March 2009
22 posts
3 tags
Not-so private dicks
Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!
Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!
HBO’s sex doc, Private Dicks - Men Exposed, employs some smart filmmaking strategies, such as not always shooting full-body (In fact, we never see the porn star’s penis.), teasing us about the sexual orientations and gender identities of those interviewed and using stock footage, vintage films and illustrations...
“Mariela Castro, daughter of Cuban president Raúl Castro, and Director of the...”
– Blabbeando: Cuba: “Milk” to be screened as part of anti-homophobia campaign
4 tags
Invincible
I didn’t think blip.fm would even have it. But fuck Benatar if she doesn’t like the movie.
4 tags
The real Supergirl
Art Factory Hostel in Buenos Aires, where I met, and still meet, all kinds of cool folks, presents DVDs on their rooftop terrace every Wednesday. Tonight’s, uh, idiosyncratic selection, chosen by pansexual sexpot receptionist Julia, is Supergirl.
Don’t ask me. I have no idea. Maybe Supergirl has accrued some sort of ironic, hip cachet here in Argentina. Who knows?
I like Helen...
4 tags
It ain't necessarily so
When I was in Bible school, I came out of the closet.
As an intellectual and a non-literal Biblical interpreter, that is.
This did not set well with my church back home, nor with the literalist president of the Jackson College of Ministries. He ended up firing a couple of the teachers who had taught me how to think for myself as a Christian.
So, I find fascinating a lot of the explanations that...
For Timeliness, Robert Greenwald’s Afghanistan... →
4 tags
Hot Mexicans
Sin Nombre, a new film about immigrants by Sundance-award winning Cary Joji Fukunaga.
Slideshow here. Review by Manohla Dargis here.
Dargis hates it; but it sure looks pretty.
Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!
Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!
Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!
Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!
Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!
Uploaded with...
1 tag
Melodrama, Iranian-style
Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!
My copy of Asghar Farhadi’s The Beautiful City contained an introduction by Peter Scarlett, the former director of the Tribeca Film Festival. After providing a rough plot outline, he makes a disclaimer, of sorts, saying that this 2004 Iranian film might sound like a Hollywood weepie, with its story about a boy trying to prevent his friend’s...
“After 8 years, I’ve figured out that film festivals don’t do explicit sex if the...”
– Learning to Say No to SXSW (and Others.)
“Trying to do it doggie-style. Trying to have a nervous breakdown while doing it...”
– Robert Pattinson to GQ: ‘I F*cked Joe Jonas. I Love Him.’
3 tags
Boredom and disdain in Buenos Aires
Cinema under the stars has been usurped by the owners of the Art Factory Hostel. When José and I chose the movies, we had a good turn out. When I walked in at 10, there were around 10 people watching The Red Hot Chili Peppers live. I would have been playing something, anything, else.
Tonight the DVD choice was Terry Gilliam’s Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas. Gilliam´s adapation of Hunter...
Happy Endings
Happy Endings is a new documentary about prostitution in RI Asian massage parlors. The filmmaker just started following me on Twitter. I wonder why?
Rhode Island. The only state where indoor prostitution is legal. It had been over 25 years since five prostitutes sued the state of Rhode Island for selective prosecution, and prostitution laws were removed from the books when documentarians Tara Lyn...
Kubrick's legacy, ten years on →
4 tags
The Royal We is a royal pain
Jim Emerson lists his top 10 best movies of 2008 here. Here’s the paragraph on Chop Shop:
8. “Chop Shop” (Ramin Bahrani; neo-neorealist drama). The opening shot is shown here in its entirety. I’ve written about it before, and I find it subtly glorious every time I see it. First, notice the composition: Men and boys standing and waiting, forming a “V”...
7 tags
Two droughts of Milk
I’ve watched Gus Van Sant’s Milk twice now. The first time I experienced a little of the disappointment expressed in this review, for different reasons. I had hoped to see more free-wheeling editing and expressive, grainy cinematography, as well as the deft marriage of disparate film stocks, styles and resources; that is, the things that make a Van Sant film a Van Sant film. Instead,...
“Bless Awards Daily for looking at a uniquely embarrassing problem over @ the...”
– Film Experience Blog: You Gotta Give Em Hope Time
Uncle Jo gets a blow job
Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!
Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!
Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!
Screen grabs from Ang Lihim ni Antonio (Antonio’s Secret)
Most gobsmacking recent comment on a film blog
Like Joaquin Phoenix’s recent appearance on Letterman, it’s hard to tell if this is parody or not, but please, go read the whole thing, by someone named Andrea Frieboden:
We have so many problems yet our media—run by liberal Jews—wanna focus our attention on some sleazebag gay politician as the greatest political hero of the past 40 yrs. Gimme a break. And, what’s so...
A world full of Filipino dicks
There’s a lot to attract me in Joselito Altarejos’ Ang Lihim ni Antonio (Antonio’s Secret): A frank, non-sentimental, complicated depiction of teenage sexuality (not as harrowing or honest as Towelhead, but not coy either), an emphasis on long-takes with an unhurried documentary style (“I’ll just shoot this scene until I get it all”), some lovely shot set-ups...