http://gatewaycinephiles.com Appreciation and Criticism of Cinema Through Heartland Eyes Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:18:51 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en For a little over four years now, I've been using the Gateway Cinephiles blog to pour out my thoughts about virtually every film I've seen theatrically during that period, and a good chunk of the films I've watched in my own home. The motivations to engage in this project have ... http://gatewaycinephiles.com/2012/01/03/hiatus/ My annual year-in-review feature is up at Look/Listen. Check it out. You’ll discover the cinema that was great, good, overrated, and worth another look in 2011. http://gatewaycinephiles.com/2011/12/30/looklisten-the-best-films-of-2011/ 2001 (USA) Director: David Fincher Viewed: December 19, 2011 Format: Digital Theatrical Project (Wehrenberg Ronnies 20) An argument can be made that David Fincher's adaptation of Steig Larsson's phenomenally popular pulp whodunit, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, is an exercise in style over substance. Certainly, the film’s opening credit sequence lends credence ... http://gatewaycinephiles.com/2011/12/23/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo/ My review of Tomas Alfredson's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is up at Look/Listen. Check it out. http://gatewaycinephiles.com/2011/12/23/looklisten-tinker-tailor-soldier-spy/ 2011 (USA / New Zealand) Director: Steven Spielberg Viewed: December 17, 2011 Format: Digital Theatrical Projection (Wehrenberg Des Peres 14) Adapting the beloved Tintin stories to film has been a passion project for Steven Spielberg for nearly three decades. The director first sought to option the work of Belgian comic artist Hergé in ... http://gatewaycinephiles.com/2011/12/20/the-adventures-of-tintin/ 2011 (USA) Director: Guy Ritchie Viewed: December 12, 2011 Format: Digital Theatrical Projection (Wehrenberg Chesterfield Galaxy 14) Guy Ritchie’s 2009 re-imagining of the Great Detective and his adventures in Victorian London proved to be a luscious guilty pleasure. To be sure, Sherlock Holmes is overstuffed with garishly rendered action sequences and rushed-over plot ... http://gatewaycinephiles.com/2011/12/15/sherlock-holmes-a-game-of-shadows/ My review of Joann Sfar's Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life is up at Look/Listen, timed for the film's five-day run at the Webster University Film Series that begins this Sunday . Check it out. http://gatewaycinephiles.com/2011/12/09/looklisten-gainsbourg/ 2011 (USA) Director: Sean Durkin Viewed: December 6, 2011 Format: Theatrical Print (Landmark Tivoli Theater) Sean Durkin’s unsettling, skillfully crafted debut feature, Martha Marcy May Marlene, offers abundant moments of skin-crawling tension. However, it’s not quite accurate to describe the film as a thriller. That generic tag suggests the primacy of a propulsive ... http://gatewaycinephiles.com/2011/12/06/martha-marcy-may-marlene/ 2011 (Germany / Canada) Director: Werner Herzog Viewed: November 29, 2011 Format: Theatrical Print (Landmark Tivoli Theater) Into the Abyss might be the closest Werner Herzog will ever come to creating a work of outright agitprop, and yet it’s still light-years from the cinematic polemics of film-makers like Charles Ferguson and Alex Gibney. Herzog’s ... http://gatewaycinephiles.com/2011/12/01/into-the-abyss/ If you pick up the December 2011 issue of St. Louis Magazine and turn to page 184, you'll find an interview with director, writer, producer, and all-around Hollywood titan Steven Spielberg. Improbably, this interview was conducted by yours truly. (Crazy, right?) You can also click over to Look/Listen to read ... http://gatewaycinephiles.com/2011/12/01/looklisten-interview-with-steven-spielberg/