Program note: ages ago, some internet fiends and I used to play a constrained writing game called “Mad Ape Den”, where you’d have to re-tell a well-known story (novel, movie, TV show, play, etc.) using only words of three letters or fewer. I’d completely forgotten about it until today, when …
If there are three things that militaries worldwide love to do, it’s spend huge amounts of money, kill people for no good reason, and tell the civilian leadership to shut up and mind its own business. But if there are four things that militaries worldwide love to do, the next one is …
“You’ll never make big money. You’re a two-bit guy. No guts, nothing! I want action!” One of the reasons I’ve tried to stay away from well-known films during this month’s discussion of noir — especially ones as well-known as Gun Crazy — is that, well, I’m not the first horse in this …
So far this Noirvember, we’ve looked at an incredibly dark noir novel masquerading as a domestic drama centered around a dance contest, and a non-fiction noir that frames a series of historical mass murderers as perfect little short stories. And today, having moved from crypto-noir to non-fiction noir, we’re going …
The notion of a non-fiction noir isn’t hard to understand — the resonance of noir fiction, after all, comes from how easily we recognize the patterns of spiraling violence, inescapable fate, and the darkness of the human soul from our real lives — but it’s rather difficult to find examples of. True crime …
What makes you think anyone’s taking care of the girl? I wouldn’t be lifting a finger — not one finger — if I could make myself believe she was still alive. I don’t believe it. Not for ten minutes after they grabbed her. (Inspector Donnelly) Beginning like a classic Paramount …
“I’m not lecturing,” I said, “but you ought to change your attitude. On the level. It affects everybody you come in contact with. Take me, for example: before I met you I didn’t see how I could miss succeeding. I never even thought of failing. And now — “ “Who …
So, here we are. After years of ambiguity over the direction Barack Obama was taking as president, after months of nausea at the repulsive tactics his Republican opponents and the inexplicable support for Mitt Romney (the most worthless presidential candidate of my lifetime), after weeks of stress headaches whenever there …
