Sympathy for the Devil

Brian Mattson of the Center for Cultural Leadership offers a lively, compelling analysis of Darren Aronofsky’s Noah. He shows that the film is consistent and sticks close to its sources.The only problem is that Aronofsky’s sources are Kabbalic and Gnostic. Mattson . . . . Continue Reading »

Culture Industry and Imagination

Reflecting on our culture’s penchant for remakes in the NYTBR, James Parker traces the phenomenon to a “commercial factor here: the enormous built-in timidity of the culture industry, which will always be happier with a remake than a new thing. Once youve assembled a hero, a hero that . . . . Continue Reading »

Filming Elmore Leonard

Christopher Orr ponders the strange failures of adapting the stories of Elmore Leonard to the screen. The problem is tonal: Early film adaptations didn’t capture the wry humor of the books and short stories; later film adaptations turned up the comedy and lost the wryness.Orr suggests that . . . . Continue Reading »

PsychoSentimentality at the Movies

“What are you doing here? What do you want?” Sarah Cassidy (Neve Campbell) asks Alex (William H. Macy), conscience-stricken scion of a family of contract killers, in 2000 film Panic .”You,” Alex answers. “Then what?” Sarah asks. It’s a great question. And . . . . Continue Reading »

My Name is Bond… .

British doctors have concluded that James Bond is an alcoholic . BBC reports: “Doctors in Derby and Nottingham sat down to read the 14 Bond novels in their spare time.With a notebook at hand they charted every day and every drink.Excluding the 36 days Bond was in prison, hospital or rehab, . . . . Continue Reading »

Sex in the Cinema

Lorrie Moore doesn’t offer a moral critic of the sex in the controversial lesbian film Blue is the Warmest Color. Instead, she calls the sex scenes ” an almost fatal narrative mistake .” She goes on: “Cinematic sex (unlike pillow talk, and that includes the pillow talk here, . . . . Continue Reading »