Peter Biskind’s plump new book about the life, loves and career of Warren Beatty, Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America (Simon & Schuster, 2010, 627 pgs., $30.00) has come up with a pretty good reason to dish dirt about all the famous feminine conquests which have made this actor-writer-director-producer-would-be-politician so sought after, envied and infamous: ... read more »

The post before last made me unearth these notes I once wrote after first seeing the film. Maybe they’ll add a little something here. Although from a stylistic perspective the movie is rather ugly and washed out looking, with horrible bland cutaways and uncomfortably amateurish reaction shots (curious for a veteran director like Louis Malle), ... read more »

Recently I re-watched Josef Von Sternberg’s The Scarlet Empress (1934) and found myself again surprised by the sickly gushy tasteless humor of the piece; had forgotten most of the film’s plot as well, despite having seen it twice before. In a way, this is really symptomatic of my experience with all the Sternberg/Dietrich films I’ve ... read more »

Once upon a time a strange sassy red head with a big nose and giant lips cropped up as a pathetic obsessed fan in Martin Scorcese’s heavy-handed satire The King of Comedy and stole the show. Although she had been doing stand up in various places before and after, most people really only first got ... read more »

Over time it becomes more and more obvious that as a species humans really aren’t much more than a bunch of monkeys. And our monkey brains, motivated with banana dreams of sex and dominance, exist presently in the weird position of having to submit our furry natures to cool white plastic and wires and perfectly ... read more »