By now I wanted to reserve my main site (still called The Dancing Image) for the occasional ambitious project, but I also hungered for a more spontaneous, casual approach to online writing so I invented a new blog: The Sun's Not Yellow. In the first day alone, I quoted a literary classic, reviewed a proto-noir, and highlighted a random YouTube find that reminded me of my childhood. This site could also serve as a central hub for my work on the Examiner, where I was trying to establish a busy, eclectic approach ranging from independent film reviews to Boston retro round-ups to a "Best of the 21st Century?" series to my first-ever online interview.
Subjects include works by several international auteurs (Sergei Eisenstein, Luis Bunuel, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Mikio Naruse), Beatles-related musings, reactions to news stories, a couple Stan Brakhage tributes, and a couple horror classics.
My highlight for this period is For the Love of Movies interview with Gerald Peary, a local critic and filmmaker, in which we discuss both the history of film criticism and its future in the digital era.
NOVEMBER
Introducing a new blog, The Sun's Not Yellow, for more frequent, spontaneous takes
Sharing an amusing excerpt from David Copperfield
The most popular toon characters of the late eighties teach a teen the dangers of pot
Finally catching up with WALL-E a year after its release
The emotional pull of family films
My first Mikio Naruse, a bittersweet portrait of stoicism and grace
My thoughts on the one-year anniversary of the president's first election
Writing about Boston film events for the Examiner, I previewed this festival
Luis Bunuel's proto- (and reverse-) Discreet Charm...the guests can eat, they just can't leave
Celebrating Beatles music videos - though all the clips are gone now!
Taking issue with the coverage of a shooting on a military base
Announcing upcoming work (although Ballast, featured in the picture, would actually go up later)
Transcript of Brakhage's narration for one of his seventies films
My first interview, with Gerald Peary, a critic who made a documentary about criticism
I was still fairly centrist in 2009 but even then I was highly suspicious of the U.S. line on Venezuela
Kicking off the first leg of my Best of the 21st Century? series reviewing acclaimed zeroes cinema I hadn't seen before
Halloween in November: Universal horror classic #1...
Planning for the week ahead with reviews of comedy, drama, and magical realism
My Best of the 21st Century? series begins with a mellow film containing subtle dualities
Elliptical and enigmatic, this quiet movie was shot in the Mississippi delta
For Thanksgiving, I highlighted two essays, on Il Posto and Day of Wrath, by the great critics Kent Jones and Jonathan Rosenbaum
Teasing some upcoming reviews for the Examiner, including two documentaries and an action comedy
1001 Films You Must See Before You Die, you say? Can't wait to read their take on the most acclaimed film of the 21st century. Now to take a big sip of coffee, and flip to the back of the book...
Documenting the Twin Towers in a peaceful, if poignant, context
DECEMBER
Is Bruges a shithole?
Teasing upcoming reviews of three non-American but English-language films (well, maybe three and a half)
Nostalgia turns to tragedy in the mid-eighties UK
I was the only person in the theater for this one which was both unnerving and maybe less uncomfortable than the alternative
Distillation of Werner Herzog's bitter view of nature, through someone else's lens
Novel stylistic/storytelling approach didn't quite work for me
Pursuing many classics I'd never seen before - though as it turns out, I wouldn't write about most of them
Steven Soderbergh captures the rancid polish of late zeroes America so well it makes the film itself nearly unbearable
A short reflection from nineteen-year-old me (pulled from the archive when I needed something to re-post in '09)
Another excerpt from the same lengthy Woody Allen essay
At the end of 2009, I looked back on my resolutions for the site from January - how did I do?
I was enchanted by the dreamy texture of my first Apichatpong Weerasethakul film
Marking the holiday with a French family drama/comedy (and though this wasn't the plan, wrapping up my first approach to Best of the 21st Century?)
Preparing to look back at the past year in online film coverage
New Year's salutations from The Dancing Image
(I covered this period on Episode 7 of my Patreon podcast)
Next: The Image Emerges (January - February 2010)
(in which my work becomes particularly visual for the first time)
•
Previous: Examining the Options (June - October 2009)
(in which my work becomes particularly visual for the first time)
•
Previous: Examining the Options (June - October 2009)
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