Chris Barsanti's Blog, page 158

Writer’s Corner: Hints from Lovecraft

(LibriVox)

H.P. Lovecraft was the Stephen King of his day, if King had been a depressive type with a thing for turning horror fiction into fantasies of existential dread. He’s remembered these days almost exclusively for his Cthulhu mythos, in which unlucky humans occasionally run afoul of the ancient deities whose foul existence predates known history and any sense of modern morality.

But Lovecraft was also a student of the form, and not just horror (though his writings on “weird” and supernat...

New in Theaters: ‘Unbroken’

Jack O’Connell faces down a sadistic prison guard in ‘Unbroken’ (Universal Pictures)

Laura Hillenbrand’sUnbroken has been sitting atop the bestseller lists for close to 200 weeks now, which is no surprise, givenits incredible true story of Louis Zamperini, who went from a record-breaking performance runningin the 1936 Berlin Olympics to being a brutalized Japanese prisoner of war. Angelina Jolie’s (yes, she directed) take on the book is respectful and professionally done, but never quite gets...

New in Theaters: ‘The Gambler’

Mark Wahlberg educates the youth in ‘The Gambler’ (Paramount Pictures)

In the newest film from William Monaghan, writer ofThe Departed, Mark Wahlberg plays a professor who’s burning the candle at both ends, what with all the late-night gambling, fooling around with students, and those loan sharks who keep dropping by.

The Gambleropened wide on Christmas Day as a curious piece of award-film counter-programming. My review is at Film Journal International:

In the world of The Gambler, a hyperactive...

New in Theaters: ‘American Sniper’

Bradley Cooper (right) as Chris Kyle in ‘American Sniper’ (Warner Bros.)

Before Chris Kyle was murdered at the age of 38, he had amassed a legendary kill record as an army sniper; possibly the most lethal one in American military history. His bestselling memoir,American Sniper, was originally planned as a Steven Spielberg project, but the film was ultimately directed by Clint Eastwood, no stranger to squint-eyed dramas of force and will.

American Sniperhit theaterstoday. My review is at Film Ra...

Department of Holiday Reading: December 24, 2014

Baldwin to Sontag and Mailer: The 10 greatest essays since 1950.
The year in photos, so far.
Moses and whether he could have parted the Red Sea without God’s help.
Catherine the GreattoMy Friend, Dahmer:the year’s best unproduced screenplays
TheTimes‘10 Best Books of 2014.
Lila, Boyhood, and Transparency: If everybody basically agrees, why are there so many best-of lists for 2014?
The Big Lebowski, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, andRio Bravoamongthe films added to the National Film Registry...

New in Theaters: ‘Two Days, One Night’

‘Two Days, One Night’ (IFC Films)

In the latest film from the Dardennes brothers, Marion Cotillard deglams to play a factory worker who has to fight for her job in a particularly grueling way. Hopefully, it’ll be the odds-on favorite for the Oscars next year.

Two Days, One Night opens on Christmas Eve in limited release and should expand around the country in the new year. My review is atFilm Racket:

In the nervy pressure cooker Two Days, One Night, a hollow-eyed Belgian factory worker tries to...

New in Theaters: The March from ‘Selma’

Martin Luther King, Jr. (David Oyelowo) leads the charge in ‘Selma’ (Paramount Pictures)

The passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 might have technically outlawed most racist policies in the United States, but that didn’t stop much of it in practice. When Martin Luther King, Jr. led the march from Selma to Birmingham, he wasn’t just making a symbolic act, he was deliberating provoking die-hard racists in order to force President Lyndon Johnson to pass a law that would help stop racism on the...

New in Theaters: It’s Time to Go ‘Into the Woods’

Emily Blunt and James Corden go ‘Into the Woods’ (Walt Disney)

Stephen Sondheim’s 1987 musicalInto the Woodsthrew a coupleShrek‘s worth of fairytales into the mix (Rapunzel to Cinderella and Red Riding Hood) and used them for a musically soaring but lyrically cynical story about the dangers of dreams granted. Rob Marshall’s lavish Disney adaptation is quite faithful to the original and comes packed with performances ranging from the unsurprisingly good (Meryl Streep’s Witch) to the revelatory...

New in Theaters: ‘Big Eyes’

Christoph Waltz and Amy Adams fight over ‘Big Eyes’ (Weinstein)

Perhaps stung by the negative reception to his big-budget blowout take on the old campy gothic soap opera Dark Shadows, Tim Burton went smaller for his latestfilm, a more modest and quirky true story about an artist who never quite got her due.

Big Eyesopens on Christmas Day. My review is at PopMatters:

There was a time in the early ‘60s when Walter Keane was making more money than any other living artist in the Western world. He wa...

Writer’s Corner: Kerouac’s 30

Jack Kerouac, c. 1956 (Tom Palumbo)

Jack Kerouac was a writer’s writer. Not that he was always a master of scintillating prose or effortlessly produced one masterpiece after the other. His writing was too wild-eyed and full-speed-ahead for that. But whatever one’s opinion of his work, particularlyOn the Road andThe Dharma Bums, Kerouac’s double-barreled approach to the life of writing as an ecstatic gleap (yes, that’s a word) of wonder and pain and fireworks makes him in some ways the best dam...