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ReelPolitik
A blog about film and politics, and the politics of filmmaking.
Anthony Kaufman is a film journalist and critic, who has written for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Village Voice and Slate, and contributes regularly to Variety, indieWIRE, the Wall Street Journal Online and the Utne Reader.
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Articles
- "Piracy May Be an Indie Filmmaker's Best Friend" (Indiewire, October 2011
- "The Decline of Indies on Netflix" (indieWIRE, Sept, 2011)
- "Secretariat" Isn't Hollywood's Only Secretly Conservative Blockbuster" (IFC News, October 2010)
- "Absurdistan: The New Iraq War Cinema" (Village Voice, April 2008)
- "Is Foreign Film The New Endangered Species?" (New York Times, January 2006)
ReelPolitik
Reconsidering "Elephant" in the Wake of Newtown
- By Anthony Kaufman
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- December 20, 2012 9:06 AM
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- 1 Comment
In 2003, I ranked Gus Van Sant's "Elephant" the best film of the year. I was entralled by its mesmerizing long-take visuals, its unconventional sound design, and its eerie, unsettling position on an American tragedy. And then after last week's shootings in Newtown, I suddenly found my favorite movie of 2003 to be a little distasteful and perhaps irresponsible. Everything I loved about it nine years ago I now disliked. Everything that impressed me now repelled me. Reaching middle-age may have something to do with it, but my shift on the film opened up an area of discussion--an age-old one, I might add--that I thought was worth revisiting.
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Recent Comments
wow, Thor. I think you are the one that is bitter. I'm so not obsessed by race---it seems
@kaffeeklatsch "How many years ago did those movies get made?" 5 and 7, but what is your
Discussing issues of race, especially when the article in question is the one that brings up the
Hadn't thought about this film from such aspects.
By the way, why is everyone so racist here? White people this, white people that? Anyway, just so
A lot of people don't seem to get Baumbach at all. He isn't here to make some
No one is preventing white people from telling their stories, they are everywhere if you've
New York = Money. Money is the reason these stories are bland and inherently annoying because
The problem is not that white middle class angst isn't angst, it is that it seems like white
Once again we see how the reviewer helps sell albums for his crush and love he'll never have or