Month: March 2014
I Me Mein: Sam Mendes’ Cabaret
Although one is walking through the rain ostensibly to Studio 54, one is actually ushered into what amounts to a spruced up seedy night club by the name of the Kit Kat Club. Manhattan is a world away and the folks behind the “newest” production of Cabaret have done their best to transport you to Weimar Germany, where the waitresses and waiters put on a strong face, only ever hinting at the sinister reality underneath. The table is small, with a quaint lamp atop it, and you aren’t given a program until the end of the show. Whatever it is I just saw, I was mesmerized. I was both welcomed to and rejected from the cabaret, and I couldn’t have asked for anything else. Read the rest of this entry »
Can You Hear What I Hear?
Hey folks, I’m really excited to tell you that I have a new writing gig! I’ll be a columnist over at the awesome Movie Mezzanine. This is totally awesome because that’s a super great site and some of my favorite writers are on their team. Yeah, so thanks so much. The column I’ll be writing is called Songs in the Key of Cinema, which will take a look at how music is used in film. Thanks everyone for their support over the years! And thanks so much to Sam Fragoso for allowing me to join his team of great writers!
Check out my first entry here, on James Bond, masculinity, and the Animals’ “Boom Boom” in Skyfall.
With that butter slathered hair, the cream colored jacket and ambrosial dress shirt, and flamboyant nature in general, Javier Bardem’s Silva seems, at first, entirely antithetical to Daniel Craig’s James Bond. But their similarities is what makes the relationship dynamic intriguing. Silva knows how Bond operates and knows exactly how to get under his skin: by challenging Bond’s ideal of masculinity. This sly, subversive action can be summed up easily by the use of one song: The Animals’ cover of “Boom Boom”. Late in the twenty-third James Bond film, Sam Mendes’s Skyfall, Silva brings a massive helicopter and blasts the song towards Bond’s home, taunting him, practically begging for Bond to walk out so Silva can continue to play mind games with Bond. And with the use of that song, one can delve into the twisted dynamic between James Bond and one of the most memorable villains in the franchise.
Also check out my review for the “based on a true story” psychodrama U Want Me 2 Kill Him?
Statuettes and Limitations: Oscar Predictions 2014
I haven’t really been paying attention to the race this year (long story), and I honestly didn’t remember who was nominated for what, and I haven’t seen half of the films nominated, but here are my two cents on some of the bigger categories at the Oscars this evening.
I Like Things That Look Like Mistakes 