Even before there was a state called North Carolina, this region’s commercial lifeblood flowed through the Neuse River, a body formed by a confluence of the Flat and Eno rivers in northern Durham County before emptying into the Pamlico Sound. Once home to ancient Native American settlements, the river’s basin remains a wellspring for North […]
Neil Morris
Posted inFilm & Television
The cost of translation
The problem with the “interrelated multiple storyline” approach to screenwriting lies not in its ubiquity but in the impulse of some audiences to view the device itself as the story, not the ideas expressed therein. Crash addressed race relations, Traffic tackled the drug war, and Syriana painted broad strokes about oil addiction. But, many people […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Jail dates
Viewers of Infamous and Running with Scissors might relate to comedian Steven Wright’s quip, “Right now I’m having amnesia and déjà vu at the same time.” In considering INFAMOUS, director Douglas McGrath’s account of writer Truman Capote and his experiences while researching his magnum opus In Cold Blood, I wanted to write about Capote’s eccentric, […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Capture the flag
The prologue to Clint Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers contains a seemingly benign, table-setting edict: “The right picture can win or lose a war.” While this dubious epigram may not be analytically useful, it underscores the tremendous importance attached to a single image in this adaptation of James Bradley and Ron Powers’ best-selling, acclaimed account […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Baton stooge
The Scottish poet Roberts Burns wrote, “The best-laid schemes of mice and men/ Often go awry/ And leave us nought but grief and pain/ For promised joy.” Such would be an appropriate epitaph for Willie Stark, the protagonist at the heart of Robert Penn Warren’s luminous, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel All the King’s Men, a literary […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Baton Stooge
The Scottish poet Roberts Burns wrote, “The best-laid schemes of mice and men/ Often go awry/ And leave us nought but grief and pain/ For promised joy.” Such would be an appropriate epitaph for Willie Stark, the protagonist at the heart of Robert Penn Warren’s luminous, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel All the King’s Men, a literary […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Smoke and mirrors
The art of magic and the art of moviemaking both rely on audience manipulation. A couple of new films–The Illusionist and The Quiet–try to pull the wool over viewers’ eyes. One is a Hollywoody romantic-thriller masquerading as art house cinema, while the other is a drama that revolves around issues of family dysfunction, sexual abuse, […]
Posted inArt
Seriously gay
Now entering its second decade, the North Carolina Gay & Lesbian Film Festival is slimming down. It hasn’t looked this good in years. There is no denying the longstanding popularity and import of this annual staple of the Durham art scene. It is currently the second largest gay and lesbian film festival in the Southeast, […]
Posted inFilm & Television
A story dully
Hollywood has never done justice to Philip K. Dick, but it’s not for lack of talent. Luminaries Ridley Scott, Paul Verhoeven, John Woo and Steven Spielberg have overseen the cinematic materialization of Dick’s works. All met with varying levels of quality and entertainment value, beginning in 1982 with the bastardization of Do Androids Dream of […]
Posted inFilm & Television
The Triangle Jewish Film Festival, coming to a galaxy near you
When the Triangle Jewish Film Festival takes place on Sunday, May 21, the giant matzo ball in the room might be the transfiguration of the event itself. Since 1999, Durham’s Carolina Theatre sponsored and hosted the erstwhile N.C. Jewish Film Festival. However, mounting costs and stagnant attendance forced the theater to shutter the festival after […]
