Posts Tagged ‘steve buscemi’

The Dead Don’t Die – Your Patience Might

Posted 21 Jun 2019 — by Ezra Stead
Category Film Reviews, Movies I Didn't Get

By Ezra Stead

The Dead Don’t Die, Sweden / USA, 2019

Written and Directed by Jim Jarmusch

“Humor is subjective” is a phrase I forced myself to remember several times throughout legendary independent filmmaker Jim Jarmusch’s latest, The Dead Don’t Die, as several other people in the audience with me reacted audibly and approvingly to jokes I found relentlessly unfunny and lame.

Here are some of the bits that elicited laughter…

Farmer Frank Miller (Steve Buscemi) is introduced in a diner, wearing a bright red baseball cap with white letters in a recognizable font reading “Keep America White Again.” That’s it. That alone got a laugh, of the performative type borne not of true mirth but a desire to let others know you get the joke (or so it seemed to me, at least).  Read More

Blank City

Posted 02 May 2011 — by Ezra Stead
Category Film Reviews, Movies I Got

By Ezra Stead

Blank City, USA, 2010

Directed by Celine Danhier

Blank City is a lively, well-made documentary of a bygone era.

Celine Danhier’s documentary Blank City is an invigorating love letter to a bygone era, a time when guerrilla filmmakers ran wild in the streets, freely shooting their cinematic visions without the hindrance of Hollywood extravagances like permits, budgets and stars. It is the kind of film that inspires not only nostalgia, but also a forward-thinking desire to follow in the footsteps of its many sometimes deranged but always passionate and interesting subjects. It is a lively documentary, one that celebrates life and manages to revel in nostalgia without ever getting sappy about it.

Blank City follows the rise and eventual fall (or, at least, evolution) of the so-called “No Wave” independent filmmaking scene of New York City in the late 1970s and beyond. A few of the renegades seen in the film went on to become famous and successful – perhaps the biggest names interviewed for the film are John Waters, Jim Jarmusch and Steve Buscemi (Vincent Gallo is also seen in archival footage) – while others remain noteworthy cult figures, highly respected in some circles, but far on the fringes of mainstream renown – Lydia Lunch, Richard Kern, John Lurie. Many of the rest faded completely into obscurity, but the legacy of their approach to filmmaking can be seen in some of today’s indie cult success stories made on extraordinarily low-budgets; the DIY approach advocated by this film’s subjects can easily be seen in the making of films like Robert Rodriguez’s El Mariachi (1992), Kevin Smith’s Clerks (1994), and Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez’s The Blair Witch Project (1999), to name just a few. Read More

The Big Lebowski – The Dude Is A Dud

Posted 07 Oct 2010 — by Jason A. Hill
Category Film Reviews, Movies I Didn't Get

By Jason A. Hill

The Big Lebowski, USA / UK, 1998

Directed by Joel Coen

jeff bridges john goodman“The dude abides” is the credo that has led this cult classic for more than ten years running now, and it wasn’t until just this past July that I finally sat down to The Big Lebowski. Now, after reading this one may get the sense that I really have something against the Coens; I mean, after all, my first article bashed the film that gave these indisputably talented filmmakers their first Oscar. However, I have to call ’em like I see ’em, and this film was either over my head or I need a pot brownie to fully appreciate it.

Let me mark off what I did get from this film. Many critics and viewers say that this film isn’t about its plot, it’s about attitude, that attitude being that no matter what happens to a person in life, there is always a silver lining. The Dude never lies, steals, or cheats, but when someone pisses on his carpet he sets out to do what’s right for himself. He’s the free American who lives on the fringes and is more than content with life with a White Russian in one hand, an occasional fling in the other, and maybe a roach in his toe. Read More