This Quarter in Film History
‘Apocalypse’ Then
Rex Ingram put what became MGM on the map, but ironically, the studio he helped to create was also his undoing. […]
Columns
Tail Pop
Gus Van Sant’s ‘Good Will Hunting’ (1997)
Will Hunting made a choice to leave his comfort zone and follow his heart to California. He ‘had to go see about a girl.’ At the end of 1997, I too made a choice. I had to go see about Hollywood. […]
Columns
Whether It’s Bagels or Bargaining Rights, Union-Busting Attempts Continue
Conservative lawmakers may claim to support job creation for the middle class, but their legislative actions clearly show that destruction of labor unions is also one of their highest goals. […]
Book Reviews
Blooping the Join And Other Memories of Editing’s Early Days
With this engaging and highly entertaining autobiography, Clark recounts an illustrious career as an editor. […]
Union Made
UNION MADE: A Long and Winding Career Path
I arrived in Hollywood with no contacts––and as I observed the inner workings of the business, I felt that what I learned in college was horribly insufficient for me to succeed. So I opened myself up to any job I could get, observing everyone and everything. […]
Tail Pop
Mike Figgis’ ‘Leaving Las Vegas’
Over time, I realized I was married to an alcoholic. For me, Leaving Las Vegas was the film that most moved me in my adult life. Nicolas Cage plays Ben, an alcoholic Hollywood writer struggling greatly with the disease. […]
Book Reviews
Wide, Wide World
In the Jean-Luc Godard film Contempt (1963), director Fritz Lang, portraying himself, acidly jokes that CinemaScope “wasn’t meant for human beings. Just for snakes and funerals.” […]
This Quarter in Film History
Brother, Can You Spare a Job?
F Scott Fitzgerald once wrote that there are no second acts to American lives––an odd statement because Americans have always sought new challenges and adventures. During the Depression, people lost their careers, their savings and their homes, and families were forced to discover new ways to survive. Three-quarters of a century later, the current generation is experiencing similar joblessness, foreclosures and bankruptcies, which have caused national anxiety. […]
Tail Pop
Wes Anderson’s ‘Rushmore’
There are those wonderful, albeit rare occasions when you are sent a script and immediately a sense of excitement overtakes you. Such was the case in 1997 when Wes Anderson sent me Rushmore. I felt so…lucky! […]
Columns
No Excuse for Copyright Abuse
They somehow think that freedom to speak equals freedom to steal. […]
