One hundred-and-one years ago, Francis Albert Sinatra entered the world in Hoboken, New Jersey. He proceeded to live one of the more completely lived lives this side of Casanova. Though foiled […]
Category: film
Climbing Twin Peaks, plus David Lynch cooks quinoa
An excerpt from Justin Nieland‘s once-again-timely book David Lynch. Laura Palmer—passive, suffering, already victimized—is one kind of a melodramatic myth, and Twin Peaks, both the series and the fictional town, is Lynch’s […]
Backlist Bop: Women in film
Widely regarded as one of the most innovative and passionate filmmakers working in France today, Claire Denis has continued to make beautiful and challenging films since the 1988 release of […]
Backlist Bop: Only Pam Grier can save us
This lively study unpacks the intersecting racial, sexual, and gender politics underlying the representations of racialized bodies, masculinities, and femininities in early 1970s black action films, with particular focus on […]
On the classic opening scene of D.O.A.
Excerpted from the new book The Red and the Black: American Film Noir in the 1950s, by Robert Miklitsch D.O.A. begins at night with a tilt-down shot from the top […]
Paul Thomas Anderson and the pits of ourselves
Excerpted from the book Paul Thomas Anderson, by George Toles. The film discussed is There Will Be Blood. Anderson briefly confuses us about which man has been struck down and about […]
There will be analysis. . . on George Toles and Paul Thomas Anderson
During winter break, the Los Angeles Review of Books covered our new book on Paul Thomas Anderson by film scholar George Toles, himself a figure of distinction in the moviemaking dream […]
Boo Man Group
In honor of Halloween, we have slunk into the UIP vault of horror to dig up books both Profound and Mysterious to get you in the mood for our most […]
Dylan the high-heeled marionette
Excerpted from Rob White‘s book Todd Haynes. The black-and-white poise of the re-created tour in I’m Not There softens the actual color footage of these 1966 performances, shot by Pennebaker […]
Throwbacklist Thursday: I Learned Law at the Movies
Courtroom dramas and filmed jury rooms have left an indelible impression on Americans. That impression? The law is so straightforward you can wrap up any case in a maximum of […]
George Toles on Paul Thomas Anderson
Paul Thomas Anderson is George Toles‘s long-awaited dive into the works of one of today’s most beguiling filmmakers. Below we offer a three-point sampler to tantalize fans of Toles’s acclaimed film […]
Release Party: Paul Thomas Anderson
Since his explosive debut with the indie sensation Hard Eight, Paul Thomas Anderson has established himself as one of contemporary cinema’s most exciting artists. His 2002 feature Punch-Drunk Love radically […]