Looking Back at 'White Men Can't Jump'

As part of The Dissolve's Movie of the Week feature, film critic Noel Murray and I had a conversation about 1992's White Men Can't Jump. This weekly back-and-forth exchange is called Forum, and I loved getting a chance to do one with a guy I really like. In our conversation, we talk about the film's terrific opening, Ron Shelton's view on racial politics, the L.A. riots, the connection between sports and art, and where Sidney and Billy probably are today. A lot of fun, and I hope you enjoy.

Kevin Spacey, Before He Was Kevin Spacey

Glengarry Glen Ross is the Movie of the Week over at The Dissolve. Today, I look into Kevin Spacey's crucial performance in that film. Remember, this was back in 1992, before most people knew who he was. That makes a difference. I explain why right here.

Ang Lee, 'Hulk' and the Perils of Superpowers

The Dissolve's Movie of the Week is Hulk, Ang Lee's misbegotten 2003 excursion into comic-book filmmaking. Today, I provide an essay on why Hulk isn't that far removed from the thematic concerns of Lee's best films: The Ice Storm, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain, and Life of Pi. As I explain in the piece, each of these films, like Hulk, is about "seemingly ordinary people [who] learn to live with the aspects of themselves that make them feel different, strange, extraordinary." In other words, Lee's movies often struggle with the notion of superpowers. I deeply enjoyed writing this essay, and I hope you enjoy reading it.

The Best Movies of the Decade (so far): My Ballot

You may remember the other day I mentioned that The Dissolve had asked me and other critics to contribute ballots to their poll of the best films of the decade (2010-2014). (You can see the master list, with write-ups, of Nos. 50-26 here. Nos. 25-1 are right here.)

For those interested, I decided to publish my ballot below.

Doing some quick number-crunching, I see that 10 of my Top 20 films ended up in the overall Dissolve Top 50. If some of my picks surprise you, well, they surprised me, too -- but I decided to go by instinct and not overthink my choices. If nothing else, this will help give me a guide for "Best of the Decade" lists in about four years, which will be here quicker than you think.

1. Inside Llewyn Davis
2. The Turin Horse
3. The Master
4. Boyhood
5. City of Life and Death
6. Lourdes
7. Shutter Island
8. Elena (the Andrei Zvyagintsev film)
9. It's Such a Beautiful Day
10. The Social Network
11. The Clock
12. Compliance
13. Let the Fire Burn
14. Blue Is the Warmest Color
15. Shame
16. Leviathan (the Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel film)
17. Upstream Color
18. Take Shelter
19. Room 237
20. Before Midnight

What Are the Best Movies of This Decade (so far)?

The fine folks at The Dissolve polled me and others for our picks for the best films this decade (2010-2014). Compiling those ballots, The Dissolve has now unveiled its list of "The 50 Best Films of the Decade So Far." The first half of the results (50-26) can be found here, including my write-ups for The Turin Horse and Upstream Color. Tomorrow, The Dissolve will reveal the Top 25, and each critic's individual ballot. (Spoiler alert: Four of the movies on my personal Top 20 are included in the 50-26 roundup.)

(Update: Here's 25-1. Six of the movies on my personal Top 20 are included in this section of the countdown.)

(Second Update: Here's my ballot.)

Why Are Hollywood Movies Always Picking on the Internet?

During a short span of time in the summer and early fall, I noticed that I was watching a handful of films in which the bad guy was always the Internet, be it in the form of social media or YouTube. So I started wondering why. For The Dissolve, I look at Men, Women & Children (pictured above), Chef and Birdman to compare/contrast their portrayals of the World Wide Web -- and why their attitudes toward the Internet say more about Hollywood than it does Twitter. I hope you enjoy.

Defending 'Adore' and 'Labor Day'

Every year, there are movies that everybody else loves that leave you cold -- and there are movies that you quite like that everybody else thinks are terrible. My new piece for The Dissolve is about the latter phenomenon.

In 2013, I was a fan of both Adore (a.k.a. Two Mothers) and Labor Day, which puts me in a small minority. The other day, I started wondering what it was about those two movies that spoke to me in a way it didn't for lots of other critics. I think it has to do with their willingness to risk being mocked in order to tell heartfelt stories about intentionally inexplicable scenarios. Adore is about two middle-aged women who have affairs with each other's son. Labor Day is about an escaped convict who takes a mother and son hostage -- and ends up falling in love with the mom. Hokey, preposterous, melodramatic -- and yet, they worked for me. I explore my response to these derided films here.

My Top 10 Movies of 2013

Some years, you feel part of the critical consensus. Other years, you see eye-to-eye on some picks while at the same time championing a few unloved and overlooked choices. 2013 was a year in which, for the most part, I felt outside the consensus. Her, Gravity and 12 Years a Slave didn't make my Top 10; none of them moved or impressed me as much as some of my under-the-radar selections. (My thoughts on Her here. My thoughts on Gravity here. My thoughts on 12 Years a Slave here.)

Before I reveal my list, I should acknowledge the few movies I'm mad I missed. Those include The Invisible Woman, Viola, Night Across the Street, The Last Time I Saw Macao, Passion, Cousin Jules and Ulrich Seidl's Paradise trilogy. (And I would have loved to have caught The Grandmaster one more time.) So, with those caveats aside, here is my Top 10 of 2013...

1. Inside Llewyn Davis
2. Blue Is the Warmest Color
3. Let the Fire Burn
4. Before Midnight
5. Leviathan
6. Upstream Color
7. Stories We Tell
8. At Berkeley
9. This Is Martin Bonner
10. The Unspeakable Act

I go into more detail about my Nos. 10-6 here. And I wrote about movies Nos. 5-1 here. (For more list fun, check out my full Village Voice film ballot.)

For what it's worth, seven of my 10 choices -- the top seven, actually -- were all seen at film festivals. The other three were watched as online screeners. (I caught part of At Berkeley initially at Toronto but couldn't stay for the whole film, unfortunately.) It seems that this split will continue in the near future: between the shared community (with its exhaustion and anticipation) of a film festival; and the intimacy of one's own home watching an online screener that sometimes can be maddening if the damn thing loads slowly. That latter category of film consumption is reflected in the above photo, which is a shot of me on my MacBook as I'm watching The Unspeakable Act, which includes a scene where the main character is watching a video on her MacBook. I've rarely felt so weirdly connected to someone onscreen.

Also, a few more words about my top two films. Leaving Cannes, I had ranked Blue Is the Warmest Color and Inside Llewyn Davis as No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. It was the thinnest of margins. But after rewatching them both back in Los Angeles, I decided that Llewyn Davis cut deeper and said more than Blue, which was nonetheless dazzling and poignant in its own right. The fascinating thing about film festivals is how they provide you with a first-draft opinion about movies. But those opinions aren't definitive: They're best-guesses, and checking back on some of my favorites months later helped crystallize my initial feelings about them. That process doesn't end, of course: Five years from now, my Top 10 of 2013 might look slightly different.

I hope you had a good 2013, whether at the movies or in your real life. Personally, I was excited to begin a regular column at Playboy and be named Chief Film Critic for Paste. Additionally, 2013 was my first time at Cannes, an experience that lived up to my significant expectations. (Going to True/False for the first time was also a real treat.) And I was flattered and honored to be asked to write for The Dissolve; I very much admire what those guys and gals are doing over there. And, of course, continuing to write for Screen International and Deadspin -- two very different audiences -- remains a thrill. Here's to an even better 2014 for all of us.

Should You Be Cheering at the Ending of 'Captain Phillips'?

I'm a big fan of The Dissolve, so I was thrilled to write a piece for them based on my experience of seeing Captain Phillips at an industry screening. Some in attendance cheered near the end of the film, a response I think is unwarranted. But it got me wondering about why we react in certain ways to certain movies that are actually seeking a more nuanced response. Moral ambiguity, it's a tricky thing. Here's my piece, which I hope you enjoy.