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Recent Posts
- On Randall K. Wilson’s “A Place Called Yellowstone”: Award-Winning History of Yellowstone National Park
- On Candice Millard’s “River of Doubt” and “River of the Gods”: Bugs, Snakes, and Disease Aplenty
- More Alone than “Alone”: On Adam Shoalts’s “Vanished Beyond the Map: The Mystery of Lost Explorer Hubert Darrell” (2025)
- Rachel McAdams film “Send Help” (2026) Makes Comic Gold Out of “Survivor” and “Alone” Audition Videos
- “The Wiggle Room”: A Short Story
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Category Archives: Film
On the Documentary "Gasland": a Real-Life Horror Film
So I see plenty of movies that I don’t say a word about, either because they’re too familiar to bother commenting about (Bridesmaids maybe) or because they’re not worth a comment (The A-Team, anyone?), but for a while I’ve heard … Continue reading
Posted in Climate Change, Film, Politics, The West
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"Cave of Forgotten Dreams" Now on Netflix, as well as "Atrocious"
So although the (dubious, limited) charm of Netflix streaming wore off long ago, I do sometimes find something interesting there if I troll enough, and there are two new films I recommend: Werner Herzog’s remarkable documentary about 32,000 year-old-cave art, Cave … Continue reading
Posted in Film
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News On the Cormac McCarthy Front: Baby Eater No. 2 Speaks! Plus a New, Original Screenplay by CM
So for all the Cormac McCarthy fans out there, of which I am a most enthusiastic one, here’s an odd bit of info that just fell into my lap about the film version of The Road (2009). Before I saw … Continue reading
Posted in books, books/film, Film, The West, writing
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On "Contagion": The World Is Ending Because Gwyneth Paltrow Cheated on Her Husband
So I finally got around to watching Contagion last night, which I’ve been mildly curious about since there’s a hardcore virus epidemic at the core of the story, and in my new novel there’s a flu epidemic angle as well. … Continue reading
Posted in books/film, Film, Weird Science
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"The Muppets Movie" Meets "The Human Centipede": Now That Ain't Right
So the title for this post should be “The Muppets Movie cleanses the horror of The Human Centipede,” but oh well. These two happened to be the films I saw this weekend: The Muppets Movie at a local cineplex, where … Continue reading
Posted in Film
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"The Blood People": On Horror Creeping in Netflix, With Nods to "Night of the Demons," "Primal," and the Awful "The Awakening"
So the other morning my five-year-old daughter wakes up and the first thing she says to me is, “People are made of blood.” She’s right, actually. And I kind of like the poetry of the line, although the way her … Continue reading
Posted in Film
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The Goy Crisis
So the other day I was discussing (perhaps ‘talking at’ would be a more accurate description) the Boy Crisis issue with my class of (rather sleepy, uncommunicative) undergraduate students in an Intro to Creative Writing class, and it was something … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Film
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Australian Horror on Netflix: "The Reef," "Arctic Blast," and "Primal"
So I was at first excited by the streaming-video options of Netflix months ago, but the charm actually rather quickly wore off and I agree with some of the popular grouching about it—basically that Netflix has a rather limited list … Continue reading
Posted in Film
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Dream Hooey: Inception Island, or a Contrarian’s View of “Inception” and “Shutter Island”
So none other than knockout writer Susan Orlean (whose book on Rin Tin Tin is coming out soon, I believe) turned me on to the world of streaming video last fall, telling me that she finds that much better than … Continue reading
Posted in Film
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Werner Herzog Goes Caveman: "Cave of Forgotten Dreams"
So I caught Werner Herzog’s new documentary, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, at a theater in St. Louis today, and it’s one of the best docs I’ve seen in a while. It’s all about his visit to the Chauvet cave in … Continue reading
Posted in Film
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