Every month, Establishing Shot brings you a selection of films from our group of regular bloggers. Even though these films aren’t currently being screened at the IU Cinema, this series reflects the varied programming that can be found at the Cinema and demonstrates the eclectic tastes of the bloggers. Each contributor has picked one film that they… Read more »
Every month, Establishing Shot brings you a selection of films from our group of regular bloggers. Even though these films aren’t currently being screened at the IU Cinema, this series reflects the varied programming that can be found at the Cinema and demonstrates the eclectic tastes of the bloggers. Each contributor has picked one film that they… Read more »
The eyes of a killer: Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver Chris Forrester contemplates a handful of works by Paul Schrader, which reveal a heavy debt to filmmaker Robert Bresson as they excavate the isolation, morality, and violence of their male protagonists. If you’re more than passingly acquainted with the films of Paul Schrader, this… Read more »
Frances McDormand in Fargo Ben van Welzen parses how the Coen Brothers reimagined such genres as the Western and film noir to create their own unique cinematic touchstones. A snowy Midwestern crime thriller, a comedic bowling neo-noir, a bluegrass musical Odyssey, a greyish New York character piece, an Old Hollywood caper — these are all… Read more »
Poster for Out of Sight (1998) Alex Brannan, one of our newest regular contributors, considers how Steven Soderbergh uses genre elements to create the eroticism of Out of Sight and this year’s Black Bag. Steven Soderbergh is a director whose long career has involved a fascinating migration across genre boundaries. From a certain angle, his… Read more »
Joaquin Phoenix in Inherent Vice Ben van Welzen delves into the formal complexity and intentional haziness of Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s sprawling novel. “We tell ourselves stories to live,” Joan Didion writes in her sprawling essay recounting the tumultuous times of the 1960s, “The White Album.” According to Didion, we collectively impose… Read more »