Screen Rush is the blog of film critic and journalist Eric Kohn, whose work regularly appears in indieWIRE, New York Press, Filmmaker, Moviemaker, Heeb Magazine and a half dozen other outlets. A true twenty-first century movie buff, his writing centers around the impact of new media on the moving image, the changing face of film criticism, and the tempestuous relationship between pop culture and independent artistry. This site includes links to his recently published work and allows for additional thoughts on cinema's modern state. E-mail Eric at erichkohn(at)gmail(dot)com.
I’ve always enjoyed the Coen brothers in one fashion or another, even when their movies are uneven or hopelessly muddled, simply because of the sheer individualistic zest that they bring to each project. A Serious Man, however, needs no disclaimers. This movie is a darkly comic blast that takes spirited jabs at religion while smartly avoiding polemics, and generates real emotional weight and pathos for its put-upon lead that suggest a greater depth than anything in the Coens’ output since Fargo (although you could make the case for No Country, but it’s certainly a lot more monotonous). Of course, the restrictive Jewish community setting at the heart of Serious hit close to home for me, so I can only view it through the lens of my upbringing. But I see no reason to set aside subjectivity here. My review ran a few weeks back.
Much of the movie’s power comes from Michael Stuhlbarg’s performance as Larry Gopnik, a guy apparently incapable of having one good day in his life. I profiled Stuhlbarg, a veteran Broadway actor getting his big movie break with this role, in the current issue of New York magazine.
Although the movie takes place in 1967, I can’t help thinking of Larry Gopnik as a resolutely modern character. He’s a harmless shlub, neurotic but ultimately likable, and tries his darnedest to do the right thing. (If only he knew what that was.) These days, with Americans fretting over the economy and learning from Michael Moore’s new documentary that they did this to themselves, it seems as though, in one form or another, we are all Larry Gopnik. Just last week, as I put the finishing touches on my Stuhlbarg profile, I learned of two casualties of the economy that gave me pause. CineVegas’s Mike Plante has done a tremendous job with the festival during the last two years that I’ve attended, and I was dismayed to learn that the festival’s “hiatus” in 2010 means that Plante needs some other things to do with his time now. The guy has great taste for adventurous indie cinema and deserves the right outlet for championing it. Speaking of specialties, my mother has been an off-and-on classical music radio DJ for decades, and lost her position as an announcer at Seattle’s KING FM last week. Neither of these people did anything to deserve their current situations, but like Larry Gopnik, they simply have to deal with their troubles and keep on moving. And I have no doubt that they will.
I had the opportunity to speak with Tim Burton a few weeks back while he was in town doing double duty as a producer on Shane Acker’s 9 and prepping an upcoming exhibit of his work at MoMA. A few days earlier, the trailer for his developing Alice in Wonderland adaptation leaked online a day early, prompting a flurry of reactions across the blogosphere. I found Burton’s animosity (not only toward the leak but toward the trailer itself) to be very telling: “I come from the olden days where you like to see a movie and be surprised,” he told me. “Then you want to know something about it—as opposed to getting everything front-loaded.” Of course, some contemporary marketing campaigns have successfully shielded audiences from their content as means of drawing them in — think Cloverfield — but that requires a complex form of transmedia storytelling that simply doesn’t jive with Burton’s conventional methods. Which doesn’t stop me loving his work.
I originally became interested in film criticism when I moved beyond a simplistic interest in Hollywood spectacles and developed a fascination with the way movies tapped into human psychology and sociological forces. I was smitten with romantic comedies of the thirties and forties because they elevated the plight of the everyman to a level of creative scrutiny that revealed something honest and insightful about the American mindset. Although he doesn’t make romantic comedies, Mike Judge does continue that tradition with his generally understated and always astute observations of lonely protagonists faced with seemingly mundane tribulations. I’ve been a Judge fan for quite some time, and his latest movie, Extract, didn’t let me down. With Judge, you have to expect minor stories and uneventful plots sustained by likable characters and amusing situations. I find this to be a lot more interesting than anything Judd Apatow cooks up (although Freaks and Geeks, along with certain credibly bittersweet moments of The Forty-Year-Old Virgin, could be seen as slightly Judge-ian).
I’ve written a somewhat lengthy analysis of Extract within the context of Judge’s other film and TV works here. Check it out at Greencine Daily if you’ve got the time to spare, and then listen to Beavis and Butthead review the movie in the brilliant viral ad embedded below:
The door to a Gamespot in Brooklyn showcases new competition.
Microsoft and Sony have been competing for a long time over gamer interest in their respective platforms, the XBOX 360 and the Playstation 3, but the battle just went up a notch. Last week, Sony dropped the price of the PS3 by $100, down to $299. Yesterday, XBOX decided to follow suit.
Now, there are two high-priced entertainment consoles available for the same amount. That means we can play the compare-and-contrast game! At this point, the appeal of these systems goes far beyond which games they play (especially since most of the good ones are available on both of them). While both systems offer video on demand content, the PS3 appears to have a leg up by offering Blu-ray compatibility, although many users probably don’t care, since it’s more cost-effective to watch streaming content.
As holiday season approaches (yes, already!), consumers must determine which all-purpose entertainment consul they want in their households. Of course, anyone with $600 to burn can easily avoid this question (or just get a Wii, which is a lot cheaper).
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