|Chris Polley| “Making films is very much about frontality, about facing off,” legendary director Chantal Akerman told Mousse Magazine in 2011, less than four years before her death by suicide. Decades removed from her stunning black-and-white debut Je Tu Il Elle in 1974… Continue reading
|Lucille Hanson| The following piece contains spoilers for Je, Tu, Il, Elle and also contains descriptions of sexual content. “It snowed. I figured that, in any case, life had come to a halt, that nothing more would happen, and that I should wait for the snow to stop and then melt. It snowed for a… Continue reading
|Penny Folger| A man wanders a Texan desert landscape in a red cap, mute, and in a daze. Rather than walking along the roadside, he seems to be walking down an invisible path that cuts across the landscape and that only he can see. We don’t know it yet, but this man is a… Continue reading
|Dan McCabe| Harry Cohn, president of Columbia Pictures, had a problem. Director Frank Capra, arguably the person keeping the lights on at Columbia, had a great script based on a popular short story. The issue? Directors and scripts didn’t sell movies during the Golden Age… Continue reading
|Jackson Stern| As a young man, I loved a good romance. Two people walking alone until, usually without warning, they’re cosmically entwined forever under a setting sun. It’s a pretty picture to see, especially when it features two unmistakably beautiful people whose smiles melt your… Continue reading
|Penny Folger| “You can never go fast enough,” declares James Taylor’s character in Two-Lane Blacktop, known here simply as The Driver. He occupies a world where he and his righthand man, The Mechanic, played by original Beach Boys’ drummer Dennis Wilson, make their living… Continue reading
|Wil McMillen| Two-Lane Blacktop is a curious, dense race movie in which almost no racing actually happens. Instead, the film is haunted by the passage of time, by the feeling that life has passed you by, and ultimately, by death itself. Tragically, for three of the film’s actors, those themes would become reality sooner… Continue reading
|Ben Tuthill| In late 1994, high off the box office fumes of Speed, Keanu Reeves took a break from movies to play Hamlet in a two-month run for the Manitoba Theatre Centre in Winnipeg. Opening night was by all accounts a disaster, but Reeves found his nerve in the coming weeks… Continue reading
|Abraham Tueber| Though it embarrasses me to admit it, I own just a single DVD. At one time, I had many more I could proudly hold in my hands. Now, sheaves of plastic collect dust in my parents’ basement, entombing masterpieces like Spy Kids, Ice Age, and Akeelah and the Bee… Continue reading
|Ben Tuthill| Maybe nothing has raised the moviegoing populace to space-brain meta-awareness more than the sequel. The sequel presents itself as a new window into an already established cinematic universe, but in reality it exposes the moviemaking infrastructure to which that… Continue reading
|Devin Warner| Note: There are many links to Muppet related material that I am referencing. You do not need to see them to understand this piece but should watch them because they are all delightful. The Muppet Movie starts with the camera descending into the swamp as we… Continue reading
|Dan Howard| Dom DeLuise, James Coburn, Madeline Khan, Telly Savalas, Carol Kane, Paul Williams, Milton Berle, Elliot Gould, Edgar Bergen (and Charlie), Bob Hope, Richard Pryor, Steve Martin, Mel Brooks, Cloris Lechman, and Orson Welles! Talk about an… Continue reading
|Chris Polley| My spouse often teases me for being drawn to films where “nothing really happens and then the bottom drops out from the main character’s life.” She’s not wrong. After all, right now, I have Eyes Without a Face, Sirāt, and Mikey & Nicky in my top four on Letterboxd… Continue reading
| Sophie Durbin | Wanda plays at the Trylon Cinema from Sunday, July 26th, through Tuesday, July 28th. For tickets, showtimes, and other series information, visit trylon.org. MR. DENNIS: You don’t want anything, you won’t have anything. You don’t have anything, you’re nothing. Might as well be dead. You’re not… Continue reading
|Dan Howard| Oftentimes, it feels like younger people have been told all our lives by our elders to “never get old” and to appreciate the time we have while we have it. When we see how some people become more cynical with age, it lessens any desire to get that old. I believe we’ve all had our fair share of encountering jaded folks… Continue reading
|Finn Odum| I frequently dream about driving a car that’s lost control. In these dreams, the driver is missing, and I am left trying to navigate a vehicle from the backseat. Usually, the car is in peril. I’m flying down a hill. Another car is in the way. I’m back in Milwaukee, driving down… Continue reading
