Chris Barsanti's Blog, page 178
March 27, 2014
New in Theaters: ‘Noah’
Noah and family get ready for the flood
Every so often it seems that Hollywood gives the Bible epic another go. But there’s something about the genre that could well be so mired in the past that it refuses to be updated; Gibson and Scorsese couldn’t help but fundamentally remake it. Now comes Darren Aronofsky, last seengiving ballerinas nightmares in Black Swan, with his own unique take on the Bible story.
Noah is playing now everywhere. My review is atPopMatters:
In order to tell the story of N...
March 26, 2014
Now Playing: ‘Enemy’
Gyllenhaal vs. Gyllenhaal in ‘Enemy’
Last year in Prisoners, director Denis Villeneueve pulled a performance out of the normally downbeat Jake Gyllenhaal whose vibrant intensity stunned even in a film filled with it. WithVilleneueve’s followup, a thinly creepy take on a Jose Saramago novel, Gyllenhaal somehow delivers less in a story that asks him to play two visually identical but spiritually opposite roles.
Enemyis playing now in limited release; my review is atFilm Racket:
Jake Gyllenhaal pla...
March 24, 2014
Now Playing: ‘Bad Words’
Jason Bateman vs. children in ‘Bad Words’
Jason Bateman has been crafting comedy genius for so long in front of the camera that it’s perhaps inevitable he would eventually move behind it as well.Bad Words is his directorial debut, a promising and blessedly short if wildly uneven hour-and-a-half of rude comedy about a misanthropic adult who crashes a kids’ spelling bee.
Bad Wordsis still playing just about everywhere. My review is atPopMatters:
Guy Trilby is custom-made for Bateman’s perfected ad...
March 23, 2014
Reader’s Corner: The Monastery Library in Admont
The Admont Benedictine Monastery was established in Austria in the year 1074 and is still a going concern. Impressive enough. But add on to that the existence of its stunning Baroque library, finished in 1776. Inside its glorious assemblage of bright walls and frescoed ceilings, the library contains tens of thousands of volumes, including 530incunabula (books printed before 1500).
The Admont’s builder, Joseph Hueber, was a man of the Enlightenment, who believed in beauty of all kinds:
As with t...
March 22, 2014
New in Books: ‘The Sixth Extinction’
Men standing with bones of a mastodon, which were likely hunted to extinction by humans in North America over 10,000 years ago (Library of Congress)
According to scientific writer Elizabeth Kolbert (Field Notes from a Catastrophoe), there have been five waves of mass extinctions in Earth’s history. They all had natural causes. In the current epoch —called by some researchers the Anthropocene in recognition of humanity’s transformative effect on the planet’s ecosystems —there is another wave of...
March 21, 2014
Department of Weekend Reading: March 21, 2014
Gary Kasparov on Putin as poker player with a weak hand facing feckless opponents.
This is the first thing the GOP will dismantle if they ever retake the White House.
Things that didn’t happen on the Internet…this week.
Distraction is real; ADHD, maybe not so much.
Martin Amis: In today’s Britain, cash has finally conquered class.
The new Chris Christie scandal that’s way worse than Bridgegate but won’t get 1% as much coverage.
Jemis truly outrageous. Truly.
Snowbilly grifter to get her very own tee...
March 20, 2014
New in Theaters: ‘Jodorowsky’s Dune’
The poster for the ‘Dune’ that never happened
Back in the 1970s, when midnight movies were still a potent cultural phenomenon, Alejandro Jodorowsky was the king of them. In 1974, after blowing the minds of cult cinephiles withEl TopoandThe Holy Mountain, Jodorowsky took on another project: adapting Frank Herbert’sDune. Eventually he gave up.
The documentaryJodorowsky’s Dune is opening in limited release tomorrow. My review is atFilm Journal International:
As Jodorowsky—84 and still impeccably sp...
March 19, 2014
Now Playing: ‘Le Week-End’
Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan do Paris in ‘Le Week-End’
In the surprisingly spry comedy Le Week-End,Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan head to Paris for a romantic anniversary weekend to kickstart their chaotic, verging-on-retirement lives. Things don’t go as planned.
Le Week-End is playing now in a few theaters and should expand more over the next several weeks. My review is atFilm Racket:
Like many movies about couples who treat their relationship as a sparring ring, Roger Michell’sLe Week-En...
March 16, 2014
Quote of the Day: St. Patrick’s Edition
Belfast, where learning the Irish language was a sign of solidarity with the anti-British cause.
For tomorrow’s celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, a note on the Irish, language, and stubbornness:
If you want to make any sort of Irishman do something, the surest way is to tell him it is forbidden; and if the learning of the Irish language is a bad thing (I’m not sure that it is…) … forbidden it under pressure will stimulate it to such an extent that the very dogs in Belfast … will bark in Irish.
—...
March 14, 2014
Department of Weekend Reading: March 14, 2014
The state of literature, to put it bluntly, is a mess.
Once again, Michele Bachmann (something called the “Polar Vortex-Mex Hotdish”) didnot win Sen. Al Franken’s annual hot dish cookoff.
Life as a distraction—Joan Didion’s 1979 review of Woody Allen’s cinema of self-absorption.
Disney knows what you’re doing, and where.
Georgia: Guns everywhere, everywhere!
More reasons why San Francisco is in the middle of an unsustainable tech-yuppie-jerkface bubble.
“Our lazy embrace of [Jon] Stewart and [Steph...
