Reaction Shots

Hey! I took a vacation, too! (No. No, I did not.) It is increasingly difficult to write about entertainment these days, but I think it’s important to. It’s not a matter of distraction with bread and circuses (we have state-sanctioned media for that); the arts are what can sustain us at the highest and best levels, spiritually. At the very least, a movie, a play, a concert, a TV show can give us a break from the madness of our current  Over the past three weeks, I’ve been laid up (and recovered, thank you) and preoccupied with what precisely I do want to write about (other than politics over at the other place). It’s not as though I haven’t watched anything over the past three weeks. Quite the contrary, I’ve watched a shit-ton of stuff. There’s been an embarrassment of riches; repertory cinema over at the River Oaks and (surprise!) my local Regal theater. The Godfather, Chinatown, Taxi Driver, and more. In the wake of Robert Redford’s passing,   The Sting   and  ...

Can we all join Bill Murray in chanting “it just doesn’t matter”? C’mon! Everybody!! “IT JUST DOESN’T MATTER! IT JUST DOESN’t MATTER! IT JUST DOESN’T MATTER!” I enjoy film; it’s not a stretch to say I genuinely love it, in the sense that I care about the medium, its history, its possibilities, and even its failures. I also love literature, philosophy, art, music, and a bunch of other things, but I write about film. How come? I make art and have no desire to blather on and bloviate about it unless someone asks and that’s just a recipe for pain for the person who asks. If you’ve read anything I’ve written, I can go on. And on. And on. I will stop. I’ll stop when asked, of course, but I’ll also stop when I see someone’s eyes glaze over or smell the breath from a mouth that is yawning right in my face. I can detect subtle clues! Music I love but don’t write about because I’m not really that qualified. I could happily write about why I think a given work is great/important/significant or wh...