Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead: The Play’s The Thing
Sean MurphySpoiler alert: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern die. They are, in fact, already dead. And they always have been. But you knew that already, right? Another spoiler: You, too, shall die one…
A Dose Of Dennis Miller With An Ian Curtis Chaser
I saw something the other night that really depressed me. It concerns a genius who, for a variety of reasons, could not maintain control. His implosion can be attributed to many of the usual ailments:…
Laugh While You Weep with ‘Bill Hicks: The Essential Collection’
It’s a crying shame that Bill Hicks is no longer with us; we sure could use him right about now. It’s a laughing shame (the sort where you laugh until…
Goodfellas: The Most Definitive American Movie of the Last Two Decades
First, a confession. I did not love Goodfellas the first time I saw it (in the theater, shortly after it opened, in October, 1990). Then again, this seems to happen…
Akira Kurosawa’s ‘Dreams’: A Late Masterpiece from The Master
Understanding that Dreams was among the last films Akira Kurosawa made inexorably adds a regal and elegiac air to the proceedings. The fact that the work is semi-autobiographical (based on…
The Tomorrow Show: John, Paul, Tom and Ringo (Revisited)
Before Conan O’Brien in the ‘90s and David Letterman in the ‘80s, there was another—even ‘whiter’—dude who regularly hosted many of the hippest artists and promoted some of the best…
Coppola’s ‘The Conversation’: A Love Letter to the Process of Making Art
In Dostoeyevsky’s Notes From Underground the self-loathing narrator proposes that every man has secrets he will only reveal to friends and secrets he must keep to himself. And then there…
Here’s The Thing… (Revisited)
In the late summer of 1982, two distinct entities from outer space infiltrated planet earth. One was a prehistoric creature with the ability to kill, then imitate its prey: it…
Essential Performance: Gene Hackman in ‘The Conversation’*
Harry Caul is a man less concerned with the answers to uneasy questions than the questions themselves. He is a well-regarded surveillance specialist; a self-employed spy who builds his own…
Celebrating Chinatown: The Ultimate Summer Movie (and the Perfect American Movie)
Chinatown does not usually make the short list of best American films. In fairness, it probably shouldn’t. It will have to settle for merely being the only perfect American film…