Author Archive

Men In Decline

Written by Matt Zoller Seitz on November 2, 1999. Posted in Arts & Film, Posts

There are currently five films in theaters that, to greater or lesser degrees, ponder the state of modern manhood–Fight Club, American Beauty, Being John Malkovich, The Boys and Boys Don’t Cry. They range in tone from sardonically amused to mournful and bewildered. But in writing about them, it is important–crucially important–to understand that they describe
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Eva Marie Sainted Memory

Written by Matt Zoller Seitz on October 26, 1999. Posted in Breaking News, Posts

If you know who Eva Marie Saint is, and if you’ve seen On The Waterfront, this requires no further explanation. The 75-year-old actress visited Manhattan last week to promote the Hitchcock centennial celebration sponsored by NYU’s Dept. of Cinema Studies, which included a panel discussion about working with Hitchcock; and Film Forum’s screening of the
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Bringing Out The Dead

Written by Matt Zoller Seitz on October 26, 1999. Posted in Arts & Film, Posts

Taxis & Ambulances Bringing Out the Dead, a comedy about paramedics in Hell’s Kitchen, resembles Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver in a number ways, and Scorsese doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, he invites comparisons, even demands them. Like John Ford making a western, he’s telling the same story over again, yet he’s not. He believes
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Beefcake

Written by Matt Zoller Seitz on October 19, 1999. Posted in Arts & Film, Posts

All Male Thom Fitzgerald’s Beefcake, an odd but likable documentary-docudrama twofer, takes us back to the 1950s, when muscle magazines flourished. These publications served up Olympian images of slicked-up studs with beatific expressions, flexing in the name of fitness; they asked readers to admire the beauty and manliness of the models’ carefully sculpted physiques, and
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Random Hearts

Written by Matt Zoller Seitz on October 12, 1999. Posted in Arts & Film, Posts

The Wasteland There is a furious anger in Harrison Ford–a fear of being wronged, and a fear of what he might do to those who wronged him. This anger never surfaces in comedies (which is wise, because it’s way too frightening for comedy), and in adventure films and dramas he strategically suppresses it, just as
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Happy, Texas

Written by Matt Zoller Seitz on October 5, 1999. Posted in Arts & Film, Posts

Quirkytown, USA If nothing else, Happy, Texas proves yet again that William H. Macy is one of the best actors in America. He’s not playing the lead here–a shame, since he should always play the lead. But he makes what could have been merely an eccentric and interesting supporting part–a small-town Texas sheriff with mysterious
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American Beauty

Written by Matt Zoller Seitz on September 21, 1999. Posted in Arts & Film, Posts

Brightness And Dark The advertising tag line on the poster for American Beauty is "look closer." It’s rather coy and collegiate, but it applies in a couple of valid ways. In one sense, this well-crafted, cruelly funny and thoroughly engrossing film about suburban malaise and human impulse does ask you to look more closely at
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I Woke Up Early The Day I Died

Written by Matt Zoller Seitz on September 14, 1999. Posted in Arts & Film, Posts

Ed Wood Lives It’s only September, but I’m more than willing to call I Woke Up Early The Day I Died the weirdest American independent film of the year–and in some ways the most original. Based on an unproduced screenplay by Edward D. Wood Jr., it plays like a painstaking reconstruction of a feature film
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Outside Providence

Written by Matt Zoller Seitz on September 7, 1999. Posted in Arts & Film, Posts

Tough But Tender Teens I’ve heard Peter and Bobby Farrelly’s work characterized as silly, disgusting and shameless, but rarely heartwarming. Yet to some extent, all their films together share a certain sentimental quality, almost an innocence–no mean feat considering they’re the kind of guys who get laughs from mangled penises and semen-as-hair-gel (There’s Something about
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The Source

Written by Matt Zoller Seitz on September 1, 1999. Posted in Arts & Film, Posts

Beats Nicked You might have thought the Beats were just talented and driven writers and canny self-promoters who were plugged into the bohemian social currents of the day and successfully brought those currents to the attention of white middle America. If that’s your impression, you’ll be surprised and amazed by The Source, a documentary
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