DAVID FINCHER’S ‘MANK’: ONCE MORE, WITH FEELING

Originally published via the Untitled Magazine on December 3rd, 2020. Mank is a phenomenal piece of cinema, but it is not a very entertaining movie. What David Fincher has achieved is a sweeping parlor trick that satirizes the majesty of Hollywood’s … Read More

Ana Lily Amirpour’s ‘Ride It Out’ Belongs in a Time Capsule

Originally published in the Untitled Magazine on October 21st, 2020. During a 2017 interview with Berlinale Talents, 40-year-old writer/director Ana Lily Amirpour (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, The Bad Batch) described the year after she had graduated from UCLA as … Read More

Upon the 10th Anniversary of ‘Batman Begins’

I went to see Batman Begins alone in an empty theater that had a max cap of fewer than 300 seats. I knew nothing about movies and even less about directors. I made no connection between Christopher Nolan and the … Read More

Tracing the Spielbergian Parallels Between ‘Jurassic Park’ & ‘Jaws’

Originally published via the Untitled Magazine on February 15th, 2015. Assuming you have seen the one-minute Jurassic World trailer that ran during the Super Bowl – and, let’s be honest, who hasn’t? – you know it opens on a clip featuring a five-ton Mosasaurus swallowing a great … Read More

Sissy Spacek @ 65

Originally published in the Untitled Magazine on December 15, 2014. The story of Sissy Spacek is a story based on family. It is the story of a poor girl, from Texas, a shy girl, a homecoming queen. It is the … Read More

7 Iconic Directors & Their 7 Iconic Movies

Originally published via the Untitled Magazine on October 22nd, 2014. There comes a point in every budding director’s career, usually a few movies in, where the circumstances align to allow for a breakthrough. The backing is there, the level of … Read More

Ranking The Women In Don Draper’s Sex Life (1960-1969)

Don Draper is a philanderer. He philanders. And though the reasons for his philandering are varied, Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner may have put his finger on it when he said, “I think Don likes longing more than he likes … Read MoreRead More

‘Before Nausea’: A Case Somewhat For – But Mostly Against – The Most Pretentious Trilogy of All-Time

Less than seven minutes in I could sense there would be trouble. The opening scene took place in a rail car – scattered riders, mostly German. There was a French girl, then an American, both of them en route from … Read MoreRead More

Film Capsule: You’re Next

OK, so there’s this house, see, and it’s like waaaaay out in the wilderness, right? I mean like sooooo far out that you can’t even get, like, cell phone service or internet access, y’dig? And so, then there’s, like, this … Read MoreRead More

Classic Capsule: Shadow of The Vampire

“My film is not about Vietnam. My film is Vietnam.” This is what Francis Ford Coppola told reporters at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival. Coppola was referring to Apocalypse Now, a movie that had left him on the preening edge … Read More