// Category Archive for: Movies

Five Faves: Female Movie Characters

By Less Lee Moore

Not the Ultimate Top Five perhaps, but the five I return to over and over.
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Top Five Funniest Evil Mad Scientists

By Lisa Anderson

The Evil Mad Scientist is a familiar figure in popular culture, and is found most often in science fiction, horror, or superhero tales. Evil Mad Scientists are not to be confused with their more benevolent counterparts, like Emmett Brown of Back to the Future. While the Evil Mad Scientist can be a figure of great terror, when this archetype is used for comic effect the results can be hilarious. Following are five of the best examples.
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William S. Burroughs, A Man Within: Interview With Filmmaker Yony Leyser

Interviewed by Kaye Telle

“Back in 2005, when I was 21 years old, I got my hands on a nice video camera and decided to make a documentary about William S. Burroughs. When I started making a documentary about William S. Burroughs, I had no idea it would turn into THE documentary about him.”
—Filmmaker Yony Leyser

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The Remakening: Movies That Should Be Remade

Intro by Less Lee Moore

A February article on Horrornews.net proposed a list of 13 movies that need to be remade. While I didn’t agree with all of the films listed, it got me thinking.
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Leading Men Have No Character

By Less Lee Moore

Cillian Murphy

Recently, the media announced that the latest Cillian Murphy film, Peacock, would not be released in theaters but would go straight to DVD. Another recent Murphy film, Watching The Detectives, suffered a similar fate; in addition, Hippie Hippie Shake, starring Murphy and Sienna Miller, was completed almost three years ago and has yet to find distribution. A commenter on ONTD noted that, “[Cillian Murphy] really used to excite me, then too many of his movies went straight to DVD and I lost interest.” Ouch.

An online friend of my own framed the news in a less harsh, but more problematic way, saying that Cillian Murphy looks to be on his way to being a character actor. The contradictory nature of the term “character actor” suddenly seemed frustratingly inappropriate, particularly to an actor of Murphy’s caliber.
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From Page To Screen: Shutter Island

By Maureen

When I saw the trailer for Shutter Island, I was instantly intrigued. My first celebrity crush, Leonardo DiCaprio, delving into my current career field, mental health? Seemed too good to be true.
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Blank Generation On DVD

By Less Lee Moore

Richard Hell got me my first paying job in the music industry. Sort of.
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Venus In Fur: Femininity, Masculinity, And The Wolfman

By Hanna

When The Wolfman‘s release date was announced, feminist blog Jezebel asked why there aren’t many female werewolves, concluding that because werewolves are disgusting and hairy, people don’t want to equate that with women. They also pointed out that vampires are a lot more popular than werewolves at the moment, and described that position with regards to sex.

Although the answer to the question about women and werewolves lies exactly in those issues, Jezebel drew the wrong conclusions.
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Showdown At The Oscars

By Lisa Anderson

Image from
Awards Daily

As Oscar night grows near, two of the most closely watched nominations are for Best Picture and Best Director. Former spouses James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow are pitted against each other in both categories—Cameron for Avatar and Bigelow for The Hurt Locker. If Cameron wins, it will be a rare triumph for science fiction, one achieved despite controversy about Avatar‘s content. Bigelow stands not only to score an upset victory against a blockbuster, but also to become the first woman to win the Oscar for Best Director.
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Three Frames

By Less Lee Moore

A few weeks ago, Popshifter contributor Millie De Chirico revealed to me the disturbing and compelling nature of Three Frames.

The site is pretty self-explanatory: three consecutive frames of a film are transformed into a looping, animated GIF. If you think that sounds boring, then you haven’t looked at the site.
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