Author: Daniel Smith-Rowsey
How Two Three-Hour Tough-Guy-Hangout Nostalgia Trips Canceled Each Other Out
There was a time, not long ago, when Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (OUATIH) and The Irishman were favored to showdown for the prize of Best…
Tarantino Culture: Say ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ Again. I Dare You.
The critics missed their Pan Am flights when it came to Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. For example, none of them compared…
Oscar Season: Sinking to the Occasion
Let’s face it, we’ve all seen better Oscar years. But have we seen worse ones? No, according to many despairing voices online, and the smarter…
The Stylistic Fit of Robert Altman
If one were to consider the case, it is almost interesting to consider where Robert Altman fits in the pantheon on the American cinema canon,…
True Crime is for People Who Care About Clint Eastwood, Oakland, or the Death Penalty – No One Else
By Andy Kamenetzky and Daniel Smith-Rowsey In True Crime, Clint Eastwood plays Steve Everett, a recently recovering alcoholic, a cuckolder and womanizer, and a nearly…
David Lynch Tells a Beautiful "Straight Story" Before, and Beyond, the Red State – Blue State Divide
by Andy Kamenetzky and Daniel Smith-Rowsey In The Straight Story, septuagenarian Alvin Straight drives a lawn mower 240 miles through the heartland to reconcile with…
For Your Consideration: The Florida Project, Best Picture
“The Florida Project” was Walt Disney’s 1960s-era code term for a planned East Coast amusement park, an euphemism justified by Disney’s fear that Orlando property…
Steven Spielberg's 'Private' Saving Private Ryan
Saving Private Ryan has been a game-changer since the day it came out. It changed the way battles were filmed; the D-Day sequence was studied…
Spielberg's Ark: The Masterful Schindler's List
In Language and Silence (1967), Cambridge University’s George Steiner famously suggested that, because the Holocaust “lies outside speech as it lies outside reason,” the proper…
Watch: Margaret Tait’s 4 Minutes Of A Portrait of Ga
This four-minute portrait of the filmmaker’s mother combines the texture of 1970s-color-saturated found footage with an oddly avant-garde structure. The editing rhythms are distinctly recognizable…
Watch: Saranne Bensusan’s 12 Minute Short Film Mano a Mono
Roughly twenty years is probably enough time for most audience members, if not this particular critic, to forget one of the most famous twists in…
Can 2017’s Blockbusters Get Oscar-Nominated?
By Daniel Smith-Rowsey Ah, blockbusters. For us discriminating film fans, they’re a bit like that fashionable cousin at the family reunion that just won’t shut…
Daniel Smith-Rowsey's Film Brief 2016
Did the studios fiddle while Rome burned in 2016? In other words, should Hollywood have done more to stop Trump and the Republican Party taking…
Christmas Movies: Die Hard
By Daniel Smith-Rowsey Last Christmas, I gave you my heart, but the very next day, Public Policy Polling released a crucial, world-changing poll that indicated…
