Mirror, mirror on the wall…

by Cláudio Alves

In a career full of little gimlets of cinematic madness, The Lady from Shanghai is Orson Welles' most demented work. With an incomprehensible plot and a cast willing to go to the extremes of grotesque, it's a waking nightmare on celluloid. Through surrealism, Hollywood's most famous enfant terrible untethered himself from the demands of audiences and studios alike, spitting on their face as he went about it. The result is a film noir in the process of imploding unto itself, unencumbered by reality it projects shrapnel of shock and provocation every which way.

Beautiful stars turn into fleshy gargoyles and the dialogue gets increasingly florid, like drunken poetry coming directly from the pits of hell. Appropriately enough, an atmosphere of apocalyptic nihilism infects the hearts of everyone involved, onscreen characters and offscreen audiences alike. And then, this melodrama for the end of the world explodes into an ecstasy of beauty. As the lunatic plots converge and the characters reach their nasty apotheosis, Welles' venomous flower of a film loses itself in a hall of mirrors…

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Review: "Mirror Mirror"

This review was originally published in my column at Towleroad.

Once upon a time there lived a director with big canvas visual ideas. He would stretch them across just about any surface and start painting. Serial killer craziness (The Cell), muscle queen mythology (The Immortals), and uncategorizable period fantasy (The Fall) were all fair game. Any topic would do including a comic spin on Snow White because why the hell not? 

His name was Tarsem Singh or Tarsem or Tarsem Singh Dwandwar or Tarsem Dwandwar Singh because he could never settle on a signature. He would halfheartedly skim screenplays until inspiration struck. Once the spell was cast, he'd toss the script into the fire, chug absinthe, and speed dial Eiko Ishioka. He'd sketch until the last of the words had turned to ash and only his drawings remained*. The end. 

*not his real process.

Whether you live happily ever after from watching his movies depends on what you go to the movies for. [Continue]

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"Shame" Trailer, Quad, Reviews

We aren't doing a Yes, No, Maybe So on Steve McQueen's Shame since it seems we're constantly talking about it. It's like Shame Central up in here lately what with the partygoing, the quick words, Michael's NYFF review and David's LFF review (later tonight). Maybe I should try and get one of these awesomely funny mirror quads (found on Ultra Culture) to display in my apartment?

image via ultra culture

A movie poster that makes you feel all dirty inside when you look at it? Brilliant!

I am either doing accidental free PR work for Fox Searchlight or my Fassy addiction has really gotten the best of me. Between Fassy and Gosling this year, yeeeeesh. (You'd think they were both actresses or something the way I've been carrying on!)

Oh yes. Here is the trailer. It's a beauty. But the marketing department had a lot to work with given McQueen's and cinematographer Sean Bobbit's gifts with moving (and still) pictures. 

On a scale of 1 to 10", how excited are you to see this?