Barton Fink

The Coen Brothers’ 1991 film Barton Fink has been on my “to-do” list for quite some time, and finally I have gotten the chance to watch it. Famous both for its use of visual metaphor and Biblical and literary allusion, Barton Fink is an excellent, albeit rather unfocused, multi-genre picture.
It is 1942, and Barton Fink [...]

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Synecdoche, New York

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players…they have their exits, and their entrances…”
William Shakespeare’s famous line, from his play As You Like It, seems to be the existentialist wind that pushes forth Caden Cotard (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), a misanthropic playwright in Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York. A film that [...]

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I Love You, Man

My distaste for the “stoner-slacker” genre of Judd Apatow’s flock is, admittedly, also tinged by a hint of interest and awe- a bunch of friends making Hollywood comedies together. That they give credit where credit is due (Bill Murray, Steve Martin) is only icing on the cake. In I Love You, Man, these twenty and [...]

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Frost/Nixon

The difficulties in capturing historical politics on-screen are numerous; accuracy is essential considering the film has little to do with “history” if it manipulates the facts or leans towards a particular political spectrum. So many films (Ollie Stone, I’m looking at you) distort and expand on reality in such a way that often you are [...]

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