She Don’t Fade (1991, Cheryl Dunye)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 3, 2018
She Don’t Fade opens with Zoie Strauss sitting down in front of the camera and directly addresses the viewer. She talks about how we’re going to see a video from the director, Dunye, and then Fade cuts to a shot of Dunye cleaning up a sidewalk vending table. The title card gradually comes up. Then read more
Atom Man vs. Superman (1950, Spencer Gordon Bennet), Chapter 14: Rocket of Vengeance
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 2, 2018
Rocket of Vengeance is all filler. It opens with Kirk Alyn and Noel Neill trying to find Lyle Talbot’s base. Talbot’s trying to stop the intruding cops and reporters–though he never attacks the (off-screen) coppers–with his various bits of technological terror. One such terror hits Alyn and read more
My Cousin Rachel (1952, Henry Koster)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 1, 2018
Olivia de Havilland is top-billed on My Cousin Rachel, but Richard Burton’s the star. For better or worse. Burton’s a young English gentleman, de Havilland is his cousin. And his cousin–and guardian’s–widow. She doesn’t appear for the first twenty-five minutes of the film, which instead read more
Parabola (1937, Mary Ellen Bute and Ted Nemeth)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 30, 2018
Parábola is a series of objects, usually with parabola shapes (a U), shot at different angles, made with different materials, moving and interacting, with lighting and editing making the objects move or interact in one way or another. The objects are sculptures by Rutherford Boyd; they’re sometimes read more
Atom Man vs. Superman (1950, Spencer Gordon Bennet), Chapter 13: Atom Man’s Flying Saucers
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 29, 2018
All throughout Atom Man’s Flying Saucers, I was waiting for the flying saucers. Why would Atom Man–Lex Luthor (Lyle Talbot)–have flying saucers? Because, as Talbot explains at one point, the final phase of his plan is to go up in his spaceship and attack Earth. He’ll be taking some of his goons read more
Janine (1990, Cheryl Dunye)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 28, 2018
Janine is shot–and edited–on video. So when Dunye cuts to an insert shot for mood, there’s a jerky quality. She does a lot of freeze frames and the format just means it can’t gracefully return to motion. Seeing the cuts as Dunye relates the story–of Janine–causes attention to refocus. If read more
Atom Man vs. Superman (1950, Spencer Gordon Bennet), Chapter 12: Atom Man Strikes!
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 27, 2018
Most of Atom Man Strikes! is Noel Neill’s. After an awesome cliffhanger resolution–awesome in terms of the Superman special effects (easily the best in the serial thus far)–Neill starts secretly investigating her coworkers. Kirk Alyn finds the secret compartment in the TV van, where the bad guys read more
Dear Diary (1996, David Frankel)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 26, 2018
Dear Diary was originally a TV pilot, which didn’t get picked up, then got (slightly) re-edited into a short. It’s impossible to imagine it as a weekly show, just because Diary does so little to establish what would be its regular cast. It opens with star Bebe Neuwirth writing about her day in her read more
Atom Man vs. Superman (1950, Spencer Gordon Bennet), Chapter 11: Luthor’s Strategy
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 25, 2018
About the last third of Luthor’s Strategy is Superman trying to save people during a big flood. The sequence is a mix of composite shots, flying shots, newsreel footage of actual floods, and then some connective shots. Kirk Alyn and Noel Neill, separately, driving to the flood location. They just read more
Meshes of the Afternoon (1943, Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 24, 2018
Meshes of the Afternoon is a dream within a dream within a dream within a dream. But since they’re dreams, it’s really just the one dream, I suppose. A woman–presumably, because directors Deren and Hammid shoot from her point of view during the waking segment–comes up and takes a nap. On her read more
Atom Man vs. Superman (1950, Spencer Gordon Bennet), Chapter 10: Atom Man’s Heat Ray
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 23, 2018
Atom Man’s Heat Ray does not feature a heat ray. Unless it’s the machine Luthor (Lyle Talbot) uses the pump smoke into the room where he’s trapped Noel Neill, Kirk Alyn, and Tommy Bond. Now, it turns out Neill is only working for Talbot’s TV station to get the goods on him for Superman (and read more
Raising Arizona (1987, Joel Coen)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 22, 2018
Halfway through Raising Arizona is this breathtaking chase sequence. Until this point in the film, while there’s been a lot of phenomenal direction, it’s all been brief. Raising Arizona starts in summary, with lead Nicolas Cage narrating, and it doesn’t start slowing down the narrative pace until read more
Atom Man vs. Superman (1950, Spencer Gordon Bennet), Chapter 9: Superman Crashes Through
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 21, 2018
There’s a lot going on in Superman Crashes Through, starting with some power company guys beating up on the Atom Man’s thugs. The power company guys are out on a call about an explosion in the cave base. But when the cops get there (again), it’s empty (again). It seems like another of the serial’s read more
Ident (1990, Richard Starzak)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 20, 2018
Ident is an unpleasant five minutes. Intentionally unpleasant. Even the dog is unpleasant, but mostly because the protagonist finds the dog unpleasant. The protagonist is unpleasant himself; the dog seems mostly innocent. The short is claymation and takes place in a labyrinthine city. It’s not clea read more
Atom Man vs. Superman (1950, Spencer Gordon Bennet), Chapter 8: Into the Empty Doom!
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 19, 2018
Maybe I was wrong about the desk swapping in the earlier chapters. Into the Empty Doom! is mostly a Daily Planet chapter–mostly Noel Neill’s chapter too–and she looks very comfortable at the desk I was sure used to be Kirk Alyn’s. Both Clark Kent and Superman have disappeared–though Superman read more
The Good Time Girls (2017, Courtney Hoffman)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 18, 2018
The most disconcerting thing about The Good Time Girls is the dialogue. The short opens with this solid, distinct narration from Laura Dern. Director (and writer) Hoffman goes for lyrical shots but not visuals; Autumn Durald’s photography isn’t dull so much as shallow… to the point you wonder read more
Atom Man vs. Superman (1950, Spencer Gordon Bennet), Chapter 7: At the Mercy of Atom Man!
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 17, 2018
At the Mercy of Atom Man! has one of the serial’s laziest cliffhanger resolutions so far. And Atom Man vs. Superman, now seven chapters in, has had some really lazy resolutions. This one has the added bonus of Kirk Alyn not using his superspeed to catch the bad guy. Because of course not. Later it read more
Darkman (1990, Sam Raimi)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 16, 2018
The last twenty or so minutes of Darkman are when director Raimi finally lets loose. He’s been building to it, hinting at how wacky the movie’s going to get, but it doesn’t all come together until the end. And the end is when Darkman has the most standard action sequences. There are big set pieces. read more
Sunset Boulevard (1950, Billy Wilder)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 15, 2018
The third act of Sunset Boulevard just gets darker and darker. The film digs down into one level, then finds another, then another, then maybe even another. Director Wilder and co-writers Charles Brackett and D.M. Marshman Jr. find a way to fully condemn the film’s setting–Hollywood, with Paramount read more
Atom Man vs. Superman (1950, Spencer Gordon Bennet), Chapter 6: Atom Man’s Challenge
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 14, 2018
Wait a minute, why does Lex Luthor (Lyle Talbot) still have a secret base? The cops found it last chapter and Talbot and company had cleared out. Does he keep remaking the same evil laboratory in a different cave? Atom Man’s Challenge does not answer this question. Sadly, I don’t think it’ll ever read more