‘Sweet Smell of Success’: A Visceral and Vicious Depiction of the Evil that Power-Hungry Men Do
By Koraljka Suton There’s an old rule among directors that you see a film in its totality about four…
Filmmaking
Fincher’s ‘Zodiac’: A Suspenseful and Thrilling Combination of Police Procedural and Newspaper Film That Masterfully Chronicles the Progression of Obsession
By Koraljka Suton Robert Graysmith knew he was a guy on the sidelines of this story. He wanted to…
‘Big John’: A 75-Minute Precious Exploration of John Carpenter’s Life, Work and Ways
By Sven Mikulec In France, I’m an auteur; in Germany, a filmmaker; in Britain, a genre film director; and…
“It Ain’t Like It Used to Be. But It’ll Do:” How Sam Peckinpah’s ‘The Wild Bunch’ Became Both a Eulogy for a Mythic Past and a Template for a New Kind of Action
By Tim Pelan We wanted to show violence in real terms. Dying is not fun and games. Movies make…
‘Network’: Sidney Lumet and Paddy Chayefsky’s Gruesome Prophecy Turned Reality
By Koraljka Suton Once it opened, everybody kept saying, ‘Oh, what a brilliant satire.’ But Paddy and I always…
Appetite for Destruction: Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘Phantom Thread’ and the Fall of the House of Woodcock
By Tim Pelan Not unlike James Cameron and his flop sweat fever dream of a chrome skeleton-framed torso, dragging…
Rats In the Attic: William Friedkin’s ‘The Exorcist’
By Tim Pelan Forty-five years after its powerful debut, and with all the attendant publicity, analysis and second-hand knowledge,…
‘Walk the Line’: How James Mangold Uncovered the Emotional History of Johnny Cash
By Koraljka Suton He had to find the range of his own creativity, and learn how to control this…
A 1971 Interview With Alejandro Jodorowsky on ‘El Topo,’ the Psychedelic, Genre-Bending Midnight Movie
By Sven Mikulec Alejandro Jodorowsky’s El Topo just might be the weirdest, most bizarre, genre-bending film we’ve ever seen….
‘Magnolia’: Paul Thomas Anderson’s Absorbing Mosaic of Compassion, Humanity and the Importance of Forgiveness
By Sven Mikulec In 1997, an ambitious 26-year-old called Paul Thomas Anderson made Boogie Nights, his sophomore directing effort…