Steve Mitchell

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4/4 There are no Godardian intertitles, no shock cuts (though a couple of beautiful, brief montages), no abstract sound effects, no figures reading from books. Contempt is among his most traditional non-traditional movies.

3/4 in which their voices rarely rise. The camera slides around them as they complete mundane tasks, the tension slowly rising. “Why have you fallen out of love with me?” the writer asks, again and again.

2/4 Bardot and Michel Piccoli are husband and wife; Paul is asked to re-write Fritz Lang’s script of The Odyssey and, even after an abusive outburst from the producer, he pockets the check. The middle section is an astonishing argument between husband and wife

1/4 Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard, 1968)

The bickering couple from Weekend transform from caricature to something deeply human. Contempt is a lacerating portrait of male arrogance and insecurity, as well as an indictment of the film industry and JLG’s own producers. Brigitte

3/3 to a rage and the female secondary character fades in and out of the narrative, present only when she’s needed as a sounding-board or in need of rescue. It was a slog. Never again.

2/3 ction scenes are slowed to a snail’s pace as we read Reacher consider every physical possibility before acting. The wallpaper and furniture in each room must be described in detail. Essential facts are withheld so obviously it brought me

1/3

Make Me (Lee Child)

This book felt like it took five years of my life to read, as I diligently continued my literary crime spree. Jack Reacher is a cut-rate Sherlock Holmes, in that he notices everything all the time and puts things together very quickly. A

4/4 standard American films, and when it does, it’s not milked or nurtured but disrupted.

3/4 He wants us to be aware at every moment we are watching a film. He constantly reiterates the form, and the viewers place within it—to respond, consider, to think. So, emotion in the film or the viewer doesn’t arise in the same way as

2/4 The landscape is crashing and burning around them; they are neither taken aback nor particularly interested when they meet figures from history, or God himself, and JLG often tests our patience with shots that go on longer than it seems they should.

1/4 Weekend (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)

“What a rotten film. All we meet are crazy people.”
A squabbling, venal couple stumble their way through the excesses of capitalism and revolution, while plotting to kill their parents and each other for money.

3/3 until they’re called upon to emote lust or love, then their eyes go dead. You sorta have to love the ending, in its full 80s ridiculousness.

2/3 a villain (though the mother is nearly invisible). The movie frontloads the best dance sequence and everything after is more of the same. Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze are fine

1/3 Dirty Dancing (Emile Ardolino, 1987)

Rich girl meets bad boy in a sports movie about dancing, meaning sex. Points for a frank description of backroom abortions and their aftermath, and for not making the father

3/3 It also includes an appreciation of Eyes Wide Shut, savaged by critics upon its release. The book is humane and enigmatic, reflecting its subject, and lovely to read.

2/3 became a friend. The book, written as a series of articles for Vanity Fair after his death, is not a hagiography. It is an exploration, warts and all, of an artist and his prickly relationship to the world and his work.

1/3 Kubrick (Michael Herr)

I read this book again now and then just for the language and the way it approaches the man many see as an icon. Herr worked with Kubrick on Full Metal Jacket, had many late night phone conversations with him afterward,

3/3 She’s not looking for order or narrative; she’s not trying to make a story. But she believes—deeply—in writing and in the writing itself, and she can hold that belief, and her lack of faith in narrative simultaneously to create work that glows white-hot and tender.

2/3 This book is a kind of memoir, and it is no less controlled or constrained—life spills from it in every page. She doesn’t come to an answer on why she writes but it’s fascinating to read as she picks up one shattered shard of her life after another to examine.

1/3 A Truce that is Not Peace (Miriam Toews)

Why do you write? Miriam Toews is asked to contribute a piece on the subject, and this book is her roundabout non-response. Lives are messy in Toews’ novels, spilling in all directions, careening between comedy and tragedy at breakneck speed.

2/2 Lots, really. Once you’ve seen The Devils, Bennedetta, and Ms. 45, the field narrows to mostly soft-core lesbian porn.

1/2 To the Devil a Daughter (Peter Sykes, 1976) Criterion

Slow British Satan movie. Richard Widmark looks tired, there’s not a lot of action, but Chriistopher Lee gets to be gleefully evil. Part of the Nunsploitation series on Criterion, and what could be better than Nunsploitation?

2/2 My kneejerk theory is that Southern Grotesque novels became popular because that is how people in other parts of the country wanted—and still want—to view the South. So, the wacky Southern characters and their hijinks began to wane on my quickly. But, True Grit! Read True Grit!

1/2 Dog of the South (Charles Portis)

I think True Grit is an amazing book, so I was excited to begin this Portis novel but, while it is funny and well put together, it falls into the genre of Southern Grotesque that I just can’t appreciate.

Victorian child holding a Victorian doll.

John (Annie Baker)

Annie Baker writes plays in which no one says much of anything but, magically, everything gets said. They are spare, filled with silences and hesitations. They’re funny, and they are heartbreaking. In her style, I’ll leave it at that.

2/2 telephone calls, and also includes animation by Canada’s legendary Norman McLaren. It surrenders the pretense of a narrative life for episodes, asides, and marginalia and succeeds in bringing us into something that might resemble Gould’s headspace. And, it’s filled with beautiful music.

1/2 Thirty-Two Short Films about Glenn Gould (Francois Girard 1993) Criterion

Lovely film about an enigmatic man, played with energy and empathy and a little bit of skewed joy by Colm Feore. The film enacts scenes from his life, interviews, fictional encounters,

3/3 it’s shot from a strange angle.) And, Bresson is always doing SOMETHING. With this film, I’m just not sure what it is.

2/3 I am, however, always intrigued by Bresson’s shot choices, his framing, and his decided anti-narrative stance. (We never see any actual dramatic event; we either come into it before or after, or