Seriously?

Posted by davidkalat on December 3, 2011

It’s been a little over a year since I debuted here, and in that time I’ve stirred up a handful of firestorms–but weirdly, not the ones I expected. I posted a clip of Buster Keaton as a sympathetic Nazi general, and nobody chirped a word of protest. I ran a whole blog about blackface comedians, and the comments thread it initiated was reasoned, intelligent and low-key. I facetioustly pretended that The Thing was a Christmas movie, defended Popeye, and praised Charlie Chaplin imitators.

But the one time I provoked serious anger and acrimony was the time I suggested that William Haines–William Haines!–wasn’t all that funny (I got called “hateful” for that one!)

When I wrote last week’s post about the Muppets, I figured I was running a risk. Critics say nice things about heavily hyped contemporary movies at their own peril. But my positive thoughts on the new Muppets wasn’t what kicked up dust–heavens, no. The vitriol came out in my offhanded reference to Orson Welles having appeared in the 1979 Muppet Movie! Somehow, this prompted the comments thread to start to tear into F for Fake. (how?)

To be fair, it was just one lone voice, wailing into the ether about how much he hated the Muppets, and F for Fake. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a put-on, somebody simply trying to bait me. But I’m not above being baited. I won’t stand by and let anybody talk smack about F for Fake, one of my 10 favorite movies of all time. Consider the battle joined.

17 Comments |

submit

Sundance 2011: 20 paragraphs for 20 films

Posted by keelsetter on January 30, 2011

Last week I saw 20 films in five days at Sundance. With just over 200 films listed in the index, that means I barely covered 10% of the slate. Documentaries are a Sundance forté, so it’s not surprising that almost half of the films I screened fall into this category. Similarly, as most docs these days never get transferred to film that accounts for why about half of all my screenings were digital projections. Happily, despite many rumblings by industry pundits regarding the eminent death of 35mm film, most of the narrative features were still on celluloid. Huzzah! READ MORE

2 Comments |

submit

Mock Up On Mu

Posted by keelsetter on July 19, 2009

Mock Up On Mu

When I arrived in San Francisco one of the first things I did was look through all the film programs for the area. There were many great titles to choose from, but the one that caught my eye was only playing for two days at the Red Vic on Haight Street. The program notes promised “a feature-length ‘collage-narrative’ based on (mostly) true stories of California’s post-War sub-cultures of rocket pioneers, alternative religions, and Beat lifestyles. Pulp-serial snippets, industrial-film imagery, and B- (and Z-) fiction clips are intercut with newly shot live-action material, powering a playful, allegorical trajectory through the now-mythic occult matrix of Jack Parsons (Crowleyite founder of the Jet Propulsion Lab), L.Ron Hubbard (sci-fi author turned cult-leader), and Marjorie Cameron (bohemian artist and ‘mother of the New Age movement’). Their intertwined tales spin out into a speculative farce on the militarization of space, and the corporate take-over of spiritual fulfillment and leisure-time.” READ MORE

7 Comments |

submit

Call Northside 777: The Real Chicago

Posted by Susan Doll on September 29, 2008

On a lonely Saturday night late last June, I walked to a tiny theater in my neighborhood to see Call Northside 777. Located behind a bank, this unusual movie venue is one of Chicago’s unsung gems. The Bank of America Theater is devoted to projecting classic Hollywood movies on the big screen – as they were intended to be shown and seen. Though the theater has its loyal patrons, it does very little promotion or advertizing. Despite this, the theater was packed with excited Chicago residents eager to see a movie about their hometown shot in their hometown. They were not disappointed.

15 Comments |

submit

^ back to top

MovieMorlocks.com is the official blog for TCM. No topic is too obscure or niche to be excluded from our film discussions. And we welcome your comments on our blogs and bloggers.