I CARE A LOT. There has been a movement afoot, particularly in the last 20 years or so, among creators and critics in advocacy of the unlikable protagonist. And it makes sense: From a storytelling standpoint, exploring the vague borders of personality in order to subvert the dominant hero/villain paradigm can be a deeply satisfying […]
John J. Bennett
Posted inArts + Scene
Tragedy of the Inside Man
JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH. As the eternal shuffle-step march of our plague years continues, as dates lose significance and shocks remain unsurprising, it can sometimes feel as if nothing is normal but everything is mundane. This paradigm shift — or slide, or decay, whatever one prefers — is not without some benefits. I cannot […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Your Own Little World
BLISS. It is a conundrum as old as … people, I guess. Or at least dating back to the period when people had enough time to focus on something other than survival and their baser impulses. I refer to the question of the nature of reality itself, of perception and invention, the birth of philosophy, […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Digging Up the Past
A formidable intoxicant, nostalgia. Smoothing the rough edges of the past, it can also induce prejudice toward the future and obfuscate perceptions of the present. It reorders memory and, dependent upon mood and inclination, can alter the fundamental properties of things remembered. A pleasant, sticky trap, especially in times of stress and conflict, it must […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Uneasy Marks
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN. To call men pigs or dogs more often than not does disservice to pigs and dogs, noble contributors both, though not without their faults. More apt to group them/us with ducks, whose inveterate gang rape I have observed and remain traumatized by, or a particularly nasty virus. Such comparisons are closer to […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Hope and History
No sooner than I had published last week’s whinging lament that certain exciting new releases (Promising Young Woman and News of the World) were only to be seen theatrically, both became available streaming, albeit as Premium Video On-Demand (PVOD) selections — hubris, though mild. Why the studios chose to attempt a box office cash grab […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Ladies and Gentlemen and Gangsters
The first quarter of almost any normal year yields very little from the movie watching perspective, at least theatrically. The sprint to screen awards contenders in New York and Los Angeles having ended with the ringing in of the new year, the ensuing months become a sort of protracted sloughing-off of the dead weight of […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Good Movies from the Bitter End of 2020
I have no intention to recap, relive or relitigate the year just past. I would not suggest I understand what happened to those of us who, so far, have survived. Further, I think anyone claims to is likely a liar, maybe a bigot and probably has something to do with attempts to overturn elections and […]
Posted inArts + Scene
The Grudge Boat
LET THEM ALL TALK. It certainly wasn’t the biggest (or worst) news of the year but the recent announcement by Warner Bros. that the studio would be releasing its entire 2021 slate simultaneously in theaters and on the HBOMax streaming platform has produced no small amount of hand-wringing and outcry. Prominent directors — including Christopher […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Hollywood Beginning
HAPPIEST SEASON. Having made no secret of my childlike but abiding love of Christmas movies and despite our conventional notions of time and meaningful dates of demarcation having slipped away in 2020, I feel compelled to watch them. Maybe it’s a passive version of the denial that has led swaths of the populace to wantonly […]
Posted inArts + Scene
On Paper
MANGROVE. In yet another telling instance regarding the state of contemporary cinema, one more of its preeminent voices, Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave, 2013) has transitioned to the small screen. Collaborating with the BBC and Amazon, he has created a five-part anthology series (really five movies varying in length from 60 to 120 minutes) […]
Posted inArts + Scene
On Paper
WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME. Spoiler: We live in trying times. While hopeful news occasionally filters through the hateful noise of late — feels like a first for this year of less auspicious ones — and while some of it has induced an almost palpable unburdening, a lightening of the the spirit, it also […]