Baked Goods: Encountering Sean Baker's Cinema

Over at Fanzine, I wrote about how Sean Baker's films are built around encounters, meetings, and confrontations.

Mead's World [Taylor Mead]

In the fourth issue of Art Decades, I wrote about the Underground icon, Taylor Mead. Highlighting many of his roles throughout his five-decade career, I examine Mead's performances in such works as The Queen of Sheba Meets the Atom Man (1963), The Nude Restaurant (1967), Candy and Daddy (1972), and Coffee and Cigarettes (2003). Sadly, many of the films that he appears in are still hard to see.

The Greatest American Movies

My good friend, critic, and filmmaker, Scout Tafoya, asked me and a bunch of cinephiles for a list of the greatest American movies.  I don't know if someone can come up with the greatest American, French, Western, comedy, or any other types of movies.  For this poll, I based my selection on favorites, on films that mean a lot to me.   

Interview: Patrick Wang

For Film Comment, I interviewed the indie filmmaker, Patrick Wang, just before his second film, an adaptation of Leah Hager Cohen's novel, The Grief of Others, screened at this year's BAMcinemaFest.

Tribeca 2015 Ranked

Crocodile Gennadiy

As a supplement to my Tribeca 2015 report for MUBI, here's my personal ranking of what I saw there.  Beyond the festival, I keep a record of everything I see, notating: film title; date of release (according to IMDB); what format I saw the film on (DCP, 35mm, DVD, etc.); where I saw the film; and a rating from a 1-10 scale with room for 1/2 numbers.  The ratings are instinctual, and modified with repeat viewings.  I try to make sure that they carry weight, that they mean something to me.  So, there are very few 10s, a handful of 9.5s, and a healthy number of 9s, 8.5s, and 8s.  7s are good films, and the bulk of the films I watch for pleasure.

Someday I may work out a key to the numbers, maybe something akin to Robert Christgau's letter grades, but not today.  This is just for you to see what I watched, how much I watched, and to give you a sense of what to look into if curious.   

1. Men Go to Battle (Zachary Treitz, 2015) - 7.5/10

2. Far From Men (David Oelhoffen, 2015) - 7/10

3. Stranded in Canton (Måns Månsson, 2014) - 7/10

4. Aferim! (Radu Jude, 2015) - 7/10

5. Toto and His Sisters (Alexander Nanau, 2015) - 7/10

6. In Transit (Albert Maysles, et. al, 2015) - 7/10

7. Crocodile Grennadiy (Steve Hoover, 2015) - 7/10

8. Hungry Hearts (Saverio Costanzo, 2015) - 6.5/10

9. The Overnight (Patrick Brice, 2015) - 6.5/10

10. Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle (Nick Berardini, 2015) - 6.5/10

11. The Wolfpack (Crystal Moselle, 2015) - 6.5/10

12. Sworn Virgin (Laura Bispuri, 2015) - 6/10

13. Cronies (Michael Larnell, 2015) - 6/10

14. Come Down Molly (Gregory Kohn, 2015) - 6/10

15. The Survivalist (Stephen Fingleton, 2015) - 6/10

16. Stung (Benni Diez, 2015) - 5.5/10

17. Hyena (Gerard Johnson, 2014) - 5/10

18. Jackrabbit (Carelton Ranney, 2015) - 5/10

19. Wondrous Boccaccio (Paolo & Vittorio Taviani, 2015) - 5/10

20. Jimmy's Hall (Ken Loach, 2014) - 5/10

21. Virgin Mountain (Dagmur Kári, 2015) - 5/10

22. Maggie (Henry Hobson, 2015) - 4.5/10

23. Meadowland (Reed Morano, 2015) - 4.5/10

24. A Courtship (Amy Kohn, 2015) - 4.5/10

Tribeca 2015. Searching and Drifting

Over at MUBI, I wrote about some of the highlights at this year's Tribeca Film Festival, many of which deal with journeys big and small.

Alas, Poor Boro, I Found Thee: Phantom Forms Brought to Light

Over at MUBI's Notebook, I wrote about objects, lighting, and perception in the work of Walerian Borowczyk - one of the bad boys of Polish and French cinema.  That is, before attempting to demolish the conventional depiction of his career arc - rising auteur to soft-porn peddler.