Chris Barsanti's Blog, page 25
February 22, 2023
Screening: Berlinale Film Festival
Back from this year’s Berlinale Film Festival, which was packed with celebrities, retrospectives (Spielberg), buzzy premieres (Sean Penn’s Ukraine documentary for Vice), and a very strong lineup. I wrote up a few movies for Slant, each of which should (hopefully) be hitting a theater near you in the coming year.
February 19, 2023
Writer’s Desk: Get Outside Yourself
Though William S. Burroughs’ writing frequently left reality behind (Naked Lunch‘s Mugwumps and whatnot), a surprising amount of it was based on his life. The details of his Midwestern upbringing and years as a wastrel flâneur were frequently reworked in his fiction. Still, Burroughs found it crucial for his writing to get past the limitations …
February 14, 2023
Screening Room: ‘Pacifiction’
Albert Serra’s latest film, Pacifiction, played some festivals last year (including Cannes, where it was raved about). It is opening this week in limited release. My review is at PopMatters: The first images in Albert Serra’s slippery and satirical film Pacifiction are not what comes to mind for many when thinking of Tahiti. Yes, the film’s background is …
February 13, 2023
Reader’s Corner: Quentin Tarantino, Author
I wrote about Quentin Tarantino’s new sideline writing books for The Millions: His first book was 2021’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, based on his 2019 film. Released as a mass market paperback and printed on appropriately dubious paper stock, it was made to look like the kind of quick-and-dirty film novelizations that once composed …
February 12, 2023
Writer’s Desk: Be Spontaneous
The somewhat unsung Harlem Renaissance writer Claude McKay was a poet, novelist, and active socialist of the anti-Stalinist inclination. He channeled his passionate beliefs into an impressive series of books that showed his desire to write with spirit and truth rather than formalism. McKay explained why in Harlem Shadows: I have not used patterns, images …
February 5, 2023
Writer’s Desk: Less, Please
Minimalist writing is generally understood as a style that pares away unnecessary words to get at a truer understanding of the story. Think of a writer using minimalism like a sculptor cleaving off marble to expose the piece of art lying underneath. In this essay about the novelist Amy Hempel, Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club) described …
January 29, 2023
Writer’s Desk: First By Hand
Yes, in the 21st century, there are still writers who use pen and ink, for their first drafts, at least. Sam Anderson, a staff writer for the New York Times Magazine, told another writer at the paper that he actually composed the first draft of most of his long pieces by pen. He liked how …
January 26, 2023
Screening Room: Sundance Film Festival
Every January it’s the same. You’re still trying to catch up on the November and December releases, and then there are the Golden Globes and the Oscars to dissect, and then comes the Sundance Film Festival with a whole load of new work that’s clamoring for attention. I covered a few of this year’s offerings …
January 22, 2023
Writer’s Desk: Writing Through the Hard Times
Among the writers Charlie Jane Anders spoke with for Never Say You Can’t Survive was Rebecca Solnit, who has written many books (Hope in the Dark) about that very topic. This is Solnit’s advice for how to keep putting words on the page even when everything seems to be falling apart: Your writing doesn’t ignore …
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January 21, 2023
Screening Room: ‘Aum: The Cult at the End of the World’
One of the new documentaries premiering at this year’s Sundance Film Festival is AUM: The Cult at the End of the World. My review is at The Playlist: The last few years have been great times for documentaries about cults. That does not mean it is a time of introspection about the questing impulses driving …
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