In October, I wrote a lot about Gone Girl, a little about Whiplash, and was one of the few critics who didn’t fall hard for Dear White People. I also reviewed two films at the New York Film Festival for Movie Mezzanine. Read the full articles below.
Essays
No, Gone Girl Does Not Have a Woman Problem (Mic.com)
Gone Girl is Secretly the Story of Ben Affleck’s Career (Esquire)
What a Jazz Drumming Movie Has to Say About Violence in the NFL (Film School Rejects)
Fury and Why Hollywood Loves WWII Movies Again (Reel Change)
Reviews
Mr. Turner (Movie Mezzanine)
Time Out of Mind (Movie Mezzanine)
Gone Girl (The Rye Record)
Dear White People (Washington City Paper)
Birdman, or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance (The Rye Record)
Nightcrawler (Washington City Paper)
Final Tidbit
True story: Sitting in Lincoln Center during the New York Film Festival, I struck up a conversation with the two older ladies sitting near me. We were talking about Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film, Inherent Vice, which I said was not one of my favorites of his. She asked me which Anderson film I liked the most, and I replied, The Master. Her face lit up. She beamed, pointed at her friend, and said to me, “That’s Philip Seymour Hoffman’s mother. And I’m Bennett Miller’s mother.” [NOTE: Bennett Miller directed PSH in “Capote,” and the two are old college friends.]
We talked for about twenty minutes. I told PSH’s mother how much her son’s work had meant to me. We talked about the movies we had seen recently and compared opinions. I had an extra ticket to a talk by Anderson later that day, and they need an extra, so I gave it to them. “How much would you like for it?” PSH’s mother asked me. “Nothing,” I said to both of them. “Your sons gave me so much pleasure, it’s the least I can do.”
Only at the New York Film Festival, kids.
Reel Change 