Having viewed the rather disappointing Chopin: Desire for Love over the weekend, I’m struck again by how difficult it seems to be to make movies about artists, writers, or perhaps creators of all kinds. My viewing also served to remind me that movies about philosophers’ lives are exceedingly rare, and the few that have been made–or rather, that I am awareContinue reading “Movies on Philosophers: Rare, Hard to Make, Desirable”
Category Archives: Movies
Breaking Bad Season 5 Speculation: Reconciliations for Redemption
Having finished watching Season 4 of Breaking Bad, and having no access to Season 5 till it emerges on DVD or streaming, I’m going to go ahead and speculate a bit about the show’s eventual direction and conclusion. Many of the issues raised and provoked by the first four seasons seem to require resolution ifContinue reading “Breaking Bad Season 5 Speculation: Reconciliations for Redemption”
Breaking Bad: This Generation’s Western
The fourth season of Breaking Bad is done and dusted. (Yes, I am a Netflix-viewer of television series, and so, invariably lag behind; in this case, a full season.) I’ve not written on this blog before about Breaking Bad, and given my admiration for the show, find myself surprised by this omission. So here goesContinue reading “Breaking Bad: This Generation’s Western”
Spaghetti and Curry Westerns
I’ve become used to catching up with classics late. The latest addition to my list of well-I’ve-finally-gone-ahead-and-done-it accomplishments is viewing Sergio Leone‘s Once Upon a Time in the West. A DVD of it was lying around in my gym with a sign that said ‘Take me!’, so I did, and watched it on Friday night.Continue reading “Spaghetti and Curry Westerns”
Monument Valley and The Familiarity of the New
One of the strangest, and yet entirely unsurprising, reactions to seeing Monument Valley (my journey to which had served as occasion for rueful wonderment at the continued plight of the Native American), is a sense of familiarity: I’ve seen this before, somewhere, somehow. Among the curious welter of emotions too, that the Valley evokes isContinue reading “Monument Valley and The Familiarity of the New”
The Walking Dead and the Puzzle of Cinematic Adaptations
In my recent post on The Walking Dead—in comparing the comic book series to the AMC television series–I said that I found the comic book more complex, more brutal, truer to the darkness of a post-apocalyptic world ruled by the dead and diseased. In saying this, it seemed to me that the filmmakers would haveContinue reading “The Walking Dead and the Puzzle of Cinematic Adaptations”
The Walking Dead Claim Another Victim
I have finally succumbed to The Walking Dead. As I had noted in a post earlier this week, I am ensconced in a friend’s apartment, house-sitting, with access to–among other things–an impressive collection of graphic novels. Included in them is the first compendium of The Walking Dead comic book series (Compendium One, May 6, 2009,Continue reading “The Walking Dead Claim Another Victim”
The ‘Guilty Pleasures’ of ‘Friday Night Lights’
When Lorrie Moore wrote her New York Review of Books review of the Friday Night Lights phenomenon—the television series, the book, and the movie–she made sure she prefaced it with talk of ‘guilty pleasures’: On my way to a Manhattan book party recently my mind was wandering to cultural guilty pleasures: sprightly but inane movies,Continue reading “The ‘Guilty Pleasures’ of ‘Friday Night Lights’”
Hyman Strachman the Pirate AKA Troops Supporter
Hyman Strachman is a pirate. But he doesn’t fly the Jolly Roger, drink rum, hop around on a pegleg with a cutlass tucked neatly into a cummerbund, board ships while yelling “aarrr!” or call anyone a ‘scurvy bilge rat.’ Rather, he buys DVDs, makes multiple copies of them using a ‘duplicator’ and ships them toContinue reading “Hyman Strachman the Pirate AKA Troops Supporter”
RIP Levon Helm, Thanks For The Memories
Levon Helm, drummer and singer for The Band, died on Thursday in Manhattan. He was 71. The only live performances of his that I have witnessed were on film, or rather, in one movie, The Last Waltz. And in particular, there was one that stood out, whose memories have endured, clearly, distinctly, across the many,Continue reading “RIP Levon Helm, Thanks For The Memories”
Samir Chopra 