1. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik)Buttressed by terrific performances from Casey Affleck and Brad Pitt, Dominik fashions a lyrical meditation on celebrity and the concept of hero-worship, a longing gaze on the sepia-soaked days of yesteryear refracted into a piercing commentary on contemporary culture. The clear-cut choice for […]
Neil Morris
Posted inFilm & Television
Changing of the guard
The announcement last week that Nancy Buirski was stepping down as head of the Full Frame Documentary Festival was a surprising but not totally unexpected departure. For several years, Buirski has contemplated pursuing a more active role in nurturing independent filmmaking and other film-related ventures. Still, her exit raises eyebrows for both its timing and […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Bloody valentines
Having already blazed a trail into news, politics, sports and gossip, it was just a matter of time before the blogosphere established a beachhead in the world of cinema. Diablo Cody already had a loyal following for her Pussy Ranch weblog and 2006 memoir Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Reviews of I’m Not There, Enchanted and The Mist
To both its credit and detriment, Todd Haynes’ Bob Dylan biopic I’m Not There is an utter cinematic manifestation of its subjectelusive and surreal, yet strangely calculated and manipulative. The film’s structure is nearly as abstruse as a free-associating Dylan lyric: Six actors, each cast under a different pseudonym (Cate Blanchett, for example, is an […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Years in the making, Durham: A Self-Portrait premieres Friday
Nearly an hour into our interview, Steve Channing suddenly rose from his chair and sauntered toward the interior brick wall of his downtown Durham video production office, located within the old Penny Furniture Co. building. “Let me illuminate our conversation a bit,” said Channing wryly as he clicked the pull-chain switch on a wall sign […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Lions for Lambs and Lust, Caution
The presence of righteous indignation is often just as insufferable as its conspicuous, unjustified absence. In 2003, politicians and pundits alike marched in lockstep toward the war in Iraq, flogged mainly by a fear of sagging poll numbers and Nielsen ratings, respectively, that might emanate from even questioning the reasons or motives behind any Middle […]
Posted inNews
Cucalorus Film Festival
Anyone looking for a good reason to take an autumnal sojourn down I-40 this weekend needs to look no further than the 13th Cucalorus Film Festival in Wilmington, which begins Wednesday, Nov. 7 and runs through Saturday, Nov. 10. Over the four-day fest, more than 200 films will be screened at four venues throughout the […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Crawford, Texas
As the war in Iraq grinds on, one of the era’s most iconic happenings continues to be Camp Casey, the makeshift encampment erected by Gold Star mom and anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan during August 2005 in Crawford, Texas, just a stone’s throw from a vacationing President Bush. While the media attention was white-hot, few people […]
Posted inFilm & Television
The life neurotic
The best moments of Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited, located in the wash of his trademark serio-comic pretensions, are the quietest. Illuminated by a campfire, Jack Whitman (Jason Schwartzman) wonders aloud whether he and his two brothersFrancis (Owen Wilson) and Peter (Adrien Brody)would have ever been friends, “not just as brothers but as people.” It […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Tim Kirkman talks politics, and Rodrigo Dorfman’s new feature film opens
During the five weeks in 1991 that I served as a college-age intern in the Washington, D.C., office of Sen. Terry Sanford, the most frequent question I heard from other interns outside North Carolina was a variation of the following: “How can the same state elect both Jesse Helms and Terry Sanford as its two […]
