Counting Down the Zeroes 2001: Black Hawk Down

Film for the Soul has been counting down the zeroes (or chronicling the noughties as his website informs you) and I'm honored to participate in this wonderful exercise. We're on to 2001, now, so if you haven't seen the 2000 pieces yet, then head on over to this blog, where all of the reviews for 2000 have been archived. Here is my review I'm submitting this week for Ridley Scott's underappreciated action masterpiece Black Hawk Down. Go over and pay a visit to Film for the Soul, you won't be disappointed....

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Salem Film Festival 2009: Adoration (Atom Egoyan)

Atom Egoyan's first large-scale production, The Sweet Hereafter, is undeniably his masterpiece. That film based on a haunting novel by acclaimed author Russell Banks was about the disintegration of a community after a tragic school bus accident. Egoyan's newest film, Adoration, (set to be released in July or August) is also about disintegration, albeit in the form of a student named Simon and his memories of his deceased parents, and how a community can (for better or worse) shape the memories of...

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Salem Film Festival 2009: Celebration of Cinematography Seminar with Vilmos Zsigmond

One of the highlights of the 2009 Salem Film Festival was the appearance of legendary cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond. The Oscar winner was touring with a seminar entitled A Celebration of Cinematography which showed clips from his Award worthy (and winning) films; in addition, the fest held a screening of the documentary No Subtitles Necessary about the volatile and subsequently healed relationship between Vilmos and fellow legendary cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs. The seminar was something special...

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Salem Film Festival 2009: Once More With Feeling (Jeff Lipsky)

Jeff Lipsky has been a stalwart of independent cinema -- the co-founder of October Films and Lot 47 -- his contributions to the medium are immeasurable as he was able to get indie films like Stranger Than Paradise wide releases that were not common in the 60's or 70's. Once More With Feeling is Lipsky's third film as a director, and with it he shows a great command over material that is pretty familiar and formulaic, and he turn it into something fresh, charming, and gleefully refreshing.Lipsky's...

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Another Quiz is Due at Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule...

One of the greatest of blogs that exists in the blogosphere is Dennis Cozzalio's Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule. Every now and then he hands out tests to his faithful readers. I'm looking forward to this one. You can see a previous example here. All of you should give it a go. None of these answers, of course, are definitive, but they're the best I could come up with at the present time. And once again I omit some of the questions because I have no idea how to answer them...Favorite Biopic?This is a difficult one since it is far and away...

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Salem Film Festival: An Overview of Opening Weekend

The opening weekend for the 4th annual Salem Film Festival has come and gone, and I was there for six of the events. First things first: the new Salem Cinema is beautiful. It pleases me to no end to have an art house cinema like that about five minutes from where I live. About the films: every film I saw was either good or great, something that isn’t always bound to happen with festival films. Overall I’m glad I shelled out the money for a weekend pass; it was one of the best film experiences I’ve...

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Revisiting 1999: When Bad Movies Happen to Good Directors

This is another in a series of remembrances of the year 1999, a year I feel is greatest year of film I have experienced (keep in mind I'm only 27, so I wasn't able to experience the glory years of innovative cinema in the 60's and 70's). So far I've discussed the sorta-forgettable films and the films that just don't hold up. Also, here's me waxing nostalgic about 1999. The term bad, as it will be used here, is a relative term. I’m thinking more of the kind of bad movie that were it directed by...

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Revisiting 1999: The Films That Just Don't Hold Up

I’m back with my retrospective on film from 1999. For previous thoughts on why I consider this particular so important you can read this. For thoughts on the more forgettable films of 1999 click here.When looking back at 1999 I had to ask myself whether or not I could write about most of these without watching them again -- I mean after all it’s been nearly ten years since I’ve seen some of these. But I figured I would roll out the film by film analysis for the Forgotten Gems (because I actually...

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