(Stone Bridge Press) Reviewed by Matthew Caron Patrick Galloway’s new book Warring Clans, Flashing Blades: A Samurai Film Companion is a neatly arranged tome devoted to the cult of the Japanese swordplay flick well worth checking out for anyone with a passing interest in these films. That it has been designated a so-called companion is right on the money. While it contains all the research and careful thought befitting an academic text, Warring Clans is the work of a fan […]
Molly on John
By Jason Diamond I guess this could have been a bite, but honestly, I shed one or two tears reading this one. Maybe it was simply because the thought of Michael Anthony Hall and Molly Ringwald talking on the phone in 2009 is some sort of weird, comforting thought (don’t ask me why), but Molly’s op-ed pieces on the death of her “mentor”, was a great one. Especially for her dropping the memory of seeing Junior Wells in Chicago, and […]
The Hughes Letters
At 4:54PM yesterday, I simultaneously got news via text that simply read “Hughes is Dead.” This would have seemed like some cruel joke, but as soon as I realized what I was reading, and from whom, I felt a cold chill go up my spine. For the last few years, the mutual friend and I had been trading back and fourth e-mails concerning John Hughes, and films based around the North Shore of Chicago for a project I’d been working on. […]
Budd Schulberg R.I.P.
By Jason Diamond New York Times has an obit here. Also worth checking out the “Last Word” video they provide.
The Coen Brothers and the Return of the Middle-Aged Jewish Man
By Jason Diamond Using names like Woody Allen, Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, and Leonard Michaels, a case could be made that there is an entire genre focusing solely on the neurosis of middle-aged Jewish men. John Updike must have thought so, take his character Henry Bech for proof. But while Bellow, Michaels, and the WASP king Updike are all dead, Roth is still good (a bit depressing maybe, but in a good way) and Allen is more content on using […]
Where the Wild Things Are: A Forthcoming Filmic Rumpus (for All Ages)
Where the Wild Things Are is a children’s classic, and it should make an excellent film: Original author Maurice Sendak is directly involved, the screenplay is written by Dave Eggers (who always does his best to make lit fun), and for crying out loud, it’s 15 years in the making. Plus, Catherine Keener will be there. Keener only makes good movies, she just does. And if the trailer is any indication – which, I know, I know, it often isn’t […]