Hi, I graduated from NYU Cinema Studies in 1996 (double-majored with Sociology) and took a post-grad course in film at University of Westminster. I was from 98-2004 the film critic of the Morning Star, left wing paper, based in London, paid very little, but the experience was amazing, even if many of the films I had to review were lamentably crap. I work for the Underground, the Tube in London and collect royalties for the music industry. But film will always where my passions lie.. and I never stop discovering new and old films. I’m working on the whole Criterion Collection, as this seems to be the film label that treats film buffs with the respect they deserve and the films they take care of are reinvented for a whole new age. I agree, there’s very little money to be made writing about films, but a person’s enthusiasm can prove infectious, and I love telling people about a film they’ve never heard of, hearing that they’ve seen it, and what experience, good or bad, they got from it.
Discover them all… you have so much time…enjoy your journey… Amacord, 400 Blows, Roma, La Dolce Vita, La Strada, Ran, Seven Samuari, L’Aventura, Blow Up- all worthy of your time. Directors like Ozu, Fassbinder, Oshima, Roeg, Rohmer, Powell and Pressburger, Mizoguchi,Pasolini, Cocteau, Godard are for the future, and what a future you’ll have enriched by these masterly directors
There’s quite a French and Japanese bias in the movies Criterion chooses, for whatever reason. I’m waiting for “The Friends of Eddie Coyle”- that’s an uncharted masterpiece, unseen for so many years, and I’m sure Criterion will do the business in making this film an essential addition to their collection. Less French and Japanese please… it’s too crowded with these countries as it is.
Inland Empire was just so silly. I love Lynch, but that coffee he makes for himself and markets for his fans, probably tainted his brain, and he made such mess of a film. Some great Lynch moments lost in all the head-scratching lack of logic or purpose. It seems he was having fun with it, but at 3 hours 20 minutes and shot on DV is quite an ask for an audience…the deleted scenes on the dvd doesn’t make things any clearer. “Blue Velvet” is his greatest work, which a film like “American Beauty” could only emulate a tiny amount of in terms of exposing an underbelly of either violence or family or American dream shattering. Where’s his much speculated “One Saliva Bubble”? He was talking about that in the mid 80s. I’ve loved Lynch since I sneaked into “Blue Velvet” in 1986 doubled billed with “Now Voyager”. I just think “Inland Empire” was a Lynchian step too far, with far too many people intellectually masturbating about all the supposedly clever and interpretive moments. Sometimes the joke is on the audience.
It would be nice to see a variety of critics, other than those of the Nick James (Editor of Sight and Sound) glee club. It’s the same names, over and over again. And, no, they’re not the best critics the UK has to offer. Far too much media whoring with these guys, riding the journalistic gravy train.
The “Blue Velvet” and “Now Voyager” double billl was shown at the Gate Cinema, Notting Hill Gate, London, in the late 1980s. London had a lot of great double-bill programming back then. “Blue Velvet” was also double billed with “Crimes of Passion” and “Betty Blue” around the same time and in other venues such as the Scala and Everyman cinemas- Films for the Lynch mob.. true indeed. Another inspiring bit of programming was a 1989 anti Valentine triple consisting of “Eraserhead”, “The Fly” (1986) and “The Forth Man”. Fiendish minds….
BATTLE OF ALGIERS (PONTECORVO)
HAROLD AND MAUDE (ASHBY)
ACCATTONE (PASOLINI)
BLUE VELVET (LYNCH)
THE RED BALLOON (LAMORISSE)
THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE (YATES)
RAGING BULL (SCORSESE)
BARRY LYNDON (KUBRICK)
THE DEVILS (RUSSELL)
REPULSION (POLANSKI
UNFORGIVEN (EASTWOOD)
MONA LISA (JORDAN)
TOKYO STORY (OZU)
SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS (STURGES)
FREAKS (BROWNING)
CHILDREN OF PARADISE (CARNE)
DAWN OF THE DEAD (ROMERO)
BREATHLESS (GODARD)
JACKIE BROWN (TARANTINO)
P’TANG, YANG, KIPPERBANG (APTED)
POINT BLANK (BOORMAN)
THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY (MACKENZIE)
CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING (RIVETTE)
THE BIRDS (HITCHCOCK)
THE PAWNBROKER (LUMET)
ACE IN THE HOLE (WILDER)
A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (POWELL AND PRESSBURGER)
PERFORMANCE (ROEG)
ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS (VISCONTI)
TAXI DRIVER (SCORSESE)
SALVADOR (STONE)
ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA (LEONE)
ZODIAC (FINCHER)
MANHATTAN (ALLEN)
GODFATHER II (COPPOLA)
THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER (DIETERLE)
“Waltz With Bashir”, I worked nights and shifts, so it caught up with me. Great film otherwise, including a bizzare squence of animated German 80s hardcore porn with a plumber and a frisky housewife. “Quantum of Solace” was pretty boring too- had to keep my eyes open like Alex in “A Clockwork Orange” to function with that.
Travis suffers and his “mission” at the end is catharsis, a release. He’s looking back in the mirror- nothing has changed. His loneliness is his pathology, his need to save Iris is a little more than focusing his mind away from his terrifying emptiness, which he embraces through his pathology of eating crap food, going to porno cinemas, making a hash of the date he’s on with Betsy and, even worse, trying to get Betsy to embrace his loneliness too. Understandably, Travis is hurt, but he can’t see the normality of just going on a date. He even makes grand judgements to Betsy at the coffee shop. He’s unable to stop the pain he feels because of the trauma of his past, post Vietnam. The taxi is a yellow coffin. He’s suffering. But he’s also dead inside. The nearest he gets to being a hero is that he’s a loner, an outsider. If anything, he’s an anti-hero. He’s also not bitter; he’s pathetic and sad and deserves our pity. His aborted date with Betsy is little more than a self fufilling prophecy, where he thinks that she would be interested in his sad little life. She’s rejects him in the cinema, he rejects her at the end, refusing to charge her for the fare. He remains a sufferer, not an unhinged beast.
The French film “Diva” made me start to love movies. A girl and a gun- Godard’s ingredients, and the start of a new wave of 80s French cinema including “Le Cop” and the masterly “La Balance”.
Jackie Brown is his most satisfying and mature piece of work. Pulp Fiction’s clever structure is betrayed by the endless emotionally disconnected strands of quotable dialogue, which, of themselves, are fine, but when looked at again it’s just dialogue for the sake of it, and it detracts from the overall effectiveness of the film. Whereas Jackie Brown manages to conjure up real characters with main protagonists you care for.
The Devils, Blue Velvet, Mamma Roma, Rocco and His Brothers, Breathless, Fists in the Pocket, Raging Bull, Giant, The Pawnbroker, Prince of the City, A Matter of Life or Death, Harold and Maude, Blade Runner, Salvador, Being There, Now Voyager, Crimes of Passion, The Rules of the Game, Diva, Barry Lyndon, Midnight Express, The Long Good Friday, The Devil and Daniel Webster, The Deer Hunter, Videodrome.
Age of Innocence,The Aviator and Kundun were terminally boring and Shine A Light was mediocre. Raging Bull and Taxi Driver are his masterpieces…even Mean Streets and Goodfellas are up there. The Departed was a great remake.
Scarface and Body Double are his best. The Untouchables doesn’t know if it’s a comedy or a thriller or a comedy thriller or what. Very uneven throughout.
West Side Story and Breakin’
Salo and The Dammed
Taxi Driver and I Stand Alone
Brazil and A Clockwork Orange
Man Who Fell to Earth and Purple Rain
Pretty Baby and Hardcore
Blue Velvet and Now Voyager
Eraserhead and The Fly
The Elephant Man and Freaks
Don’t Torture a Duckling and Blade in the Dark
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Titicut Follies
Bad Timing and Crimes of Passion
Paris, Texas and Days of Heaven
The Boys Next Door and Repo Man
Raging Bull and Somebody Up There Likes Me
Rocky III and Over The Top
Savage Streets and 52 Pick Up
Even Dwarfs Started Small and Freaks
Yep, I can understand what you’re saying, but he’s bitter when rejected by Betsy, but subsequent attempts to ask her out again are conveyed in a pathetic hoplessness- especially when the camera pans down the empty hallway. He’s pissed off with Betsy’s co-worker and wants to kick the shit out of him, but he doesn’t. He doesn’t raise his voice anywhere during the film. He’s always desperate. He talks to Iris in desperate tones “you should be in school”. His robotic march of death at the end is devoid of emotion- he’s expressing his true force, every muscle must be tight. It’s all about the mission. Bitter people don’t have the energy to do what he’s doing. He’s lonely and suffering passively. The killing of pimps and dealers is an agressive sense of purpose, the only one he’s had since he got back from Nam. He must be depressed, because he has no fear of working long hours, driving his coffin through black ghettos, begging to get hurt. He hates black people- that’s for sure. But NY was fairly diverse even in 1975/76, so he had time to come to terms with migration. He probably had black squad members fighting with him. He can’t expect to pick up women in a porno cinema, either by taking them or chatting them up whilst they’re working there. He doesn’t have any skills to jump back for a minute before he pathalogically heads further into the abyss. Whist he maintains his outsider status, he’s also revelling in it, happy to be that loner and for the viewer to empathise him, if only because he can’t see how unhappy he is.
Film Education over 3 years ago
Hi, I graduated from NYU Cinema Studies in 1996 (double-majored with Sociology) and took a post-grad course in film at University of Westminster. I was from 98-2004 the film critic of the Morning Star, left wing paper, based in London, paid very little, but the experience was amazing, even if many of the films I had to review were lamentably crap. I work for the Underground, the Tube in London and collect royalties for the music industry. But film will always where my passions lie.. and I never stop discovering new and old films. I’m working on the whole Criterion Collection, as this seems to be the film label that treats film buffs with the respect they deserve and the films they take care of are reinvented for a whole new age. I agree, there’s very little money to be made writing about films, but a person’s enthusiasm can prove infectious, and I love telling people about a film they’ve never heard of, hearing that they’ve seen it, and what experience, good or bad, they got from it.
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What was the first Criterion movie you watched? over 3 years ago
Sid and Nancy
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12-year old asking... over 3 years ago
Discover them all… you have so much time…enjoy your journey… Amacord, 400 Blows, Roma, La Dolce Vita, La Strada, Ran, Seven Samuari, L’Aventura, Blow Up- all worthy of your time. Directors like Ozu, Fassbinder, Oshima, Roeg, Rohmer, Powell and Pressburger, Mizoguchi,Pasolini, Cocteau, Godard are for the future, and what a future you’ll have enriched by these masterly directors
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Worst Criterion DVDs over 3 years ago
There’s quite a French and Japanese bias in the movies Criterion chooses, for whatever reason. I’m waiting for “The Friends of Eddie Coyle”- that’s an uncharted masterpiece, unseen for so many years, and I’m sure Criterion will do the business in making this film an essential addition to their collection. Less French and Japanese please… it’s too crowded with these countries as it is.
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David Lynch Overrated? over 3 years ago
Inland Empire was just so silly. I love Lynch, but that coffee he makes for himself and markets for his fans, probably tainted his brain, and he made such mess of a film. Some great Lynch moments lost in all the head-scratching lack of logic or purpose. It seems he was having fun with it, but at 3 hours 20 minutes and shot on DV is quite an ask for an audience…the deleted scenes on the dvd doesn’t make things any clearer. “Blue Velvet” is his greatest work, which a film like “American Beauty” could only emulate a tiny amount of in terms of exposing an underbelly of either violence or family or American dream shattering. Where’s his much speculated “One Saliva Bubble”? He was talking about that in the mid 80s. I’ve loved Lynch since I sneaked into “Blue Velvet” in 1986 doubled billed with “Now Voyager”. I just think “Inland Empire” was a Lynchian step too far, with far too many people intellectually masturbating about all the supposedly clever and interpretive moments. Sometimes the joke is on the audience.
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If you had to pick ONE film as your favorite... over 3 years ago
Battle of Algiers or Harold and Maude
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Which Film Critics Do You Read? over 3 years ago
It would be nice to see a variety of critics, other than those of the Nick James (Editor of Sight and Sound) glee club. It’s the same names, over and over again. And, no, they’re not the best critics the UK has to offer. Far too much media whoring with these guys, riding the journalistic gravy train.
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Criterion junkies here? over 3 years ago
I have 300 of the collection. It’s like crack…..
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Criterion junkies here? over 3 years ago
I have 300 of the collection. It’s like crack…..
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Criterion junkies here? over 3 years ago
I have 300 of the collection. It’s like crack…..
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Criterion junkies here? over 3 years ago
I have 300 of the collection. It’s like crack…..
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The longest movie you've ever sat through over 3 years ago
Shoah, 940 minutes.
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David Lynch Overrated? over 3 years ago
Richard Deming:
The “Blue Velvet” and “Now Voyager” double billl was shown at the Gate Cinema, Notting Hill Gate, London, in the late 1980s. London had a lot of great double-bill programming back then. “Blue Velvet” was also double billed with “Crimes of Passion” and “Betty Blue” around the same time and in other venues such as the Scala and Everyman cinemas- Films for the Lynch mob.. true indeed. Another inspiring bit of programming was a 1989 anti Valentine triple consisting of “Eraserhead”, “The Fly” (1986) and “The Forth Man”. Fiendish minds….
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Classic movies you can't get on d.v.d. over 3 years ago
The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973)
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favorite films? over 3 years ago
BATTLE OF ALGIERS (PONTECORVO)
HAROLD AND MAUDE (ASHBY)
ACCATTONE (PASOLINI)
BLUE VELVET (LYNCH)
THE RED BALLOON (LAMORISSE)
THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE (YATES)
RAGING BULL (SCORSESE)
BARRY LYNDON (KUBRICK)
THE DEVILS (RUSSELL)
REPULSION (POLANSKI
UNFORGIVEN (EASTWOOD)
MONA LISA (JORDAN)
TOKYO STORY (OZU)
SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS (STURGES)
FREAKS (BROWNING)
CHILDREN OF PARADISE (CARNE)
DAWN OF THE DEAD (ROMERO)
BREATHLESS (GODARD)
JACKIE BROWN (TARANTINO)
P’TANG, YANG, KIPPERBANG (APTED)
POINT BLANK (BOORMAN)
THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY (MACKENZIE)
CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING (RIVETTE)
THE BIRDS (HITCHCOCK)
THE PAWNBROKER (LUMET)
ACE IN THE HOLE (WILDER)
A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (POWELL AND PRESSBURGER)
PERFORMANCE (ROEG)
ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS (VISCONTI)
TAXI DRIVER (SCORSESE)
SALVADOR (STONE)
ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA (LEONE)
ZODIAC (FINCHER)
MANHATTAN (ALLEN)
GODFATHER II (COPPOLA)
THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER (DIETERLE)
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D.I.Y. Film Playlist over 3 years ago
ANTI VALENTINE’S DAY
1) ERASERHEAD (LYNCH, 1977)
2) THE FOURTH MAN (VERHOEVEN, 1983)
3) THE FLY (CRONENBERG, 1986)
4) NOW VOYAGER (RAPPER, 1942)
5) BETTY BLUE (BEINEIX, 1986)
6) CRIMES OF PASSION (RUSSELL, 1984)
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D.I.Y. Film Playlist over 3 years ago
COMIC BOOK HEROES
1) COMMANDO (LESTER, 1985)
2) BARBARELLA (VADIM, 1968)
3) FLASH GORDON (HODGES, 1980)
4) DIABOLIK (BAVA, 1968)
5) FRITZ THE CAT (1972)
6) CASINO ROYALE (GUEST 1967)
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Age / Level of education? (An informal poll) over 3 years ago
Aged 36, B.F.A Cinema Studies & Sociology, Post Graduate Diploma in Film Studies
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MOMENT OF TRUTH: HAVE YOU EVER GONE TO THE MOVIES AND FALLEN ASLEEP DURING THE FILM? over 3 years ago
“Waltz With Bashir”, I worked nights and shifts, so it caught up with me. Great film otherwise, including a bizzare squence of animated German 80s hardcore porn with a plumber and a frisky housewife. “Quantum of Solace” was pretty boring too- had to keep my eyes open like Alex in “A Clockwork Orange” to function with that.
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Scorsese fans out there, it's time to unite! over 3 years ago
Raging Bull- the most vivid account of what it is to be a man
Taxi Driver- the most vivid and acute account of loneliness ever put to film.
Two of the finest films ever made….
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Is Travis a hero or a villain? over 3 years ago
Travis suffers and his “mission” at the end is catharsis, a release. He’s looking back in the mirror- nothing has changed. His loneliness is his pathology, his need to save Iris is a little more than focusing his mind away from his terrifying emptiness, which he embraces through his pathology of eating crap food, going to porno cinemas, making a hash of the date he’s on with Betsy and, even worse, trying to get Betsy to embrace his loneliness too. Understandably, Travis is hurt, but he can’t see the normality of just going on a date. He even makes grand judgements to Betsy at the coffee shop. He’s unable to stop the pain he feels because of the trauma of his past, post Vietnam. The taxi is a yellow coffin. He’s suffering. But he’s also dead inside. The nearest he gets to being a hero is that he’s a loner, an outsider. If anything, he’s an anti-hero. He’s also not bitter; he’s pathetic and sad and deserves our pity. His aborted date with Betsy is little more than a self fufilling prophecy, where he thinks that she would be interested in his sad little life. She’s rejects him in the cinema, he rejects her at the end, refusing to charge her for the fare. He remains a sufferer, not an unhinged beast.
Go to Comment
Which film has changed your life forever? over 3 years ago
The French film “Diva” made me start to love movies. A girl and a gun- Godard’s ingredients, and the start of a new wave of 80s French cinema including “Le Cop” and the masterly “La Balance”.
Go to Comment
QUENTIN TARANTINO over 3 years ago
Jackie Brown is his most satisfying and mature piece of work. Pulp Fiction’s clever structure is betrayed by the endless emotionally disconnected strands of quotable dialogue, which, of themselves, are fine, but when looked at again it’s just dialogue for the sake of it, and it detracts from the overall effectiveness of the film. Whereas Jackie Brown manages to conjure up real characters with main protagonists you care for.
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Asking for some reccomendations over 3 years ago
The Devils, Blue Velvet, Mamma Roma, Rocco and His Brothers, Breathless, Fists in the Pocket, Raging Bull, Giant, The Pawnbroker, Prince of the City, A Matter of Life or Death, Harold and Maude, Blade Runner, Salvador, Being There, Now Voyager, Crimes of Passion, The Rules of the Game, Diva, Barry Lyndon, Midnight Express, The Long Good Friday, The Devil and Daniel Webster, The Deer Hunter, Videodrome.
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Top Scorsese over 3 years ago
Age of Innocence,The Aviator and Kundun were terminally boring and Shine A Light was mediocre. Raging Bull and Taxi Driver are his masterpieces…even Mean Streets and Goodfellas are up there. The Departed was a great remake.
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What are the best Brian De Palma's films? over 3 years ago
Scarface and Body Double are his best. The Untouchables doesn’t know if it’s a comedy or a thriller or a comedy thriller or what. Very uneven throughout.
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Good Bad Films over 3 years ago
Commando… fantastic.
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Can we talk about "Magnolia" for a bit? over 3 years ago
I hate Magnolia. Hate it. I hated Punch Drunk Love too, but There Will Be Blood changed my mind about this Anderson chap.
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FANTASY ARTHOUSE DOUBLE FEATURE over 3 years ago
West Side Story and Breakin’
Salo and The Dammed
Taxi Driver and I Stand Alone
Brazil and A Clockwork Orange
Man Who Fell to Earth and Purple Rain
Pretty Baby and Hardcore
Blue Velvet and Now Voyager
Eraserhead and The Fly
The Elephant Man and Freaks
Don’t Torture a Duckling and Blade in the Dark
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Titicut Follies
Bad Timing and Crimes of Passion
Paris, Texas and Days of Heaven
The Boys Next Door and Repo Man
Raging Bull and Somebody Up There Likes Me
Rocky III and Over The Top
Savage Streets and 52 Pick Up
Even Dwarfs Started Small and Freaks
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Is Travis a hero or a villain? over 3 years ago
Yep, I can understand what you’re saying, but he’s bitter when rejected by Betsy, but subsequent attempts to ask her out again are conveyed in a pathetic hoplessness- especially when the camera pans down the empty hallway. He’s pissed off with Betsy’s co-worker and wants to kick the shit out of him, but he doesn’t. He doesn’t raise his voice anywhere during the film. He’s always desperate. He talks to Iris in desperate tones “you should be in school”. His robotic march of death at the end is devoid of emotion- he’s expressing his true force, every muscle must be tight. It’s all about the mission. Bitter people don’t have the energy to do what he’s doing. He’s lonely and suffering passively. The killing of pimps and dealers is an agressive sense of purpose, the only one he’s had since he got back from Nam. He must be depressed, because he has no fear of working long hours, driving his coffin through black ghettos, begging to get hurt. He hates black people- that’s for sure. But NY was fairly diverse even in 1975/76, so he had time to come to terms with migration. He probably had black squad members fighting with him. He can’t expect to pick up women in a porno cinema, either by taking them or chatting them up whilst they’re working there. He doesn’t have any skills to jump back for a minute before he pathalogically heads further into the abyss. Whist he maintains his outsider status, he’s also revelling in it, happy to be that loner and for the viewer to empathise him, if only because he can’t see how unhappy he is.
Go to Comment