Brian De Palma’s Films, Ranked
Here we pay homage to one of screen’s pre-eminent visual stylists and most irrepressible troublemakers
APROPOS OF NOTHING
It’s an interesting thing about Woody Allen: not too long ago he was considered the epitome of class and sophistication, but now he’s a pariah
Disease Movies: An Informal History
With the advent of 2020 the disease movie has taken on an entirely new resonance
CUT TO THE CHASE
A movie book that’s as gossipy, informative and entertaining as anyone could possibly want
RIDLEY SCOTT: A BIOGRAPHY
A book about the prolific British filmmaker Ridley Scott that isn’t what I’d call revelatory
THE BIG GOODBYE: CHINATOWN AND THE LAST YEARS OF HOLLYWOOD
This book is ostensibly about the making of CHINATOWN (1974), but its true concerns are Hollywood in the early 1970s and one of that milieu’s most contentious figures: one Roman Polanski
THE APPLE WAR
A self-proclaimed “happy and mystic film” from Sweden with a highly eccentric critique of imperialism (of the cultural and environmental variety)
BLACK CHRISTMAS
It’s probably wrong to criticize this book overmuch, as novelizations are by nature an extremely hasty and disreputable form of literature. It’s true that occasionally a novelization will transcend its limitations, but this one doesn’t.
TO BE TWENTY
This Italian oddity is among the most notorious grindhouse productions due solely to its final ten minutes
Robert Forster: 1941-2019
2019 is shaping up as, among other things, a year in which quite a few vital character actors breathed their last breath