Reading everyone's insightful and detailed posts on the films near or dear to them (or films they've finally found an excuse to watch, such as Stefan's The Warriors), I find myself with the inability to discuss anything similar. Instead I keep returning the film on this year's literature comp. exam: Nicole Holofcener's Lovely & Amazing (2001). (more…)

Film critic Jim Emerson will be at the University of Colorado in Boulder all next week (April 4-9) at the annual Conference on World Affairs (CWA). (more…)

Call it a dark fascination, but I've always been compelled by stories of what our world will look like when our contemporary structure degenerates. I'm not so much a pessimist as I am a realist that believes apocalyptic tales can help us to more honestly look at who we are. (more…)

I want to be Anthony Lane, the film critic for The New Yorker. Not just have his life, but be him. Certainly, it would be nice to be a rostered member of The New Yorker literati, and to have one's own Facebook fan club would be something else (although I can't for the life of me understand why the "Anthony Lane Fan Club" has only 98 members.) (more…)

So you want to try your hand at blogging or, if you're currently a "Film Theory & Criticism" student at the University of Colorado Denver, you've been instructed to ("if this is your first time at Fight Club, you have to fight")! Fret not. (more…)

I'm often asked if my training as a film scholar has taken all the fun out of watching movies. "Can you just watch a movie for entertainment, or are you always analyzing it?" people ask. I used to say that there were some films I could watch uncritically, simply enjoying the two hours of escapism. Now I know that isn't true. (more…)

Film criticism is a community. Since the beginning of the film era people have been watching, and talking about, and writing about movies. (more…)