Viewing posts written by: Emma Jane McNicol
In denying that Ginsberg’s word is gospel, the filmmakers imbue Howl with a playful performativity, that is in fact faithful to its adapted source. The film has fun with Ginsberg’s words, as well as revising his immortalised cult status. As Franco convincingly reads personal admissions from original interview footage, his Ginsberg comes closer to us, and the distance of the cult icon slowly diminishes.
If nothing else, this year’s list confirms that we at Screen Machine are big Jesse Eisenberg fans (but then who isn’t?). It perhaps shows other continuities from our 2009 list, indicating some of the approaches and prejudices we have as film critics and spectators. We hope that the pieces we’ve written on each of the twenty films that appear here are of greater use and interest to readers than the mock-suspense of learning what finishes in which position. Returning to these films now allows us to say things about them that we couldn’t when they first appeared, and we think that these reflective pieces on the films of 2010 will offer plenty to discuss as we begin the new year.
I recently endured While You Were Sleeping, a 1995 romantic comedy starring Sandra Bullock. Sandy B. Bullock works at a toll booth at a grey Chicago train station; she is very lonely, and wears beanies because she is sad. Her day is brightened by the smile of an attractive businessman (Peter Gallagher, whom we now recognize as yummy daddy Sandy from The OC). One freezing Christmas morning, Bullock and Yummy Daddy have the station to themselves, until two muggers arrive. In awesomely incongruent Jersey accents (I do believe this film is set in Chicago): Mugger 1 taunts, “Noice Jaaaaket.” Mugger 2 corroborates, “Meeeeehhhry Krysmussss.” Yummy daddy falls on the tracks! Bullock saves Yummy Daddy’s life by rolling him out of the way of the oncoming train.
