Best of 2007: Adventures in Nonfiction
Labels: Best 2007, Documentary
A film blog under the influence
Labels: Best 2007, Documentary
posted by NicksFlickPicks at 4:05 PM
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MY PROFILE THE LATEST THE BEST THE FAVORITES THE WOMEN THE REST |
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The Desiring-Image: Gilles Deleuze and Contemporary Queer Cinema ($30/pbk). By Nick Davis. Oxford University Press, 2013. The book that earned me tenure at Northwestern. Offers a new theoretical model of queer film, born from Gilles Deleuze's rarely-integrated notions of cinema and desire. Chapter-length readings of Dead Ringers, Naked Lunch, Shortbus, The Watermelon Woman, Brother to Brother, Beau travail, and Velvet Goldmine, plus other films along the way! Written for a scholarly audience but hopefully interesting to anyone curious about recent cinema, ideas about desire, or LGBT aesthetics and politics. "Important and needed work...Deeply original." D.N. Rodowick, "Seductive in its intellect and humbling in its prose." Michele Aaron
Reading the Bromance: Homosocial Relationships in Film and Television ($32/pbk). Ed. Michael DeAngelis. Wayne State University Press, 2014. Academic pieces that dig into recent portraits in popular media, comic and dramatic, of intimacies between straight(ish) men. Includes the essay "'I Love You, Hombre': Y tu mamá también as Border-Crossing Bromance" by Nick Davis, as well as chapters on Superbad, Humpday, Jackass, The Wire, and other texts. Written for a mixed audience of scholars, students, and non-campus readers. Forthcoming in June 2014. "Remarkably sophisticated essays." Janet Staiger, "Essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary models of gender and sexuality." Harry Benshoff
Fifty Key American Films ($31/pbk). Ed. Sabine Haenni, John White. Routledge, 2009. Includes my essays on The Wild Party, The Incredibles, and Brokeback Mountain. Intended as both a newcomer's guide to the terrain and a series of short, exploratory essays about such influential works as The Birth of a Nation, His Girl Friday, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, Taxi Driver, Blade Runner, Daughters of the Dust, and Se7en.
The Cinema of Todd Haynes: All That Heaven Allows ($25/pbk). Ed. James Morrison. Wallflower Press, via Columbia University Press, 2007. Includes the essay "'The Invention of a People': Velvet Goldmine and the Unburying of Queer Desire" by Nick Davis, later expanded and revised in The Desiring-Image. More, too, on Poison, Safe, Far From Heaven, and Haynes's other films by Alexandra Juhasz, Marcia Landy, Todd McGowan, James Morrison, Anat Pick, and other scholars. "A collection as intellectually and emotionally generous as Haynes' films" Patricia White, Swarthmore College
Film Studies: The Basics ($23/pbk). By Amy Villarejo. Routledge, 2006, 2013. Award-winning film scholar and teacher Amy Villarejo finally gives us the quick, smart, reader-friendly guide to film vocabulary that every teacher, student, and movie enthusiast has been waiting for, as well as a one-stop primer in the past, present, and future of film production, exhibition, circulation, and theory. Great glossary, wide-ranging examples, and utterly unpretentious prose that remains rigorous in its analysis; the book commits itself at every turn to the artistry, politics, and accessibility of cinema.
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Watch this space! Chicago has a new, exciting, important, and totally accessible cadre of queer film critics who are joining forces to bring screenings, special events, and good, queer-focused movie chats to our fair city. Read our mission! Stay tuned for events! Cruise the website, and help get this great new group off the ground by enrolling as a friend (it's free!) and by asking how you can help.
since 5.27.05 |
4 Comments:
I've only seen ZOO of the films listed here and I thought it was quite good or at least fascinating in its strange diversions. The scene with the actor discussing the reenactment was bewildering and yet, fit right in in the long run.
I don't think i fully "got" the movie, but I'm happy to be challenged.
unless of course the subject is abortion and from every description of Lake of Fire I don't think I could make it through.
Hey Nick:
This is off-topic from your post, but I just want to thank you for the work you put into these awards. You have the most insightful, well-written odes to cinema around the blogosphere. And while our filmic tastes don't exactly collide (I was bored stiff by Once, for instance, apart from the honest "Broken-Hearted Hoover-Fixer Sucker Guy"), I am thrilled that you have championed the ambitious Juno despite the growing popularity of showing dislike for it, and I'm eagerly awaiting your Best Actress of 2007 write-ups -- especially for the underrated Tang Wei.
Cheers, and keep up the great work!
Colin
Love these picks, especially since I've caught up with Lake of Fire and No End in Sight in the last few weeks, and I'm with you on both of them. I didn't know about the French Crowhurst film, but if they ever get round to an English dramatisation, you know who they've got to cast for sheer physical resemblance, don't you? I believe he was one of your 2004 supporting actor nominees...
@Nat: I love that I'm spreading Zoo among my cohort (or to you and Goatdog, anyway). Of all the movies to proselytize for. I love that sense of "not getting it" that's built right into the film.
@Colin: What an incredibly kind comment! Thanks so much for taking the time to say this.
@Tim: More work for Eddie Marsan! I love that guy. And he would be perfect. Unless you meant Cate Blanchett?
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