The Texas Monthly article on the death of Marjorie Nugent at the hands of Bernie Tiede remains one of my favorite longreads (Midnight in the Garden of East Texas). The balance it strikes between affectionate regionalism, sexual oppression, bible belt charity, and cold-blooded murder is straight out of a Flannery O’Connor short. Linklater’s take on […]
(Ed. Note: Originally published at Film-Think.) I have always been troubled by Slacker, as it is been the only Linklater I haven’t been able to enjoy immediately. It is an hour and a half of disconnected dialogue, each scene focused on a conversation or monologue that ends as the character from the upcoming scene appears […]
(Ed. Note: This was originally published at Image Facts.) I still can’t for the life of me put my finger on why I like Linklater’sSchool of Rock so much. Rosenbaum quipped on a radio program that “If Jean Renoir had decided to make a movie about rock and roll musicians in the 6th grade, it would have […]
(Ed. Note: This was originally published at Image Facts.) The first time I saw Tape I could hardly take it. It is relentless, theCome and See of thirtysomethings in the 90’s. It is a film about regret and forgiveness, about getting something of your chest, the torment of raw guilt. And, as an adapted stage play, it takes place […]
(Ed. Note: Originally published at Image Facts.) “Does a passive infrared scanner… see into me – into us – clearly or darkly? I hope it does, he thought, see clearly, because I can’t any longer these days see into myself. I see only murk. Murk outside; murk inside. I hope, for everyone’s sake, the scanners […]