Gene Kelly in the Twenty-First Century: A Presentation
This entry is part 33 of 33 in the series Essays / Analyses.As mentioned in my previous post, “Where I’ve Been Lately: A Confession,” I spent much several weeks in March compiling the following talk, which I delivered last week at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) Conference in Boston. Where possible, I’ve tried to include what I actually said as well as the images, videos, animated gifs, etc. I showed so that it reads more like a presentation than a (boring) academic essay. As always, your feedback is certainly welcome! Gene Kelly in the Twenty-First...
Read MoreThe Oscars’ (Misleading, Dumb, and Revealing) 2012 Ad Campaign
This entry is part 32 of 33 in the series Essays / Analyses.This year’s Oscars ad campaign, “Celebrate the Movies in All of Us,” was devised by Academy Award co-producers, Brian Grazer and Don Mischer, and Tom Sherak, the reigning president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). The 84 black-and-white ads (yes, 84!) are currently plastered all over digital billboards in Los Angeles and Times Square as well as on YouTube and Oscar.com to remind audiences, per Grazer, that with the popularity of video-on-demand, satellite and cable TV, etc., they...
Read MoreOveractors Anonymous: Dickie Bennett, Justified, and Jeremy Davies’s Unintentional Scenery Chewing
This entry is part 31 of 33 in the series Essays / Analyses. While I’ve little affection for the movie Liar Liar (Tom Shadyac, 1997), I’ve always been tickled by its outtakes, particularly the one above, which derives from an exchange between the characters of Jim Carrey and Swoosie Kurtz. In the final cut, the two lawyers are at each others’ throats before a judge breaks them up. Carrey’s character begins: Fletcher: Weight, 105. Yeah, in your bra! Dana: Your Honor, I object! Fletcher: You would! Dana: BASTARD! Fletcher: HAG! Judge Stevens: QUIET! Overruled! In the...
Read MorePutting the Ass in Assets: The Objectification of Gene Kelly (and Other Men) on Social Media
This entry is part 30 of 33 in the series Essays / Analyses.I’ve written before, mostly in jest, about the public’s interest in Gene Kelly’s backside. That’s right; devoted to his bum are individual tumblelogs and Facebook pages, recurring hashtags, animated gifs, and dozens upon dozens of tweets. Regarding the latter, a few recent cases in point: Gene Kelly had a most spectacular ass. Watching it is akin to a religious experience. (via @phoenix_emrys) Gene Kelly’s ass. Like for real, tho. #favoritethingsinclassicfilm (via @avardvark) Gene Kelly should pretty...
Read More9/11 Memorial Merchandising: Where Should We Draw The Line?
This entry is part 29 of 33 in the series Essays / Analyses.Last night, both The Daily Show and The Colbert Report did bits on recent 9/11-related merchandise. Up first, The Daily Show remembered September 13, “the day Americans forgot the lessons of the day they had sworn they would always remember.” The report begins with footage from September 13, 2001, of Southern Baptist preacher Jerry Falwell blaming “pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays, and lesbians” for inciting the terrorist attacks. We also hear from one of the newest Daily Show correspondents who...
Read MoreThank You, Gene Kelly, for Not Directing Cabaret
This entry is part 28 of 33 in the series Essays / Analyses.Last week I stumbled across several 1976 newspaper articles in which Gene Kelly discusses his return to movies. After the death of his (second) wife, Jeanne Coyne, Kelly turned down virtually any film project that would take him away from the couple’s two young children, Tim and Bridget. At this point, single fatherhood was his life. But with the blessing of his kids, he returned to the silver screen in the dramatic (not musical) role of Evil Knievel’s “grease-monkey sidekick” in Viva Knievel (1977). (Further...
Read MorePimping Aaron Sorkin
This entry is part 27 of 33 in the series Essays / Analyses.Hello readers, it’s Aaron Sorkin week over at In Media Res! Posted today is my brief analysis of Sorkin’s (weirdo) 2011 Golden Globes speech about the “elite smart girls” of Hollywood. You remember, right? Those awkward 15 seconds The Social Network‘s screenwriter devotes to his 11-year-old daughter, Roxy? “I want to thank all the female nominees tonight for helping demonstrate to my young daughter that elite is not a bad word; it’s an aspirational one. Honey, look around. Smart girls have more...
Read MoreAnimated GIFs, Cinemagraphs, and Our Return to Early Cinema
This entry is part 26 of 33 in the series Essays / Analyses.Every couple of days I head over to Tumblr to check out my dashboard, which normally overflows with — no surprise to frequent readers of this blog — info about and images of Gene Kelly, Colin Firth, Jon Stewart, and Shakespeare. But hey, sometimes I also wake up to pics of Bogie and Bacall, Cary Grant, Judy Garland, Hugh Laurie, Kenneth Branagh, Karl Pilkington, and the guys from Men of a Certain Age. So there. While still photographs like this one of Colin Firth showering in coffee — sure, I’ll give you a...
Read MoreThe Bias of All That: Gene Kelly and His Wives
This entry is part 25 of 33 in the series Essays / Analyses.In the first half of her memoir, The Memory of All That: Love and Politics in New York, Hollywood, and Paris, actor/activist Betsy Blair writes fondly about her relationship with and marriage to Hollywood song-and-dance man Gene Kelly. The reader learns, for instance, what Gene was wearing when the sixteen-year-old Blair first laid eyes on him: “an open-necked white shirt, a dark long-sleeved sweater, dark trousers, and moccasins. He seemed to be balanced on the balls of his feet, ready to spring like a cat” (9). More...
Read MoreWhy I’m Excusing Some of the Problems in AMC’s The Killing
This entry is part 24 of 33 in the series Essays / Analyses.Several critics panned Sunday night’s episode of The Killing, “Undertow.” Reviewers for Slate, LA Times, Salon, and The AV Club reamed AMC’s “nordic noir” for its ridiculous plot twists, goofy coincidences (Rosie’s pink Grand Canyon shirt), and red herrings (the terrorism subplot). “It’s all MacGuffins, with no narrative payoff,” one critic sighs. As I tweeted after watching, I didn’t think “Undertow” was all that bad. Sure, the political storyline was a...
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Professor of film and Shakespeare. Advocate of social media. Lover of popular culture,