Not a Lubitsch film, but I joined Devan Scott on his podcast "How Would Lubitsch Do It?" to give a breakdown of every Hollywood studio from the 1920s through the 1940s. We discussed the influenza pandemic and how it consolidated distribution and exhibition, the role of the government in creating Hollywood's global brand, and the role anti-Semitism played in shaping the censorship boards. Plus, Devan couldn't help but ask about Jewel Robbery, a film I recommended him once and what remains I think perhaps the most essential film of Hollywood Pre-Code. Check our our talk here!
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The Gray Man 2022
No, I did not watch The Gray Man. This is an announcement: I've started a Substack. As spaces like Facebook and Twitter have become less operable, I'm trying to center a space where curious readers might follow my writing on film, labor, industry, history, and perhaps some baseball and food posts. And all posts will be free.
My first piece is on Netflix; specially, the DVD side of Netflix that has finally been killed. I argue that it's no different…
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I Don't Want to Be a Man 1918
I joined the all new How Would Lubistch Do It? podcast to cover a myriad of issues on this defining early feature of the director's career, including covering its oft inclusion as a key early work of Trans Cinema.
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The Cardinal 1963
In one of my likely abandoned history articles, I was writing a history of copyright law in postwar France, and particular the fights around whether directors would be formally given "moral rights" and thus bestowed as authors within the legal landscape of art (for thos trivia nerds: it was this law that allowed the Huston family to sue and stop the colorization of The Asphault Jungle in the 1950s). What struck me is how little involved the major film critics…
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The Fabelmans 2022
Wild that the two most important cinematic references Spielberg uses beyond his own filmography is Antonioni's Blow Up and Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia.
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The Decks Ran Red 1958
Maybe as Twitter dies and my new job is less focused on writing about old films I can get back into the letterboxd game...
Shown at the Academy Museum obstensibly as part of a Dorothy Dandridge series, here forced into a role playing the Maori wife stuck on a boat. The film can't decide whether Dandridge should be a sex kitten or a vulnerable ingenue sadly so she does her best alternating between the two. But that's all sideshow to…
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The French Dispatch 2021
A film about depth beyond the surface. Anderson's films almost always appear in two dimensions to us, so what is apparent throughout is how often the film seems to push further in or out within the frame. Layered surfaces are literally pulled back to reveal something in and out. Temporal strategies are employed throughout to contextualize art in ways otherwise inexpressible. An aside of (violent?) sexual rapture requires moving closer in to the audience to break the spell of presentation.…
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Red Notice 2021
There are more shows and films to watch than ever before. So why does it feel so hard to find something good? Turns out this is just another effect of Hollywood's exploitation of labor and its poor business practices in the Streaming Revolution. Today I'm on "The Politics of Everything," a podcast from The New Republic, discussing why streaming made Hollywood Suck more than ever.