Chris Barsanti's Blog, page 31
September 8, 2022
Screening Room: ‘The Story of Film: A New Generation’
A follow-up to his 15-part series on the history of cinema, Mark Cousins’s The Story of Film: A New Generation covers how the movies look in the 21st century (Mad Max: Fury Road to Pedro Costa essay documentaries). It opens this Friday and is a glorious good time. My review is at Slant: It’s hard …
Continue reading Screening Room: ‘The Story of Film: A New Generation’
September 7, 2022
Screening Room: ‘A Compassionate Spy’
A Compassionate Spy is the latest documentary from Steve James (Hoop Dreams). This time, he tells the story of Ted Hall, the most consequential spy at Los Alamos most of us have never heard of. It’s making the festival rounds now and should be released later in the year. My review is at Slant: A …
September 4, 2022
Writer’s Desk: Bite Off More Than You Can Chew
Everybody expects writers to be, for the most part, miserable. This is particularly true of writers themselves. We are after all a cohort of people given not only to romanticizing what we do but at the same time highlighting just how difficult a task it is to write sentences one after the other. Michael Cunningham …
Continue reading Writer’s Desk: Bite Off More Than You Can Chew
August 31, 2022
Reader’s Corner: ‘Survival of the Richest’
In the first chapter of Douglas Rushkoff’s new book, Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires, he describes a strange event he was invited to in 2017 where five wealthy men asked him about the impending apocalypse. They were not curious about how to stop it but how to escape it: Taking …
August 28, 2022
Writer’s Desk: Deadlines Help
Writers like to complain. It’s one of our favorite pastimes. We particularly enjoy griping about deadlines. How unreasonable they are, how foolish we were to agree to them, how we couldn’t possibly get everything done before them, and so on. But, against our nature as it might be, there are times when we should embrace …
August 25, 2022
Screening Room: ‘Breaking’
My review of the movie Breaking originally ran earlier in the year after its Sundance premiere when it was still titled 892. It’s getting a limited release now and is worth seeking out, particularly for featuring one of the final performances from the late great Michael K. Williams. You can read the review at Slant: …
August 21, 2022
Writer’s Desk: Deflect and Keep Moving
When interviewed by LitHub, novelist Hari Kunzru — who was one of many authors reading at the “Stand with Salman” event this past Friday on the steps of New York’s Public Library — was asked how he gets around writer’s block. His first response is what many writers say (in essence get over it): The …
August 15, 2022
Nota Bene: Freedom to Offend
What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist. Salman Rushdie
August 14, 2022
Writer’s Desk: Practice, Practice, Practice
Do you know Sam Lipsyte? If not, then now is the time to get acquainted. Start off with his novel, The Ask. It’s very … well, just read it. Funny, profane, true; all the best qualities. No One Left to Come Looking For You is coming out later this year and it’s a knockout. All …
Continue reading Writer’s Desk: Practice, Practice, Practice
August 8, 2022
Screening Room: ‘Nightclubbing: The Birth of Punk Rock in NYC’
The monthly Sound Unseen film series is showing a cool new documentary this week at Trylon Cinema. Danny Garcia’s Nightclubbing: The Birth of Punk Rock in NYC throws down the gauntlet by arguing that punk really got its start at Max’s Kansas City and not CBGB. For a certain kind of fan, these are fighting …
Continue reading Screening Room: ‘Nightclubbing: The Birth of Punk Rock in NYC’
