s 1985 film Down by Law, makes…
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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…
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An Appreciation – Seven Samurai
If there is one word to describe Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece, Seven Samurai (1954), it is “epic.” Epic in scale, in ambition, in scope, and in length. At a meaty two hundred and seven minutes, the film is an adventurous experience in and of itself. However,…
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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…
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An Appreciation – The Lady Eve
If someone were to ask me to suggest a film for the sheer enjoyment value, I would point them toward Preston Sturges’ great comedy, The Lady Eve (1941). It is so fun, so witty, and so clever, that it is just a pleasure to watch.…
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MacGuffin Roundtable #10 – Down By Law
The MacGuffin crew discuss Down By Law, from director Jim Jarmusch and starring Tom Waits. This episode can be played online via the flash player below or it can be downloaded from here. It is available on iTunes, Zune, and Stitcher.
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What We’re Watching – 6/30/11
As I finished some exams a few weeks ago, I’ve been able to watch a lot more films recently. In fact, I’ve probably seen more pictures over the last couple of weeks than I caught over the preceding couple of months. Here, then, are a…
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Midsummer Check-Up on 3D
In the middle of this summer season of blockbusters at the theater, it seemed like a good midway checkpoint to see how 3D is faring. In a previous article I wrote in response to the tacit dismissal of 3D as being worthwhile (you can see…
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