We climbed out of our coffin recently — with help from our strapping new intern, Felipe — to bring you the new issue of Bright Lights. Ours wasn't the only resurrection happening; movie screens are awash in them, from Bruce Willis (Die Harder Goddamn You!) to Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones and the Nursing Home of Doom). Even politicians are getting in on the act, with diaper-clad masochist-senators and criminal attorney generals defying what would normally be career-killing exposures to maintain their death grip on power.

Resurrection is the byword here at Bright Lights, too, with an astounding number of articles this time in some manner returning the dead to life. (Not that we're not always engaged in that activity; inquire about lab tours.)

In the features foyer, new contributor Nicholas de Villiers examines "queer looks" by disinterring, and more or less blinding, the dreaded "male gaze." Skipping to the articles antechamber, we find a veritable Forest Lawn of critiques. BL guest David Ryan exhumes the history behind 300 and shows why all those nitpickers about the film's "inaccuracies" were wrong. Andrew Culbertson gives Jack Nicholson a proper wake. Newbies Guy Crucianelli and Matt Brennan memorialize, respectively, The Night Porter and the connections between Children of Men and Eliot's The Waste Land. Richard Armstrong buries rather than praises those terrible teachers of film criticism. Wrapping up this section, Justin Vicari honors P. J. Harvey and her concert film; and our beloved buddy Dave Saunders scours cinema past and present for "amazing scenes."

A ghostly presence occupies this issue's empty guest room: Irene Dunne, commemorated with élan by Dan Callahan.

Of course, it can't always be about the past and death (even though it always is), and this issue includes several reviews of recent films. Brian Wilson tackles 28 Weeks Later. Ian Johnston wrangles with Tsai Ming-liang's I Don't Want to Sleep Alone and Kaurismaki's Lights in the Dusk. Associate editor Alan Vanneman body-slams the latest Harry Potter, Ocean's 13, and Ratatouille. AV also found time for a smackdown of war criminal-movie star Ronald Reagan and Cattle Queen of Montana.

We love nothing better than a long, hard . . . chat, and this time there are four of them. Karin Badt waylaid Michael Moore, Carlos Reygadas, and Kadri Kousaar at Cannes and made 'em 'fess up on a number of topics. Equally forthcoming was BL fave Paul Verhoeven, shanghai'd by the ever-intrepid Damon Smith.

Speaking of long and hard, as one so often does, we've opened a new room this time: the Parlor of Porn. Therein you'll find Lesley Chow's fine study of Tom Lazarus' voyeur erotica, along with our Brit pal John Minson's heady history of hard-core's backstory with the Mitchell Brothers and the San Francisco counterculture. Porn has its avant-garde aspect, certainly, but there's nothing like the real thing. So the avant-garde atelier contains two entries: Tom Sutpen's mixed take on the work of acclaimed experimentalist Su Friedrich, and Michael Betancourt's informed look at the dubious video art project known as [PAM].

Meanwhile, Gordon Thomas gives the lowdown on a variety of recent classy DVDs that you might otherwise miss; Megan Ratner separates the wheat from the chaff in the Tribeca Film Festival; and yours truly showcases QDoc, Portland's (and the nation's first) queer documentary fest.

Now it's back in the box. Felipe, the guests have arrived. Let the viewing begin!