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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.
[Email Me]
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
The Politics of "The Avengers"; Or, Can Clean Energy and Old-Fashioned Jingoism Mix?
- By Anthony Kaufman
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- May 7, 2012 10:10 AM
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- 2 Comments
I couldn't help myself. Not because I'm a fan of comic books, blockbusters or Josh Whedon, but because I'm always curious about a cultural phenonemon, and often feel the need to interrogate what is at play in our most popular movies, and especially since this may be the most popular one of all time. "The Avengers" embodies what I've always felt about Hollywood juggernauts: they're a hodgepodge of political views and ideological undercurrents, colliding with each other to create a mainstream entertainment that, if you look close enough, manages to uphold old-fashioned reactionary American values. Here, it's such myths as militaristic might, individual sacrifice and the renegade American hero--allthough, it also seems to throw a bone to contemporary liberal views on energy policy at the same time.
Chastity and Motherhood: How Conservative is "Twilight: Breaking Dawn"?
- By Anthony Kaufman
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- November 21, 2011 10:11 AM
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- 2 Comments
Is there any better example of the need for Planned Parenthood than "Twilight: Breaking Dawn"? That's a joke, of course. For those looking for examples of the conservative and reactionary nature of Hollywood, there's no stronger proof than Stephanie Meyer's no-sex-before-marriage "Twilight" franchise.
Are Big Marketing Pushes A Good Model for Arthouse film?
- By Anthony Kaufman
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- November 14, 2011 2:00 PM
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- 1 Comment
Are aggressive film distributors like Relativity, FilmDistrict, Fox Searchlight and others doing a disservice to independent films, making them seem bigger than they are in promotional materials, or are they indie filmmakers' most valuable supporters, helping small films compete in an increasingly competitive marketplace?
Clint Eastwood and The Politics of “J. Edgar”
- By Anthony Kaufman
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- November 7, 2011 11:50 AM
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- 4 Comments
The big news over the weekend in awards circles was the unveiling of Clint Eastwood’s latest Academy contender “J. Edgar.” Unlike many of my peers, I greet the arrival of a new Eastwood pic like the latest Tea Party rally—an event with a lot of emotion and conservative politics, but not a lot of substance. Eastwood’s films are certainly better than Paul Haggis’s—who, of course, wrote Eastwood’s “Million Dollar Baby”—but they share the same penchant for melodrama, broad strokes and a political shorthand and reactionary quality that seems to think itself moral and upstanding by having token Others and spouting lessons, usually involving the comeuppance of angry white people, who turn out to be not that bad, after all.
Are A-List Stars Saving—Or Waylaying—Indie Film?
- By Anthony Kaufman
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- November 4, 2011 1:20 PM
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- 0 Comments
Will "Tower Heist" Help Topple Capitalism? Or Is it Too Dumb?
- By anthony
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- November 2, 2011 5:20 AM
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- 0 Comments
In the last few weeks, the media has made mountains out of the economically topical movies to hit movie theaters, from "Margin Call" (obviously set during Wall Street's collapse) to "In Time" (Andrew Niccol's more sci-fi vision of haves and have-nots, battling it out for more time to survive). With their critical examinations of the corruption of wealth and power, some are arguing that there's never been a more socialist agenda at work in the movies.
Buenos Aires Film Industry Delivers Fuck You to Hollywood
- By Anthony Kaufman
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- September 2, 2011 4:47 AM
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- 1 Comment
Arggh! Consumers and Czech Pirates Attack Media Industries
- By Anthony Kaufman
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- August 17, 2011 1:42 AM
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- 0 Comments
Is John Sayles' America's Most Humanist-Political Filmmaker? "Amigo" Takes on U.S. Occupation
- By Anthony Kaufman
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- August 16, 2011 6:20 AM
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- 0 Comments
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Recent Comments
It's funny but this was exactly what was bothering me about The Avengers; that it seemed to be
Notice though, that Captain America is the first to not take Nick Fury's clean unlimited energy
I don't know if John Krasinski has reached the level of fame at which he requires no first name
I think people are judging the film too harshly. Yes, Compliance stretches plausibility to the
My husband and I walked out at the one hour mark. We could no longer stand to participate in or
Like AlexJB, I and my three friends walked out of this film after an hour. We could no longer be
Having just sat through 1 hour of COMPLIANCE at the SF International FilmFest, I have to agree with
The problem with tv in general is it sucks. Reality shows about people you don't care about,
Where IS this show? Most channels re-run the h*ll out of everything. I dvr'd this show when
I could see that the fill was putting the Chinese point of view. They are hardly going to praise up