Chris Barsanti's Blog, page 178
March 2, 2014
Department of Shameless Self-Promotion: Academy Awards Edition
The Oscar-nominated ‘August: Osage County’ – #13 of the year’s top 25 films covered in ‘Eyes Wide Open: 2013′
The best approach to take to tonight’s blitzkrieg of hype, blather, nonsense, tears, bad jokes, and long strange stretches of awkward silences—we’re speaking, of course, of the 86th Academy Awards—might be that proffered by Anthony Lane:
Whether Leonardo DiCaprio or Matthew McConaughey, or neither of them, will be crowned Best Actor is a matter of such brazen unimportance that we have g...
Writer’s Corner: The Amtrak Residency
Tweeting doesn’t usually result in anything this cool. Not so long ago, Jessica Gross read an interview with novelist Alexander Chee, who said that his favorite place to write was on a train. “I wish Amtrak had residencies for writers.” Gross tweeted her agreement with the sentiment. And who wouldn’t? Trundling along in a gently swaying car as the panorama of America swoops past, soothing your anxiety over the knotty twelfth chapter of that novel you can’t quite finish, has a curiously soothi...
March 1, 2014
New in Theaters: ‘Stalingrad’
‘Stalingrad’: Nazis on the march
Decades ago, Sergio Leone (The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly) planned to make an epic film about the battle of Stalingrad. Audiences today are instead treated to the dubious pleasures ofStalingrad, a 3D IMAX flag-waver that was unsurprisingly a huge hit over in Russia.
Stalingrad will be playing briefly in America for all those who prefer their war films as slo-mo 300-esque spectacle. My review is at Film Journal International:
One would expectStalingradto turn int...
February 28, 2014
Department of Weekend Reading: February 28, 2014
Small-batch whiskies to the sinfulness of weak pours: A guide to Southern drinking.
More dictatorial bad taste: the abandoned Yanukovych mansion.
Women make better combat pilots; stories of the “night witches.”
GOP: Keep the children fat.
Too bad about Bitcoin.
The legend of Shakey’s Pizza and other adventures of American brands overseas.
The “academic suicide” that is the mysterious Voynich manuscript.
In memory of the late, wonderful Harold Ramis: An oral history of Ghostbusters .
New E.L. Doctorow...
February 27, 2014
New on DVD: ‘The Grandmaster’
Zhang Ziyi and Tony Leung compare styles in ‘The Grandmaster’
The great Hong Kong romantic Wong Kar Wai (In the Mood for Love) hadn’t completed a feature film since 2007′s misfireMy Blueberry Nights. So it was pretty good news to hear that his latest film was going to be a classic martial-arts extravaganza, reuniting Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi withThe Matrix choreographer Yuen Wo Ping.
The Grandmaster, which received well-deserved Oscar nominations for cinematography and costume design, will be...
February 25, 2014
Department of Cocktails: The Faulkner Recipe
William Faulkner said a lot about drinking; which makes sense, given how much he wrote while drinking. As he once noted:
You see, I usually write at night. I always keep my whiskey within reach; so many ideas that I can’t remember in the morning pop into my head.
For all those wanting to know what the man’s favorite tipple was, it’s simple: Whiskey. Any kind. And here’s his preferred way of taking it (your basic mint julep, simple):
whiskey
1 tsp sugar
ice
mint
served in a metal cup
(h/t The Migrant...
February 24, 2014
Quote of the Day: LBJ’s Rules of Life
A few select items from Lyndon Baines Johnson’s Rules of Life:
Remember the CIA is made up of boys whose families sent them to Princeton but wouldn’t let them into the family brokerage business.
Never trust a man whose eyes are too close to his nose.
The fact that a man is a newspaper reporter is evidence of some flaw of character.
When things haven’t gone well for you, call in a secretary or a staff man and chew him out. You will sleep better and they will appreciate the attention.
These rules mi...
February 23, 2014
Writer’s Corner: The Devil Procrasination
Every writer knows the pain of procrastination. Just about none of them know the answer to this question: Why do we put ourselves through it? By and large writers knowexactlywhen they have to turn in their article/book/whatever and nearly everything about it (word count, tone, subject). And yet, time after time, deadlines are treated as little more than tissue paper-thin suggestions to be brushed aside at the last minute when work has finally (maybe) begun.
It’s a ridiculously neurotic cycle,...
February 21, 2014
Department of Weekend Reading: February 21, 2014
After Michael Dunn and another killing of a black teenager: “My son has a father and mother. We cannot protect him from our country, which is our aegis and our assailant.”
Reasons not to want Hillary Clinton to get the nomination.
Both parties in Kansas City agree that sometimes “protecting religious values” is just discrimination.
More fracking, more earthquakes.
When politicians care more about German shareholders than American workers.
In the 1870s, half of Boston burned down and the US Cavalry...
February 20, 2014
New in Theaters: ‘Omar’
‘Omar’: Terrorists or freedom fighters?
In the Oscar-nominated thrillerOmar, a young Palestinian man in the West Bank is faced with two challenges: First, how to convince his friend that he’d be a good bet to marry the friend’s little sister? Second, and more importantly, how does he escape the law after helping to murder an Israeli soldier?
Omar opens this week.My review is atFilm Racket:
For such a razor-sharp thriller, the West Bank-setOmarsmuggles a dense packet of ambiguity into its compact...
