Category: Year in Film
Finding Neo: How Your Children Can Understand The Matrix
Writing a piece on The Matrix for our Rewind: 1999 in Film series was trickier than I first imagined. And not because I had nothing…
The Insider – Blowin’ Smoke at Big Tobacco
Millions more people have died of ailments caused by cigarette smoke than by all terrorist attacks in every country since time began, so when Michael Mann opens his film about tobacco industry whistleblower Jeffery Wigand (Russell Crowe) with CBS producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino) preparing a 60 Minutes interview with Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, cleric and cheerleader for suicide bombers, Mann had me at “hello.”
An Essenial Soundtrack for the Cinema of 1999
As part of the “Rewind: 1999 in Film” series at Filmotomy I pulled together a 10 minute video of some of the finest film scores…
Heath Ledger: The Double Breakthrough Actor of 1999
Some time before the turbulent, passionate romance story Dan shared with Candy, filmed in his native Australia, Heath Ledger had already made the big time…
Bummer of "Sam": Spike Lee Does Too Much and Not Enough
In Summer of Sam, Two sets of young Italian-American couples, Vinny (John Leguizamo) and Dionna (Mira Sorvino), and Richie (Adrien Brody) and Ruby (Jennifer Esposito)…
Flick v. Metzler 1999: Election Review
A presidential race between a popular yet unqualified male against a more driven and overqualified female? Hmmm..sounds a lot like the 2016 Presidential race. However,…
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…
The Woman of your Nightmares: Is Audition about Misogyny or is about Misandry?
“A truly shocking horror film about obsession gone evil, “Audition” is made even more disturbing by its haunting beauty.” Ken Eisner, Variety Miike Takashi is a…
The Sensitive, Innocent, Mysterious, Troubled, Lonely and…. Talented Mr. Ripley
The entire seduction takes us in and ultimately makes us, the audience, accessories to the crimes of a likeable, lonely and extremely troubled young man. And we guiltily enjoy every minute of it.
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…
Questioning Reality: Revisiting The Thirteenth Floor
Ignorance is bliss. For the first time in my life, I agree. Hannon Fuller (Armin Mueller-Stahl) 1999 saw the science fiction genre be redefined by…
Filmotomy Podcast Episode 22: The Film Year 1999 – A Kubrick Odyssey
In this podcast we delve into our new series ‘Rewind‘, and the year is 1999. Al returns to host, and is joined by Rob, Jonathan,…
“Tell Him I’m Coming.” Revisiting the Explosive Revenge Neo-Noir The Limey
“Bide your time. That’s what prison teaches you, if nothing else. Bide your time, and everything becomes clear, and you can act accordingly.” When Steven…
Magnolia: A Children's Story by Paul Thomas Anderson
“But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your country with frogs.” – Exodus 8:2 In the third movie of…
