Nick's Flick Picks: The Blog
A film blog under the influence
Labels: Best of the 00s
posted by NicksFlickPicks at 12:00 AM
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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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Chicagoans! This site doesn't even accept advertising, but I'm making an unsolicited exception for the best, freshest, most affordable meal you can enjoy in the Loop, at any time of the day, whether you're on the go or eager to sit. Cuban and Latin American sandwiches, coffees, pastries, salads, shakes, and other treats. Hand-picked, natural, and slow-cooked ingredients. My friendly neighborhood place, a jewel in my life even before the Reader and Time Out figured it out. Visit!
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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.
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since 5.27.05 |
6 Comments:
I love the inclusion of Code 46 here. I'm so, so confused at how it was ignored by pretty much everybody upon release. It may possibly be my favourite Winterbottom this decade, though it goes toe-to-toe with his MUCH better than it was reviewed A Mighty Heart.
Ugh, so much I must see. Both Barney's, the Desplechin and the Winterbottom, of course. It's embarrassing that I haven't seen "Kings and Queen" yet.
Right there with you for the "Lorna's Silence" love, which featured, perhaps, my favourite performance by an actress this year (although I haven't seen "Julia"). Also, that still from "Half Nelson" makes me long for a revisit, even though I doubt my admiration will change.
@Brook: Though I have at least one Winterbottom that I like even more than these two, I nonetheless second everything you said about how wonderful both movies are, and how baffling it is that so few critics seemed to care.
@Lev: Well, the whole reason I preceded with the Backwards & Forwards series is because I'm just as embarrassed to miss the stuff I've missed. Meanwhile, Lorna's Silence is one of those movies for which it's especially gratifying to hear an endorsement, since it's kind of this year's poster child for being damned with faint praise. Thanks for speaking up!
Have you heard about Bertocelli's next movie? It's an Australian/France co-production starring Charlotte Gainsbourg! I really liked Since Otar Left and rarely, if ever, hear about it so it was nice to see it appear on here!
I like alternate views of the future, but Code 46 was, like most Winterbottom films for me, a dreadful bore.
Totally off-topic, but can I just point out that we have an amazing knack for being in synch on middleweight guy-flick dramedies this year (I Love You Man, Adventureland, Funny People -- all of which I liked tremendously, and we graded identically). A real winning streak there.
Wish I liked Code 46, Lorna's Silence or Day Night, Day Night as much as any of them! But digging the Barney and Desplechin love, and looking forward some serious, double-or-triple-dip Assayas love higher up...
I've only seen two of these ten (Anvil and Half Nelson) which is seriously bad going. But it kind of makes me happy that there are possible gems out there to discover. I'd never even heard of Michael Winterbottom when Code 46 was released so at least there's some kind of progression there.
On the frames issue: liking them. I tried to load your site up on my phone the other day and it said "Your browser does not support frames" but I'll just have to settle for being bored at work like everyone else and digest your witty prose in the comfort of my own home :-)
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