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Category Archives: Film
James Cameron's Metaphor of Climate Change as the 21st Century Iceberg to Our Big Oil Titanic, Plus a Shout-out to E.O. Wilson's new book "The Social Conquest of Earth" and the Coen Brothers classic "Barton Fink"
So I’m not exactly a huge fan of James Cameron films, full of over-the-top razzle-dazzle, some great images (such as the Titanic sinking, rising into the air and all the unfortunate passengers plummeting into the water) but enough bad melodrama … Continue reading
Posted in books, books/film, Climate Change, Film, Politics, The West, writing
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Review of Noah Hawley's "The Good Father" in the Dallas Morning News
So here’s my review of Noah Hawley’s new novel, The Good Father, published Sunday in the Dallas Morning News (click the hyperlink ‘review’). I liked the novel, even if it’s ultimately a downer story, of a father searching for the … Continue reading
Further Reflections on Scenes Cut From the Film Version of Cormac McCarthy's "The Road," Or Films You Wish You Had Seen, and Some You Wish You Had Not
So being a diehard Cormac McCarthy fan (and more than just a little bit suspicious), I feel the hand of God or Fate or Providence in the fact that one of my students this semester was an actor (Baby Eater … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Bad TV, books, books/film, Film, The West, writing
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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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