Rainer on Film: Thirty Years of Film Writing in a Turbulent and Transformative Era

Rainer on Film: Thirty Years of Film Writing in a Turbulent and Transformative Era

by Peter Rainer
Rainer on Film: Thirty Years of Film Writing in a Turbulent and Transformative Era

Rainer on Film: Thirty Years of Film Writing in a Turbulent and Transformative Era

by Peter Rainer

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Overview

From American Beauty (overrated) to The Night of the Hunter (masterpiece), this collection of Peter Rainer's film criticism spans the course of his illustrious thirty-year career, which dates back to the early 1980s. It is drawn from a wide range of publications, including the Christian Science Monitor, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Los Angeles magazine, the Los Angeles Times, New Times, and New York magazine, and is arranged thematically with chapters such as "Overrated, Underseen," "Some Masterpieces," "Documentaries," "Issues (Mostly Hot Button)," "Comedies (Intentional and Unintentional)," and "Literary and Theatrical Adaptations."

Rainer covers films both well-known and obscure and writes in depth about many film auteurs—Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, the Coen brothers, Mike Leigh—and New Generation icons, such as Sofia Coppola and Paul Thomas Anderson. The careers of actors ranging from Marlon Brando to Jessica Lange to Robert De Niro are also given an extensive examination. No film buff's collection is complete without this comprehensive compilation that showcases the best work from a master contemporary film critic.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781595800770
Publisher: Santa Monica Press
Publication date: 05/15/2013
Pages: 576
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Peter Rainer is the film critic for the Christian Science Monitor, a columnist for Bloomberg News, the president of the National Society of Film Critics, and a regular reviewer for FilmWeek on NPR. Previously, he was the film critic at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles magazine, New York magazine, and New Times Los Angeles, where he was a finalist in 1998 for the Pulitzer Prize in Criticism. In 2010 he won the National Entertainment Journalism Award for Best Online Entertainment Critic.

Table of Contents

Introduction 11

Chapter 1 Overrated, Underseen

Overrated

American Beauty 19

In the Mood for Love 22

Good Will Hunting 24

Far From Heaven 28

Shine 30

Your Friends and Neighbors 33

Fight Club 37

Zero Dark Thirty 40

Underseen

Wild Bill 42

Joe Gould's Secret 45

Babe: Pig in the City 47

A Cry in the Dark 50

Madadayo 53

Trouble in Mind 55

A Modest Proposal 58

Chapter 2 Youngish Turks

Being John Malkovich Spike Jonze 61

Adaptation 64

Waking Life Richard Linklator 67

Todd Field: In the Bedroom 69

Boogie Nights Paul Thomas Anderson 71

Lost in Translation Sofia Coppola 75

Three Kings David O. Russell 77

Chapter 3 Auteurs

L.A. Confidential Curtis Hanson 83

Wonder Boys 88

Secrets and Lies Mike Leigh 90

Topsy-Turvy 94

Full Metal Jacket Stanley Kubrick 97

Eyes Wide Shut 100

An Appreciation 104

Rear Window Alfred Hitchcock 105

Sunshine István Szabó 108

Michael Collins Neil Jordan 110

The Home and the World Satyajit Ray 114

Overview Martin Scorsese 118

The Coen Brothers: Overview 123

The Last Emperor Bernardo Bertolucci 128

Stealing Beauty 132

Overview Francis Ford Coppola 136

Bamboozled Spike Lee 141

Bui worth Warren Beatty 145

Overview George Lucas 148

Titanic James Cameron 153

Everyone Says I Love You Woody Allen 158

Wild Man Blues 161

Overview Ingmar Bergman 165

Overview Robert Altman 170

The Player 174

The Insider Michael Mann 179

Contact Robert Zemeckis 182

The Pianist Roman Polanski 187

Star 80 Bob Fosse 189

Moulin Rouge Baz Luhrmann 193

Overview Terrence Malick 196

Overview Brian De Palma 201

Chapter 4 Steven Spielberg

Overview 209

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 215

The Color Purple 219

Why the Schindler's List Backlash? 223

Amistad 227

A.I. Artificial Intelligence 231

Chapter 5 About Acting, Star Actors, and Acting Stars

Acting in the Seventies 237

An Appreciation Marlon Brando 249

Nick Nolte 252

Hollywood's Lost Generation of Women 257

Debra Winger 262

Blue Sky Jessica Lango 267

Top Gun Tom Cruise 270

Looking for Richard Al Pacino 273

Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling Richard Pryor 277

Overview Eddie Murphy 281

Harlem Nights 284

Will Ferrell 288

Robert De Niro 291

Rambo Sylvester Stallone 295

Buster Keaton 298

Chapter 6 Some Masterpieces

The Night of the Hunter 305

Time Out 310

Au Revoir, Les Enfants 311

The Last Letter 314

Blue Velvet 316

Something Wild 320

The Wind Will Carry Us 323

Kaos 325

The Makioka Sisters 329

Pretty Poison 331

Shoot the Moon 334

Hamsun 337

Chapter 7 Documentaries

When We Were Kings 345

Streetwise 348

The Gleaners and I 351

Buena Vista Social Club 352

Stone Reader 355

Domestic Violence 356

Bright Leaves 358

Chapter 8 Issues (Mostly Hot-Button)

Blood Sport: Quentin Tarantino and Kill Bill 363

Sexual Harassment/Sexual Politics: Oleanna and Disclosure 366

Twisting in the Wind: Policies Left and Right 370

White Rage: Falling Down 386

Anti-Hero Worship: Malcolm X 390

A Little Princess 395

The innocence Game 397

On the Pleasures and Dangers of Pulp: Unlawful Entry 401

Paradise Lost?: The Truman Show 406

Pleasantville 414

Passion Ploy: The Passion of the Christ 417

Neo-Noir 420

Thelma and Louise 425

The People vs. Larry Flynt 429

Captain Video 433

Kaboom Town: L.A. Disaster Movies 438

Moviegoing Manners: A Tale of Woe 440

Blackface: Robert Downey Jr. in the Tropics 443

On Male Weepies 446

Screen Test(osterone) 450

Chapter 9 Comedies (Intentional and Unintentional)

Intentional

Sideways 459

Diner 462

Roxanne 465

Mars Attacks! 468

Man on the Moon 472

Almost Famous 474

Unintentional

Under the Cherry Moon 477

Meet Joe Black 479

The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc 481

Evita 483

Chapter 10 Literary and Theatrical Adaptations

The Golden Bowl 487

Under the Volcano 489

Lolita 493

Fool for Love 497

Kiss of the Spider Woman 501

Prick Up Your Ears 504

Quills 507

Affliction 510

The Tailor of Panama 513

Troy 516

The Crucible 518

Hamlet 521

Seize the Day 523

Chapter 11 Miscellany: Book Reviews and Cruise Ships

The Complete Essays by Michel de Montaigne 533

The Primary Colors: Three Essays by Alexander Theroux 537

License to Thrill: A Movie-ish Cruise 539

Index 545

Acknowledgments 573

Permissions 575

About the Author 576

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