07 Nov 2007 great moments in film criticism, #2 (movies)

“Then the animals begin to flee, the alien ass weasels arrive, and the film abruptly morphs from Stephen King’s Clerks to a Max Fischer production of Aliens.”

Nathan Rabin on Dreamcatcher (it’s the Rushmore ref that makes this a cut-and-save)

20 Oct 2007 random nuggets of Eric (books, internet, me, movies, music, review, singapore to istanbul)

So, for the past few weeks, I’ve been devoting my hours to work at Worio, a Yaletown start-up I’ve been associated with essentially from its inception (though other people have done much more work than me). I enjoy the work, and it’s a nice break from grad school. Not only is the pay […]

23 Sep 2007 seriously, Rules of the Game? (movies)

Edward Copeland has compiled his internet-surveyed list of the top-voted non-English-language films (you can see how I voted here). Kudos to him for doing it — it was no small feat, and a list like this is useful and interesting to a whole lot of people, including myself.
But the list itself left […]

02 Sep 2007 25 Non-English Language Films (movies)

Edward Copeland has undertaken an ambitious project on his blog: trying to assemble a Top 25 list of non-English language films. Interestingly, he’s running it in two rounds: in the first, an invited group of people submitted their lists, which were whittled down to 123 films. Voting on those 123 films is now […]

30 Aug 2007 10 movies I still want to see this year (movies)

September to January is traditionally when the low-brow summer movies are put aside and the more-interesting flicks start to show up. Of course, it’s also when the middle-brow Oscar-bait starts to appear, but those are usually easy to avoid: just look for trailers with middle-aged UK actors, cellos on the soundtrack, and the words […]

14 Aug 2007 Be Kind Rewind trailer (movies)

Remember a couple weeks back when I said that The Darjeeling Limited and No Country for Old Men are my two most-anticipated upcoming films? Sure, we all do. This is number three, Michel Gondry’s upcoming movie about a video store clerk (Jack Black) who accidentally erases the store’s inventory with his magnetic head […]

31 Jul 2007 on Bergman and Antonioni (movies)

So both Ingmar Bergman and Michaelangelo Antonioni have passed away. As is so often the case, The AV Club expresses my own feelings (and even experiences this time) better than I ever could.
When I was an 18-year-old Film student, I tried to force myself to appreciate the works of Antonioni and Bergman […]

26 Jul 2007 “Mr Shoop’s Surfin’ Summer School Midterm” (me, movies)

I’ve praised Dennis Cozzalio’s Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule before, but probably my favourite part is his semi-regular film geek quizzes. I’ve never managed to actually find the time to fill one out before, though (hey, I have important Battlestar Galactica and The Wire to watch!). But this time, finally, I […]

26 Jul 2007 Trailer for The Darjeeling Limited (movies)

A trailer is available for the upcoming Wes Anderson film, The Darjeeling Limited! This is, alongside the Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men, my most anticipated movie right now.

I do love Wes Anderson. Rushmore and The Royal Tenebaums both made my top 100, but I think Bottle Rocket and The Life Aquatic […]

07 Jul 2007 The Haiku Factory One Hundred (me, movies)

It started innocently enough.
My friend Jan asked me to make a list of a few movies I’d recommend that she might not otherwise see. Unfotunately, the list quickly exploded into the dozens. Now, it’s not exactly news at this point, but the American Film Institute recently put out its updated list of […]

29 Jun 2007 favorite movie review of the week (movies)

I’m already a fan of the NYT film critics A O Scott and Manohla Dargis, but after reading the opening of his review of One to Another, I’m developing a new appreciation for Matt Seitz. It’s funny, pithy and tells you exactly what you’re in for.
The notion that French cinema consists mainly of pretentious […]

25 May 2007 happy 30th birthday, Star Wars (movies)

I defy you to find a better way to commemorate the release of the original Star Wars than by watching the bizarre Turkish Star Wars.

21 May 2007 filmmaker interview roundup (interview, movies)

The NYT has a rare interview with Paul Reubens.

11 May 2007 Rescue Dawn trailer (movies)

If there’s one movie I’m looking forward to more than any other this year, it’s Rescue Dawn, by ubergenius Werner Herzog.It’s a fictionalized version of the true story of Dieter Dengler, one of only three people ever to escape from a Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camp and survive.

18 Mar 2007 Eric-Approved Movies of 2007 (movies)

Noel Murray’s blog post A Great Movie Year in the Making inspired me to update my own list of films I want to see in 2008. Some will surely suck, and probably the best upcoming films aren’t even on this list, but these are the ones I’ll be watching for.

13 Feb 2007 Wizard People, Dear Reader (movies)

Well, Nando and I managed to finish our paper for ICML late Friday night. No, not that ICML, this ICML.
I was mostly just glad to get it over with. I was working 14-hour days and getting progressively sicker — I’ve had the same cold for almost three weeks now, and it’s […]

08 Feb 2007 A Date with John Waters (movies, music)

Just in time for Valentine’s, everybody’s favourite creepy pervert indie filmmaker is looking for a date. With you. Well, that, and he wants to sell you his album.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it now: God bless YouTube. I ordered the CD online before the video was even done.
“Let’s […]

13 Oct 2006 trailer for Grind House (movies)

The upcoming film from Tarantino and Rodriguez. It’s like somebody cracked open my skull and scooped out all my best dreams.(Okay, everybody, you can stop sending me links to it now.

08 Oct 2006 pick tickets, buy tickets, throw tickets away (movies)

Man, do I suck.

07 Oct 2006 You’re darned tootin’! (movies)

The No More Marriages film blog has a survey on the best American fiction film of the last twenty-five years. Go tell them, and then come back and tell me what you picked.My choice, on the left.

22 Sep 2006 a bitter viffer (movies)

The Vancouver International Film Festival program has been announced, though I haven’t had time to pick up the guidebook and the web site is just awful.

20 Sep 2006 aka Cave Chicks (movies, review)

I just saw The Descent. I’ll probably write more about it later, since it’s the kind of almost-overlooked film I love discovering and recommending.

10 Aug 2006 on staying focused and serving multiple masters (me, movies)

The main reason I’m working so hard this month is that I want to earn some extra money to go travelling in Southeast Asia this winter.

07 Aug 2006 The Wicker Man (movies)

I usually try to give Hollywood remakes the doubt — you never know when you’re going to get a Cape Fear or The Fly, especially when it’s a respectable director at the help.

31 Jul 2006 never one to turn down a chance to express an opinion (books, haikufactory, movies, music, review)

My me-time this past weekend wasn’t a total waste for the rest of humanity. I made a lot of changes to the site, and worked on the redesign.