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Angels and Demons (2008)
The holiest event of our time. Perfect for their return.
Filmmaker(s): Ron Howard

Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is recruited by the Vatican to investigate the apparent return of the Illuminati - a secret, underground organization - after four cardinals are kidnapped on the night of the papal conclave.

The Simplest Professor, Antimatters Pointing out that Ron Howard is incapable of making a good film is too ordinary and obvious a thing to say. This time he got a cinematographer that at least frames things well. You don’t have to read me to learn that this...


Published April 4, 2023
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Anemic Cinema (1926)
Filmmaker(s): Marcel Duchamp

A spiral design spins. It's replaced by a spinning disk. These two continue in perfect alternation until the end: a spiral design, a disk. Each disk is labelled and can be read as it rotates. The messages, in French, feature puns and whimsical rhymes and alliteration. The final message comments on the spiral motif itself.

Un Revolutionary Just because something happened, doesn’t mean that it matters. Just because some artist farts controllably doesn’t mean we should enter it. This was unimportant when it was new, and only slightly less so now. I say slightly because film as a whole has lost a...


Published April 4, 2023
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And the Ship Sails On (1983)
One of the world's great directors invites you to join him on a voyage...
Filmmaker(s): Federico Fellini

In 1914, a cruise ship sets sail from Naples to spread the ashes of beloved opera singer Edmea Tetua near Erimo, the isle of her birth. During the voyage, the eclectic array of passengers discovers a group of Serbian refugees aboard the vessel. Peace and camaraderie abound until the ship is descended upon by an Austrian flagship. The Serbians are forced to board it, but naturally they resist, igniting a skirmish that ends in destruction.

Sleeping Chickens Fellini is a visionary mystic. He sees what he knows before he figures it out. So we have set design, costume design, even character design, before he fills things in with his narratives and allegories. I know this, so don’t come to be disappointed...


Published April 4, 2023
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Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
They bring you the news so you don't have to get it yourself.
Filmmaker(s): Adam McKay

It's the 1970s and San Diego anchorman Ron Burgundy is the top dog in local TV, but that's all about to change when ambitious reporter Veronica Corningstone arrives as a new employee at his station.

Unanchored This is a simple exercise in humour by going out of bounds. Well, this has energy at least. It does have what I call folding, being a show about a show and show business. But that element is mundane , of the “Zoolander” variety. I’ve been studying...


Published April 2, 2023
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Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
No search of human emotions has ever probed so deeply, so truthfully as… Anatomy of a Murder.
Filmmaker(s): Otto Preminger

Semi-retired Michigan lawyer Paul Biegler takes the case of Army Lt. Manion, who murdered a local innkeeper after his wife claimed that he raped her. Over the course of an extensive trial, Biegler parries with District Attorney Lodwick and out-of-town prosecutor Claude Dancer to set his client free, but his case rests on the victim's mysterious business partner, who's hiding a dark secret.

Drunk Lawyers There seems to be a sub-genre of movies that feature drunk or downtrodden lawyers taking on cases and winning. This is sometimes associated with the “courtroom” film where reality is unfolded according to specific rules, coloured by human dynamics. And this is under the...


Published April 2, 2023
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Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid (2004)
The hunters will become the hunted.
Filmmaker(s): Dwight H. Little

The blood orchid - a rare flower that could hold the secret of eternal life and be worth a fortune to the company that finds it first. Led by a pharmaceutical research team, a scientific expedition sets out to go and explore deep into the jungles of Borneo to locate and bring back samples of the legendary plant. Battling through rainstorms to make their way upriver, the group encounters poisonous insects and a ferocious crocodile, only to discover they're being stalked by an even greater danger: a gathering of giant anacondas. Heat-sensing, fifty-foot-long flesh eaters that will go after anyone that crosses in their path.

Balled Up You know, you just can’t have it two ways. Either you make a movie deliberately campy, or you make one straight-on creepy. Either way, it is a hard thing to do and seemingly impossible for studios to handle, That’s because they want as many...


Published April 2, 2023
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Anabel Takes a Tour (1938)
Filmmaker(s): Lew Landers

Annabel Allison, star of Wonder Pictures, is irked at her poor publicity, especially when a rival gets engaged to a Marquis; so she makes studio head Webb re-hire disgraced publicity agent Morgan for her personal appearance tour. The trip proceeds with a flurry of Morgan's crazy, slapstick publicity stunts. Then Annabel has her chance to "bag" a real Viscount.

Sometimes It Is People Serious film nuts are out there. I get mail from waves of them every day as I run in the dark, stepping on feet with my comments. There seem to be two kinds of zealots: those attached to genres and archetypes and those...


Published April 2, 2023
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An American in Paris (1951)
What a joy! It's M-G-M's Technicolor musical!
Filmmaker(s): Vincente Minnelli

Jerry Mulligan is an exuberant American expatriate in Paris trying to make a reputation as a painter. His friend Adam is a struggling concert pianist who's a long time associate of a famous French singer, Henri Baurel. A lonely society woman, Milo Roberts, takes Jerry under her wing and supports him, but is interested in more than his art.

<strong>Sienna Shoes 'The Red Shoes' changed the world of film. It was deeply self-referential (a performance about a performance with the two enfolded) and had the extra advance of sometimes making the camera a dancer. So Gene Kelly tried his own ‘Shoes’. MGM refused to...


Published April 2, 2023
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Amy’s Orgasm (2001)
Filmmaker(s): Julie Davis

Amy is a single 29 year old Jewish woman. She wrote a successful self-help book about how women can't truly be in love and experience "mental orgasm." Her parents and acquaintances always try to give her advice. Eventually, she breaks her celibacy and starts dating a radio shock jock, who is known for hitting on his bimbo guests. Of all men, will she find in him the true love she never believed in

Caught in the Marketplace How difficult it must be for a young writer/director/actor with energy, some skill and no ideas. So just write about one’s self and use the current “intelligent” template of self-reference. That template has our writer playing a writer. The writer on screen is...


Published April 2, 2023
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Amores Perros (2000)
Love. Betrayal. Death.

A fatalistic car crash in Mexico city sets off a chain of events in the lives of three people: a supermodel, a young man wanting to run off with his sister-in-law, and a homeless man. Their lives are catapulted into unforeseen situations instigated by the seemingly inconsequential destiny of a dog.

Panting Astrology I believe that the future of film is now firmly in the hands of Spanish-speaking filmmakers. Not that they make the best films, but that they have the current crop of ideas. We saw Italians introduce us to the notion that a camera can...


Published April 1, 2023
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