Screening Room
August 24, 2010
“Baster” and The Switch 2
by Anne Shulock
Adapting a short story is a different animal from novel-to-movie adaptations, as both stories and movies are meant to be consumed in one sitting. Jeffrey Eugenides’ “Baster” is a good opportunity for an adaptation; it’s funny, with a high-concept plot, and it’s not impressionistic or experimental.
May 21, 2010
Death in Venice? Don’t Look Now 5
by J.P. Smith
A movie possesses a literalness that a truly good piece of fiction doesn’t, or shouldn’t. Because we can’t, in the first instance, flip back to an earlier scene, and because it’s presumed that we’re seeing this movie for the first time at the cinema, we experience it as one continuous unspooling of narration.
May 13, 2010
V: Lizard Aliens as a Social Reminder 15
by Sarah McCoy
The latest TV hit: a 2010 sci-fi remake of a 1980s sci-fi hit, itself an adaptation of a 1935 novel warning against the growing threat of fascism. We live in a world where history repeats itself; where old ideas cloak themselves in various contemporary skins and pretty packages for each budding generation.
March 22, 2010
Navigating the Turbulence of “Up in the Air” 12
by Sonya Chung
If you ascribe to the notion that, more than anything, great art disturbs, Reitman has indeed crafted something lasting.
March 11, 2010
Tiny and Strange: Reinterpreting Alice 1
by Arielle Bernstein
Perhaps Lewis Carroll’s original story worked because it wasn’t about what it meant to be a woman at all. Instead, it was about a particular girl and her particularly curious adventures into a world of nonsense so unique there still hasn’t been a film version which has really done it justice.
March 8, 2010
The Best Picture Wins Best Picture 24
by James Kaelan
My hope, in the end, is that the incessant hype around Avatar didn’t simply annoy voters until they voted against it, out of nothing more than spite.
