Another Dream Comes True in The Villages!: A Savage Journey into the American Dream in “Some Kind of Heaven”
America Is Doomed / Camp / Film

Another Dream Comes True in The Villages!: A Savage Journey into the American Dream in “Some Kind of Heaven”

Who among us can deny the alluring draw of golf carts circling and darting here and there in formation set to the rhythm of their instructor’s whistle and shouted directions, “Ted! Ted!!”? Certainly not me. Only a couple seconds into Lance Oppenheim’s intoxicating documentary Some Kind of Heaven, which opens with the faint sounds of … Continue reading

I Want My Later Career To Be A Vaudeville Act With A Monkey Like David Lynch’s “What Did Jack Do?”
Film

I Want My Later Career To Be A Vaudeville Act With A Monkey Like David Lynch’s “What Did Jack Do?”

David Lynch has never sold out. I know using the term “sell out” makes me sound like an angry Goth kid furiously smoking behind the school dumpsters yelling “POSEURS” at anyone who walks by in the wrong band T-shirt. Hey, if the shoe fits. But when we live in a time when outsiders desperately want … Continue reading

Weeping At The Seeping Beauty Of Band-Aids At David Lynch’s “Squeaky Flies In The Mud”
Art

Weeping At The Seeping Beauty Of Band-Aids At David Lynch’s “Squeaky Flies In The Mud”

Can Band-Aids be beautiful? Yes, those uncannily flesh-colored, rubbery, sticky and potentially slimy strips that cover any number of sores, scratches, abrasions and ruptures. When singular, Band-Aids are startling, but bunched together, they coagulate into a congealed mass, yellowing with slough, dead skin, sweat, and scabs. Physically repulsive, tactically terrible, sure. But, aren’t they just … Continue reading

Transcendental Style on Television: Nicolas Refn’s Problematic Series Is A Massive Leap Forward for Streaming Aesthetics
TV

Transcendental Style on Television: Nicolas Refn’s Problematic Series Is A Massive Leap Forward for Streaming Aesthetics

In his text Transcendental Style in Film, the critic turned auteur Paul Schrader observed a formal connection between several mid-1900s filmmakers, particularly Yasujirô Ozu, Robert Bresson and Carl Thedor Dreyer. “Transcendental film,” Schrader argues, “seeks to maximize the mystery of existence; it eschews all conventional interpretations of reality: realism, psychologism, romanticism, expressionism, and finally, rationalism.” … Continue reading

It’s Just A Sweet, Sweet Fantasy, Baby: Danny Ferrell’s “Honey”
Art

It’s Just A Sweet, Sweet Fantasy, Baby: Danny Ferrell’s “Honey”

This week, a clip from the production of Twin Peaks: The Return was resurrected and made the rounds on Twitter, featuring auteur David Lynch losing his proverbial shit over the rapid manner in which directors are expected to work in today’s film and TV industry. Lynch being Lynch, he didn’t care about simple budget concerns or time constraints, eventually yelling in his folksy tone while angrily drawing on a cigarette, “We never get to go dreamy or anything!” Continue reading