After drawing attention to my site with the "Reading the Movies" exercise I mostly redirected activity elsewhere, first as a guest blogger contributing twice to a larger series and then as "Boston Indie Movie Examiner" for the Examiner website. With little editorial oversight, I decided that the "indie" label could refer to venues as well as production companies and began covering some of the biggest blockbusters of all time when they played at a New Hampshire arthouse cinema over the summer. Wonders in the Dark began highlighting an Examiner piece every week, adding to my platforms, and in the autumn yet another site provided a key opportunity: I created my first video essay for Cinema Viewfinder's Brian De Palma blog-a-thon
Subjects include - despite the shift elsewhere - the first anniversary of my personal site, films of Luchino Visconti, the (then) upcoming works of major directors, an event with an aging member of the Weather Underground, and speculation about where the characters of 25th Hour would be seven years after that story took place.
Since the De Palma video was later revised and incorporated into a longer conversation, I'll save that for later and highlight a written piece for this period instead: my review of Lawrence of Arabia envisions the film's use of landscape as psychodrama rather than simply spectacle.
JUNE
My first piece written for another site, diving into Spike Lee's 9/11-conscious film for the "Counting Down the Zeroes" series
Covering a "widescreen" series at a local theater for the Examiner site, I started with Sam Peckinpah's classic western
Reflections on the King of Pop after his death
JULY
The summer classic film retrospective continues with this MGM super-production on the big screen
Gathering all the personally influential movie books chosen by dozens of bloggers in response to my own round-up
Francis Ford Coppola's grand folly speaks to the myths of both Vietnam and New Hollywood
Low-key study of Red Sox pitcher Luis Tiant - the multiplex had a warning on the desk for customers who were angry they'd bought tickets to a documentary
The sci-fi classic plays like four films in one
Celebrating my site's first anniversary in a directory, with much to gather but so much more on the horizon
Reporting on a live appearance by a former member of the Weather Underground
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Not just a landscape film but a psychological portrait drawn through the use of space and a subtle narrative/aesthetic structure
I wasn't particularly charmed by the winking stylization of this romantic comedy (although I ended up liking it more on a rewatch a couple years later)
AUGUST
Getting to see Akira Kurosawa's crowdpleaser on the big screen, I loved it
Steven Spielberg's big breakthrough is half Alfred Hitchcock, half Howard Hawks
Luchino Visconti bids farewell to the age of aristocrats
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A million miles from Rocco's milieu, the decadent indulgence of late Visconti
This incredible film completely took me by surprise when I caught it at a small offshoot of a small festival on a Sunday morning
Who knew that an HBO Peter Sellers biopic would be among the best, nastiest portraits of the zeroes zeitgeist?
SEPTEMBER
Greta Gerwig and Joe Swanberg pair as directors as well as actors for an awkward outing (often if not always appealingly so)
What various directors had in store for the autumn of '09
My first video essay, fusing Scarface, Carrie, and Hi, Mom!; still one of my favorites, it got a bit lost in the shuffle at this time
A documentary about film criticism mourns the dying of the light
When Polanski was briefly captured by Swiss officials, I reviewed this documentary about his crime, case, and persona
Re-living the celebrity-studded fairy tale series I loved as a child, with the aid of an old video promo
OCTOBER
The German left-wing terrorist group re-imagined three decades later
Musings about change on the horizon for the medium and industry
My very short-lived double daily review format begins with neo-neorealism in the outer boroughs
Pool full of liquor then you dive in it...
Dante-esque journey into the bowels of the Romanian health care system (maybe that's why some dubbed it a "Comedy")
Sergei Eisenstein's flamboyant two-part biopic is a trip
Andrew Bujalski's follow-up to Funny Ha Ha brings a similar style to black-and-white Brooklyn instead of color Cambridge
Quick take on the Fellini classic, standing at the crossroads of different sixties
Sibling rivalry and ideological conflict between a communist and a fascist
Reviewing a Sam Raimi biopic in time for Halloween
(I covered this period on Episode 6 of my Patreon podcast)
Next: Open Season for Blogging (November - December 2009)
(in which I launch a new platform for more casual and prolific blogging)
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Previous: Covers, Characters, and Wonders (April - June 2009)
(in which I launch a new platform for more casual and prolific blogging)
•
Previous: Covers, Characters, and Wonders (April - June 2009)
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