Chris Barsanti's Blog, page 171
June 11, 2014
Now Playing: ‘The Immigrant’
Marion Cotillard, Joaquin Phoenix in ‘The Immigrant’ (Weinstein Company)
The newest lovesick melodrama from James Gray is a gorgeously-shot period piece about an immigrant woman (Marion Cotillard) caught between two dueling performers (Joaquin Phoenix, Jeremy Renner) as she desperately tries to free her sister from quarantine on Ellis Island.
The Immigrant is playing now in limited release.My reviewis at Film Racket:
James Gray’s relentlessly, intoxicatingly melodramatic period love triangleThe...
June 10, 2014
New in Theaters: ‘Citizen Koch’
Madison, Wisconsin, ground zero for the Koch brothers’ political campaigns. (Variance Films)
You would think that a hit-job documentary about the Koch brothers—billionaire conservative villains par excellence—would have been something of a slam-dunk. ButCitizen Koch, for all the surrounding it for having been supposedly yanked from PBS (which receives a lot of money from David Koch), is a disappointingly toothless thing.
Citizen Koch is playing now in limited release; not on PBS. My review is a...
June 8, 2014
Soundbooth: Joe Strummer, Chameleon
Joe Strummer, playing with the Pogues (photo by Masao Nakagami)
There’s a great new collection of essays about the inestimable Joe Strummer (1952–2002) that came out last monthfrom Ashgate Publishing calledPunk Rock Warlord: The Life and Work of Joe Strummer.I was lucky enough to be asked to contribute a chapter.
A much shortened, adapted version of that essay ran at PopMattersunder the title “Joe Strummer: Punk-Rock Shapeshifter“:
Strummer wanted to be a lot of things: writer, artist, revolutio...
June 6, 2014
Department of Weekend Reading: June 6, 2014
Recording every drink he ever drank.
Forget rafting, now you can get the Google Street View of the Grand Canyon.
The Christian Muslims (or Muslim Christians) of Sierra Leone.
Buddhism in Oregon and Islam in Texas; The second-largest religion (after Christianity) in every state.
The day that John Oliver crashed the FCC.
Conservatives who want to endconservative homophobia.
Then there was the $30 billion plutonium processing facility that nobody wants.
Despite Beijing’s best efforts, the 1989 Tiananme...
June 5, 2014
New in Theaters: ‘Obvious Child’
Jake Lacy, Jenny Slate, and Gaby Hoffman in ‘Obvious Child’ (A24)
In yet another attempt to subvert the romantic comedy—a genre that remains essentially dead despite all Cameron Diaz’s efforts—GillianRobespierre’sObvious Child throws a lot into the mix: pregnancy, awkward relationships, and millennial insecurity.
Obvious Childopens in limited release tomorrow. My review is at Film Racket:
A fresh-faced, faux-messy romantic comedy with a refreshingly economic take on the usual meet-cute / separat...
June 4, 2014
Now Playing: ‘Chef’
Jon Favreau and John Leguizamo in ‘Chef’ (Open Road Media)
After making a mint with the first two Iron Man movies, Jon Favreau went smaller. InChef, he plays a chef who loses his job and redeems himself by driving around with his son and best buddy serving up cubanos and beignets. Not a bad life.
Chefis playing around the country now and should be hanging around for a few more weeks before the summer season really gets started. My review is at Film Racket:
Chef is one of those jobs that many peo...
June 3, 2014
New in Theaters: ‘Edge of Tomorrow’
Emily Blunt, Tom Cruise in ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ (Warner Bros. Pictures)
In Tom Cruise’s latest man-vs-world thriller, he plays a futuristic soldier who dies and dies again in the line of service. Emily Blunt is there to … well, it gets confusing.
Edge of Tomorrowopens wide on Friday. My review is atFilm Journal International:
The spirits of World War II thrum mightily through Doug Liman’sEdge of Tomorrow, visually in everything from the sight of aerial troopships soaring over the Dover cliffs to t...
June 2, 2014
Writer’s Corner: Dublin Writers Festival, From Festivals to The Troubles
In the last bit of coverage from the Dublin Writers Festival, we have a story from Ireland’s fraught past and cautiously optimistic future.
First there was a marvelous spoken-word show from Mark Graham, who had decided not long before to buy a used camper and go attend three festivals a week around Irelandfor an entire year. Apparently every town of more than two houses has a festival, so it worked.
Next up was “Where They Lie,” an investigation into the search for justice on the part of those...
June 1, 2014
Readers’ Corner: Samuel Beckett’s Boat
Well, not literally. A cursory glance at Samuel Beckett’s biography does not indicate any particular love for sea or boats, though there is an annual Beckett festival in Enniskillen where at least one performance can only be reached by boat.
But never mind, because even though Beckettwas no great joiner or lover of institutions, the Irish government has gone ahead and named a warship (OPV, or offshore patrol vessel, technically) after the author ofWaiting for Godot.
According to the Irish Times...
May 31, 2014
Writer’s Corner: Dublin Writers Festival, Crime Time
One of the more interesting panel discussions at the Dublin Writers Festival was titled “The State of Crime”. In it, crime novelists Arne Dahl, Sinead Crowley, andBrian McGilloway held forth on everything from the state of Swedish society to whether or not they did any research with the police before writing their first books.
My writeup is atPopMatters:
As with many events at the Festival, the talk turned to writing mechanics. Moderator [Declan] Burke suggested that aspiring writers not try to...
