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No One Is Supposed to Be Anywhere at Anytime: The Irreverence and Freedoms of Clerks

Posted on by Nathaniel Sexton

Still from Clerks

“MIDWAY upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.”
— Dante Alighieri, Inferno, I. 1-3

“The worker therefore only feels himself outside his work, and in his work feels outside himself. He is at home when he is not working, and when he is working he is not at home.”
—  Karl Marx, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844

“All they’re doing is cursing; that’s not dialogue!”
— Kevin Smith, talking about Clerks

Before working at the Quick Stop and RST Video, the real-life New Jersey convenience store and video rental store featured in Clerks, Kevin Smith had a dozen different minimum wage jobs, ranging from pizza maker to gravedigger. For Smith, the convenience store, as much as it was a purgatory, served as a respite from the other drudgery. (more…)

Score Keeping: Rocky and the Sounds of the People’s Champ

Posted on by Aja Essex

Rocky poster

 

Welcome to Score Keeping, a feature where I l dive into overlooked and highly praised songs, scores and soundtracks that accompany great films.

Please press play.

Let’s go back. The year is 1975 and relatively unknown actor Sylvester Stallone has just finished writing the first draft of Rocky in three days. He was inspired by the lives of Joe Frazier and Rocky Marciano. However, the real impetus came from viewing a heavyweight title fight between Muhammad “the World’s Greatest” Ali and Chuck Wepner, a Jersey-strong low-level prizefighter and liquor salesman who against all odds went 15 rounds with the champ. It’s a great story, one that Stallone realized that the people could connect to on a visceral level. He spiced it up. The lead character’s not just a low-level fighter, he’s a bum (or a ham and egger as Rocky himself says), fighting easy but sloppy matches for scraps. The fight is no longer just a heavyweight title bout but a publicity stunt on the 4th of July in Philadelphia under the guise of giving a hometown boy a shot in the land of opportunity. (more…)

Angels in America: Why It Endures

Posted on by Jesse Pasternack

Andrew Garfield in Angels in America (2017)
Andrew Garfield as Prior Walter in Angels in America (2017)

There is going to be a National Theatre Live broadcast of both parts of Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes on August 5th and 12th at the IU Cinema. A recent rumor suggested that the current production in London might come to the Walter Kerr Theater in New York City for Broadway’s next season. This makes it a perfect time to reflect on this play and why it is still as much a masterpiece now as it was in 1993.

Angels in America is an epic play set primarily in 1985 New York City. There are many characters, but the linchpin is Prior Walter. Walter has AIDS and starts to receive visions from the “Angel of America,” who informs him that he is a prophet. Walter deals with this life-changing event and his illness as the new millennium approaches.    (more…)

A Few More George Cukor Classics

Posted on by Katherine Johnson

George Cukor, known as the “woman’s director” during Hollywood’s Studio Era, seems to have been a part of a vast number of Hollywood classics. He is, in fact, one of my own favorite directors, a handful of his films sitting in my list of favorites. It’s no wonder then that in my three years co-coordinating films for Indiana University Cinema’s City Lights Film Series I have unintentionally picked two out of the four Cukor films screened at the IU Cinema (the other two were also, one might say tellingly, a part of the City Lights series). (more…)

La Haine and The Cold Comfort of History

Posted on by Jesse Pasternack

“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.”

-James Baldwin

La Haine (1995)
La Haine (1995)

One cliché that happens to be true is that art can make people feel more connected to others. Almost everyone has a story about how they felt lost or alone, but then read a great novel or saw a fantastic movie and it made them feel less isolated. This can work in an interesting manner on a socio-political level. Great movies from different time periods can connect you to other people who dealt with similar issues in other eras. This is particularly true if you take a look at the resonant 1995 French film La Haine. (more…)

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