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cinetrix
The <a href="mailto:cinetrix@pullquote.org">cinetrix </a>c'est une figurante de cinéma.
Recent Activity
Oh, what a treat to have you pop up, dear Sac! Hope you're well. You can follow my peregrinations on Vine, which better suits my Internet-shortened attention span these days. xx
Happy Independence Day!
I can think of no better distillation of the America the cinetrix loves (courtesty of Rutube.ru, which is PERFECT) than this clip. Don't blow off any digits, y'all, and remember to hydrate.
Oof. That "stone's throw" setting feels like a tell. Someone writing from a driving perspective, essentially. Craigie does offer valet for those patrons timid about finding a spot along the quiet streets that flank NECCO and its other industrial, tech, and residential neighbors (not to mention the church and the Uhaul depot) after hours. But its so-called go-to powers truly come alive during nasty weather, when the New England- and midwestern-bred staff throw open the (non-swinging) doors to locals arriving on foot, cross-country skis, or, in my case during a February blizzard that saw the governor shut down the state, newly purchased snowshoes. And they put up staff at a walking-distance hotel to ensure everyone's safety.
I liked the cameo by Karolyn and Charlie.
Craigie on Main, where are you?
Always good to see love for FOC Tony Maws at Craigie on Main, but better stories with better ledes have been written than this one: A stone’s throw from the Harvard campus, Craigie on Main is a go-to for Cambridge-ites and Bostonians alike. The menu changes daily, depending on the season and w...
Josh: Thank you for taking the time to comment. Even before the Carney controversy, Rappaport's work has not been easy to come by. The very good video store near the Kendall in Cambridge had only Rock Hudson's Home Movies on VHS back then. The university library catalog shows no holdings now. Rest assured, I've managed to fill my time since Seberg seeking out work by artists who demonstrate respect to their fellow makers. As the saying goes, à chacun son goût
I'm Not Rappaport
Craig Hubert's ArtInfo piece on the ongoing shitshow between film scholar Ray Carney and filmmaker Mark Rappaport provides a good précis of the tangle over Rappaport's materials and has me even more keen to read the rumored Boston Globe investigation into the matter. That said, I'm still root...
The tell here? The "waitress (that needs to get laid)" is a person, o elite Yelper, which means you shoulda acknowledged her humanity and said the "waitress (WHO needs to get laid)" to get that cocktail faster.
One Star Yelp Reviews of Michelin Starred Restaurants, Eleven Madison Park Edition
People seem to enjoy these, so, Eleven Madison Park. The Cod has actually eaten here. Good stuff. The big knock on 11Mad is a) cost b) small portions. The closest Cheesecake Factory is in Hackensack, so I can see how this could be a problem. But beyond delivering value-sized portions, keeping on...
Oh, good, so it's not just me then. And here's Orlando Julius with "James Brown Ride On," which was the African appropriation of Soul Brother No. 1 I was thinking of: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8kl3qDJ9y4
Watch and learn
[via] The cinetrix has retreated to her mountain lair, a summer tradition. Only this time, with a twist. Earlier this week, we had fiber Internet connected, and it's been like the rural electrification act part 2, electric boogaloo. You see, the old system delivered Internet via satellite, subje...
Isn't it? I knew her [Marie Howe's] boyfriend Jimmy [not Johnny] around the time this was written -- he and I both haunted this one video store, where he was friends and I was entangled with one particular person, who died way too young. Being back in Boston-Cambridge-Somerville on movie-related business tends to make me melancholy in a way I feel this poem really described better than I ever could.
What the living do
Johnny, the kitchen sink has been clogged for days, some utensil probably fell down there. And the Drano won't work but smells dangerous, and the crusty dishes have piled up waiting for the plumber I still haven't called. This is the everyday we spoke of. It's winter again: the sky's a...
Thanks, Jon. What's your tumblr?
Girls talk
There are any number of good reasons to want to see the film Lila Says: it concerns itself with the ghetto dwellers of Marseille and provides a glimpse into the grim dead-end life that most young Arabic men who live there can expect to lead. It features music by Nitin Sawhney. It is directed b...
I blush. You are too kind.
Juxtapose 5: Schivelbusch esperanto
Ooh, post links!
R.I.P. Vittorio de Seta
The cinetrix let an "Oh!" escape her lips just now upon learning of the death of filmmaker Vittorio de Seta. One of the greatest pleasures of her festival-going life was walking into a screening of his short documentaries at Full Frame. I am still at a loss for words to describe how eleme...
Wait, are spam commenters getting sarcastic now? What an interesting business model!
Nicki Minaj has some bad news about your argument, and its unprecedented lack of relevance
This: Sorry.
Souviens? How quickly you forget it is MARTIN Picard, not his mime brother.
Poutine? Je Me Souviens!
I saw where there was a thing, via Eater, that Burger King would start offering poutine. Well, sorta, to judge from the picture. It's fries, gravy, and cheese curd -- bacon is really superflouous, and unless your name is Marcel Picard, don't fuck with a classic of late night drunk food. And th...
@Sac, no misunderstanding. Plus, I love The Black Stallion. Tragically, though, I am now in the land of satellite-provided stingy Interweb access, where if we exceed 425 Mbytes in 24 hrs, they shut us off for 24 hrs. Hippies.
That said, can I commend the animated series ARCHER to you, the first season of which is currently streaming on Netflix?
Countdown
Friends, I exhort you. What are your top 10 movies currently available to stream on Netflix [before I retreat to the mountains/satellites wot can't stream]? Am currently trying to reconcile Eleanor Bron as Miss Minchin, if that's any help.
Doooooo eeeet! I love to hate the Brahmin-y mama in Voyager and it'd make me watch Geo. A.
Sound off
Boston Movie Trailer Next year's SCMS conference is in Boston. I, for one, am looking forward to panels on all the Bawhstan flicks and parodies. The Guardian considers Can: the ultimate film soundtrack band. The good news is that the best of those "lost" movies featuring music from Ca...
I know, right?
Town(ies)
Shortly before Christmas the 'Fesser and I ordered up The Town on pay-per-view. But I remember very little of it now save Affleck's admirable sense of place. From the opening heist set in Harvard Square to the chase sequence through the snaking, narrow streets of the North End to the ev...
@Anne: Yoinks! Hadn't heard that, although I did post a link to some guy's exploration of why Abe Froman doesn't show up for his lunch res a while back. Now I will think of little else.
Un experto en diversiones
In my open tabs this week, most, but not all, roads led to the imposter sausage king of Chicago. Caleb Crain foretells Ferris's future on the Paris Review blog: "There is further misdirection in the invitation to see Ferris’s evasiveness as an achievement. Ferris has mastered a technology new...
Dude, don't I know it! I have a photocopy of the opening spread of "Movies vs. Films" on my office door at work. That's probably why I found Queenan so amusing.
Attractions
Hal Hartley revisits his feature debut, The Unbelievable Truth, now available in a [gulp] twentieth anniversary edition. Oh, and keep your eyes peeled for Kelly Reichardt. Yeah, that Kelly Reichardt. Joe Queenan is actually on-the-nose funny for the first time in, well, it's been a while since...
Ah, I remember that piece now. After starting off with the sort of snide condescension that made me want to kick him in the nuts, McGrath pulls it out. But I still don't get the whole "Can you imagine people notice a movie star? Poor, simple rubes" thing, as though NYT readers would never be so gauche. Whatever, dude. [Then again, my brother lives on Dot Ave now.]
Those 9 a.m. starts for NYFF press screenings sound deadly, and today's bill looked esp. grim. Here's a palate cleanser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDov3gE1nOY
THIS is why film critics still matter
Forget your Paul Brunicks [who he?] opining in Film Comment. Ty Burr's review of The Town puts paid to any discussion of whether local film critics still matter, and why the Globe, hobbled as it is thanks to owner NYT's debt to Carlos Slim, should be lauded for keeping TWO full-time film...
Vadim: Far from obligatory and good to hear from you. I don't doubt Paul's chops, far from it, but it does seem like things have gotten so dire that the only way a smart guy can get clips is by taking on this sludgy not-quite-non-subject rather than actually writing about, you know, movies. It's a no-win, basically. But he is fortunate to have you as a friend and champion.
Burr and Morris are holding it down, and worthy of much respect and attention. Heck, Wesley throws down with Dassin in the video clip, and it doesn't get cut! Seriously, I've met and liked Mekado M., but you think A.O. doesn't get curbed when he flings around the highbrow esoteric references like that?
As for Affleck's latest flick, which I haven't yet seen, if it makes you go to Boston, OK, then. There's much to commend it, provincialism be damned. But it is like, um, me deciding my opinion of Austin based on Slacker, maybe? Or Spy Kids? Not sure what exactly the analogous movie would be, only that it is the one that makes your hackles rise when outsiders name-check it as the source for why they GET where it is you grew up.
Still, would welcome a link to the NYT piece you cite, as that is an aspect of Gone that I really gave Mister I was on a PBS show as a kid growing up in Cambridge serious props for. I know exactly the despairing dudes you refer to. Also, in that hood, 2 is, if anything, late for that sort of dedicated drinking. Just sayin'.
Damn, would love to continue this at Grassroots or wherever, but I can't swing NYFF this year. Still, I definitely owe you a cheap pint and a conversation when I'm next in New York.
THIS is why film critics still matter
Forget your Paul Brunicks [who he?] opining in Film Comment. Ty Burr's review of The Town puts paid to any discussion of whether local film critics still matter, and why the Globe, hobbled as it is thanks to owner NYT's debt to Carlos Slim, should be lauded for keeping TWO full-time film...
Vadim: He can be a sweet man, and in fact sought me out to say goodbye when he needed to leave the PH screening early for a dinner engagement. And what a polymath!
But [and I will omit the exclamation point], his embrace of drama for what seems like drama's sake, his tendency to publish correspondence without permission, and his encouragement of acolyte-type behavior in his students all leave me feeling a little squicky. My impatience may stem from occasions when colleagues' issues or irresponsible behaviors have intruded on students' ability to focus on their own lives/work.
So I don't know about Carney having a gender blind spot, per se. In the two years he and Ted Barron programmed the American Independents series at HFA, they did show work by Kelly Reichardt, Miranda July, and So Young Kim. I'm just never gonna take it well when I feel I'm being asked to speak on behalf of my entire gender.
IFFBoston 2010: Putty Hill
PUTTY HILL TRAILER (FINAL UP-REZ) from Matt Porterfield on Vimeo. Putty Hill is what rose from the ashes when the funding for Matthew Porterfield's second feature, Metal Gods, fell through. It's an ungainly phoenix, if not a cinematic chimera outright, a sooty verité-fiction hybrid that follo...
Cahng: I'm the only one allowed to swear on my fucking blog. Whether you're telling the truth or lying [and God help you if you are], ake it up with a therapist, not the Internets.
FFDFF: Shorts, but sweet
Short subject documentaries are more than just the lagniappes at Full Frame. The cinetrix was fortunate to catch a handful of the riches on offer this year, which ranged from light-hearted to harrowing. Here's what I saw. The Goody Goody is an omelet house in Wilmington, NC. Over 12 minutes, thi...
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Mar 15, 2010
Nothing mysterious, Hugh. Merely stands for "friend of cinetrix." I lured Dana into an end-of-year film conversation [a la Slate's movie club] way back in January 2005, well before the sages at Slate saw fit to elevate her to film critic. One of my rare moments of prescience.
As for Insdorff, I just wanna hear from her grad students. Is she always like that?
Focus pullers
Trust me. You don't want any part of me teaching Casablanca for the umpteenth time -- an experience akin to flight attendants hearing themselves announce [with gestures] the location of the exits, keeping in mind that the closest ones may be behind you -- so we'll leave that aside for now. Fo...
Wow. Thanks for that link. What an amazing story.
This one hurts
Off to see whether my VCR can take the strain of unfurling Pretty in Pink one more time. R.I.P. John Hughes. By all rights, New Trier High School should fly its flags at half-mast. RELATED: Well, Hello Molly!
Agreed. Bale lost me circa Laurie and Patrick Bateman.
Mann acts
After hop-scotching around the eastern seaboard all summer, the 'Fesser and I found ourselves in the rare position last week of both being home at the same time. To celebrate, we went to a movie. Public Enemies, to be precise. Because it was playing in a multiplex, the two-hour-plus existential ...
David- I tried to do it justice as a non-techno person. You and Amy should be so proud of this film.
Can't stop the music part 3
IFFB: Speaking in Code Attending a festival in the same town your family calls home can be a bit tricky. Festivals, understandably, program films at times when the largest audiences possible might attend--weekday nights and all day long on weekends. But that means that your free time falls when...
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