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MacGuffin Spotlight
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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An Appreciation – King Kong
The adventure film. Of all the genres and subgenres that movies incorporate, I feel that the adventure film is the one that excites people the most. It’s the kind of movie that can bring people to the theater in droves; it touches us in a…
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A Moment in Audiard’s “A Prophet” (2009)
It began, perhaps, the moment the deer flew into the air. Upon impact, when car and flesh collide, we move from within the cabin to a view outside. Shot in slow motion, the carcass rises with a lightness, unexpected because of its weight, and we’re…
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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…
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