Not a review, but my first published article about the legal revolution of Hollywood is now out in the new issue of The Velvet Light Trap. It explores the contracts devised by Warner Bros. for two films directed by Arthur Penn, The Left-Handed Gun and Bonnie and Clyde. I ask the question, "What could contracts tell us about how films are made and the role of the director?" Here's a brief excerpt:
By 1967 the studio had transitioned into a…
Definitely one of the weirdest projects Lewis made, and as Jaime Christley and I discuss on our podcast tribute to Jerry Lewis, one that is both entirely outdated and incredibly radical. The moment with Janet Leigh as she dances is quite the emotional slow burn, but what I do find so fascinating is the way that Jerry slowly becomes the Jerry character. We see his character slowly devolve and become much more of a clown until its no longer possible to be anything else.
For years, Hollywood and the surrounding Culture Wars have asked a question: Do Critics Matter? It's a frankly boring question, but the main anxiety has developed out of a growing disconnect between Rotten Tomatoes Favorites and the American Box Office. But Disney and their expanding intellectual properties have put a new spin on this story: critics don't matter, but studios deliberately position / design films to harness their words in order to enter The Cultural Conversation. Their movies are no…
Edgar Wright would have never fit the 70s New Wave: he belongs at Warners in the 30s. Baby Driver colors inside the lines, but this is a stark contrast from other recent Hollywood films praised being "different enough." He wants the image on screen to matter more than the cultural conversation that occurs afterwards. He's rather cast a David Byrne than a emotive performance (perhaps to a slight detriment when the gears change). He wants to create tone and rhythm…
