Screen Scene
A filmmaker thinks about the movies. In the dark.
-
Atomic Angst
‘Oppenheimering’ old wounds Nearly two decades ago, I somehow convinced my filmmaking pal, Abe Levy, to accompany me on a drive across the American southwest through the endless ribbon of mirages known as Interstate 40 until we reached the White Sands Missile Base in Socorro, New Mexico. This was not our final destination but an…
-
Red slippers: From the Department of No Place Like Homeland Security
Red Tread Redemption The U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota in Minneapolis has indicted a man named Terry Martin for the 2005 theft of a pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz. “The ruby slippers in question, which were recovered in July 2018 in a sting operation by the FBI and Grand…
-
Netflix Codes
Transform Your Living Room into an Art House Cinema I’m the kind of media consumer who churns between streaming services like I was making butter. I keep a calendar with cancellation reminders; I scour the Just Watch app for the best deal on my desired film; and lately, I’ve loaded more library cards into free…
-
RIP Godard
-
Notes from the Set of a Werewolf Film
When news editor Will Carruthers offhandedly suggested I write a dispatch from the set, he had no idea I had been keeping a production diary. Films are what I do when I’m not newspapering, and this particular film, presently titled Wolf Story, is a bit of Gen X angst spun as a rom-com but with fangs…
-
Moonshot: Why I’m Making a Werewolf Movie
It all began in a community college course circa 1993 when Herman Hesse’s Steppenwolf met my contrarian attitude toward required reading. I ached through a few chapters of the slender novel, which proved to be a valentine of sorts to its author’s shrink, Carl Jung (whom we can thank for archetypal psychology and a surname that will…
-
Automat Documentary Serves Up Lost History
There was a time when, for the price of a nickel, diners could participate in a uniquely American food phenom. The Automat anticipated both the worlds of fast food and “self-serve,” became a social institution, then vanished into obscurity. Founded by entrepreneurs Joseph Horn and Frank Hardart in the late 1880s, their restaurant concept was…
-
DVDs Are Flat Circles: Streamers Killed the Video Store
Since the late ’80s, San Rafael’s Bedrock Music and Video is very likely the place where a generation of Marinites bought their first CDs, rented their “Thursday Rental Specials” and otherwise browsed away an afternoon on the Miracle Mile before decamping to Caffé Nuvo. And now it’s closing for good. It’s another end to an…
-
‘Graphic Blandishment’ Explained, Sort Of
This time of year many Gen X parents are making nostalgia-driven searches for A Charlie Brown Christmas, the animated special from 1965 that set the standard for producing seasonal affective disorder in children (FYI, it’s available on Apple TV+). If you happen to make it through the melancholic ode to holiday disillusionment and catch the…