WIKIPEDIA: Tony Conrad (born Anthony S. Conrad in 1940 in Concord, New Hampshire) is an American avant-garde video artist, experimental filmmaker, musician/composer, sound artist, teacher and writer. His father was Arthur Conrad, who worked with Everett Warner during World War II in designing dazzle camouflage for the US Navy. Conrad’s most famous film, The Flicker (1966), is considered a key early work of the structural film movement. The film consists of only completely black and completely white images, which, as the title suggests, produces a flicker when projected. When the film was first screened several viewers in the audience became […]
REVIEW: THE DEAD GIRL
(2007, directed by Karen Moncrieff, 85 min., U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC This past week I happened to see Rosanna Arquette’s 2002 film Searching For Debra Winger, a star-filled documentary in which a wide array of film actresses talk about the joys and heartaches of being a woman in the business. Marcia Gay Harden is among the actresses rightfully bemoaning the dearth of juicy roles for women, and a film like Karen Moncrieff‘s The Dead Girl, an anthology film with roles for eight actresses (includingt Harden), is just the sort of worthy project these women were imagining.Following five troubled […]
PREVUE: One Man’s Quest To Visit EVERY Starbucks On Earth
Starbucking, SEE ALSO Myth Of Sisyphus [Hat tip to FreeIndie]
DVD REVIEW: IDIOCRACY
(2006, directed by Mike Judge, 84 min., U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Can Big Business take a joke? Maybe not, as Mike Judge appears to have found out with his latest film Idiocracy, which quietly slipped out on DVD a few weeks ago. Although wildly uneven, Idiocracy is one of the most eccentric Hollywood comedies ever produced, and further solidifies the creator of “Beavis and Butthead” and “King of the Hill” as one of the truly subversive voices in mass entertainment. So why did 20th Century Fox, which surely would like to keep a talent as successful as Judge […]
MOVIE REVIEW: MAFIOSO
(1962, directed by Alberto Lattuada, 105 min., Italy) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC There was quite a lot of grumbling last year over the fact that many critics listed Jean-Pierre Melville‘s 1969 war film Army of Shadows as the best film of 2006, as it was getting its first U.S. screenings 37 years after it was made. Resurrected by the small distributor Rialto Pictures and it honestly was like nothing else seen in theaters last year. This year, Rialto is setting its hopes on another forgotten gem, Alberto Lattuada’s 1962 tragic-comedy Mafioso. While it’s not as stylistically daring as the […]
THIS JUST IN: RITZ THEATERS TO BE SOLD
The Ritz Theatres, Center City’s beloved movie shrines, are on the brink of acquisition by Landmark Theatres. The nation’s premier chain devoted to indie and art films confirmed yesterday that it was in negotiations to buy the Philadelphia operations of the Ritz. Although the pact is not final, Landmark may take ownership of the 12 screens at Society Hill’s Ritz Five, Ritz East, and Ritz at the Bourse as early as March 30. Those close to negotiations would not comment on a purchase price. Landmark would buy the Ritz Five at Second and Walnut outright and assume the leases on […]
MATINEE: Contar Ovejas
Directed by Tim Burton.
SNEAK PREVIEW: WHAT WE DO IS SECRET
Germs biopic, due out mid-summer.
LAST MINUTE: Calling All Peace Creeps
WHAT, WHERE, WHEN: Captain Milkshake, rarely-screened 1969 Hippie Anti-War Film, Andrew’s Video Vault at the Rotunda, 8 PM TONIGHT! BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC I lived in the San Francisco Bay area for most of the ’90s, and with their numerous repertory movie houses, one could hang out at the movies every night. The Pacific Film Archive, The Castro, The Roxy, The Red Vic, the UC Theater, The Fine Arts — I slouched for hours in their seats, catching scores of double features of noir films, foreign oddities, indie documentaries and weirdo one-offs that I’ll probably never be able to […]
REVIEW: Das Leben Der Anderen (The Lives Of Others)
(2006, Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 137 minutes, Germany) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC When the subject arises of the U.S. Patriot Act, which allows government increased powers of surveillance, there’s always someone who argues, “Why should anyone care, unless they’re hiding something?” For those without the imagination to conceive of how a Surveillance Society invites abuse, German director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck has crafted a very patient and engrossing thriller that slowly turns the screws of tension on a character under complete scrutiny. It’s successful enough to make anyone’s inner paranoiac wiggle in his seat. The title crawl […]
TOM WAITS For No Man
An animated film starring Tom Waits. Performed for us live (at the La Brea stage in Hollywood, 1978), and rotoscoped — a process that traces back the live action frame by frame and turns it into animation. The original live action was shot with 5 cameras — 2 high, 2 low and one hand held. The music from “The One That Got Away” blared in the background as Tom sang karaoke style different lyrics on each take. Two strippers, 6 takes and 13 hours of video footage were edited to make a 5 1/2 minute live action short which we […]
