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My Favorite Woody Allen Film

Ever since I began studying films I have been a Woody Allen fan. He has made some of the best films of his generation and continues to produce quality work every year. Over the past forty years he has made about forty films of varying quality, made on low budgets, have every A list star imaginable, which Allen personally writes, directs, and usually stars in. I have seen over half of them, and at this point have given up on comparing them to other director’s films; instead, I allow them to sit in a vacuum. They are “Woody Allen films”. Sure, films such as Annie Hall and Love and Death are great whether you have seen only one or all of his films, but a lot of his films are a lot better in the context of his larger career. One film stands out in particular to me in the list, and I would go as far as to say it is my favorite Woody Allen film, despite the fact that many would probably disagree. Everyone Says I Love You, to me, is his best movie. It is Allen’s only musical, although I since...
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New York state of Mind

As a resident of New Jersey, New York City has always been within easy distance of me. There was a time two years ago when I would visit the city weekly. Now that I live in Old York, three thousand miles away, I realize how lucky I was to be so close to such an amazing city. As of now my only connection to the city is through the films I watch, and it is amazing what different directors make out of the city. I’m not talking about Marvel Superhero films that blow up the city in every film or hacks like Oliver Stone who film it in an outright pedestrian manner; instead, I’d like to highlight three directors and the diverse ways they shoot the city. As expressed in my last full-length entry, I am a huge fan of Woody Allen. And seriously, when discussing the way directors use New York City in film there’s no better place to start than him. He has continuously lived in New York City his entire life, and with the exception of Love and Death and Sleeper all of his finest films are New York f...
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After Hours

During the entire decade of the 1980’s Martin Scorsese chased after the success of his earlier years. He released Raging Bull in 1980, generally agreed upon to be one of the best films ever made, but failed to achieve another success on the same level until Goodfellas in 1990. The King of Comedy bombed hard at the box office, After Hours also failed to live up to commercial expectations, The Color of Money saw him jump into mainstream film making, and The Last Temptation of Christ barely succeeded in making back its budget, but very successfully pissed a lot of people off. It’s arguable that the most successful thing Scorsese created during the 80’s was the Michael Jackson Bad music video, although I won’t be the one making that argument. What I find most influential of this decade of work is the film After Hours. Starring Griffin Dune, the film marks the first time in over ten years a Scorsese film was not headlined by Robert De Niro. Dune, for his part, plays the part in way similar...
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The First Black Movie Star

               Perhaps the title here is a bit controversial. Hattie McDaniel was the first black person to win an Oscar, for her turn as the caricatured “Mammy” in Gone with the Wind (1939), and Stepin Fetchit rode the “Laziest Man in the World” character to stardom in the early days of Hollywood. Still, the case for this sobriquet I believe is strongest made for the actor and singer Paul Robeson.           Robeson was always more of a personality than an actor. Whether he was playing Othello, an Africa warlord, or a day labourer, he was always recognizably himself - he never lost himself in characters in the way that we consider “acting”. With his 6’3 height and athletic build, he was always instantly recognisable - to say nothing of his distinctive voice, a rich bass baritone that has often been imitated, but never equaled by subsequent performers. Despite not being a classically trained actor, it was throug...
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Skate Movies

      I was never a skater - I was much too uncoordinated. My few misadventures on a skateboard were enough to convince me that it wasn’t for me. Some of my friends were pretty good at it, but I was happy enough to watch. I did, however, spend countless hours on the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater video games. I still have a weird sense of pride for how good I was at them - I might not have been a stellar student, but I could rack up millions of points through calculated button mashing. These games introduced me not only to skateboarding, but also to bands such as the Dead Kennedys, Bad Religion, Suicidal Tendencies, Rage Against the Machine, and many other bands that became staples in my high school CD collection. So, despite never landing a kickflip, I get nostalgic when I see people skateboarding. That nostalgia has led me to check out a few movies that are about skateboarding. I say they are “about skateboarding”, but what I have found is that they are...
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Grey Gardens

This past weekend I went to Long Island for the first time. Being from New Jersey, this felt a little strange - not only had I never been there, I admit I have never really thought much about my 118 mile neighbour. When asked if there was anything in particular I wanted to see, I only had one point of reference, an old mansion in East Hampton, so that’s how I found myself ogling Grey Gardens last Saturday. Grey Gardens occupies a place in the imagination of everyone who knows its story. During the Great Depression, it was known for its extravagant parties - not quite on the level the neighbouring fictional Gatsby Mansion was supposed to have, but not far off. It was owned by Phelan and Edith Beale (Big Edie, from now on); she, a singer and an aunt to future First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and Princess Lee Radziwell; he, a lawyer at her family’s firm. It was the idyllic life of the American upper crust - lots of money, a house in the Hamptons, and a brood of...
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Made In Dagenham, On the Basis of Sex

PHOTOGRAPH: PAT GREENHOUSE/THE BOSTON GLOBE/GETTY IMAGES          Last Friday was International Workers Day, popularly known as May Day, and as such a number of workers in the United States staged a walkout to protest working conditions during the time of COVID 19. Workers from Amazon, Walmart, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Instacart, and many other companies picketed poor health and safety conditions, as well as low wages. Labour activity of this scale is rare in the United States; working class solidarity is not what it is in Europe, and the government has conspired with corporations to make unions difficult to form and unpopular among many workers. The corporate owned media did little to cover these demonstrations, choosing instead to show heavily armed reactionaries calling for states to end the lockdown, a move that will needlessly lead to thousands of more people dying. It was in this context that I watched Made in Dagenham (2011). ...
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