Categories
Archives
-
-
-
-
Recent Posts
- 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- “I don’t represent anything.” — Liz Phair
- “I don’t really know why, but danger has always been an important thing in my life – to see how far I could lean without falling, how fast I could go without cracking up.” — William Holden
- “Some syllables are swords.” — Metaphysical poet Henry Vaughan
- “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
- “All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl.” — Charlie Chaplin
- “As a cinematographer, I was always attracted to stories that have the potential to be told with as few words as possible.” — Reed Morano
- “Even though I’m writing about very dark material, it still feels like an escape hatch.” — Olivia Laing
- “It’s just one of the mysteries of filmmaking that sometimes you do something that you don’t even think it’s important, then it turns out to be.” — Lili Horvát
- “Ballet taught me to stay close to style and tone. Literature taught me to be concerned about the moral life.” — Joan Acocella
Recent Comments
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- Mike Molloy on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- Scott Abraham on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- Scott Abraham on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- Mike Molloy on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on March 2026 Snapshots
- sheila on “I don’t really know why, but danger has always been an important thing in my life – to see how far I could lean without falling, how fast I could go without cracking up.” — William Holden
- Jessie on March 2026 Snapshots
- Helen Erwin Schinske on “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
- Maddy on “I don’t really know why, but danger has always been an important thing in my life – to see how far I could lean without falling, how fast I could go without cracking up.” — William Holden
- sheila on “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
- Helen Erwin Schinske on “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
- Joseph Pedulla on Susan Hayward Sleeps Raw
- sheila on “For I am of the seed of the WELCH WOMAN and speak the truth from my heart.” — Christopher Smart
- P Nickel on “The realization of ignorance is the first act of knowing.” — Jean Toomer
- Melissa Sutherland on “For I am of the seed of the WELCH WOMAN and speak the truth from my heart.” — Christopher Smart
- Bryce on The Books: “Nine Stories”- ‘The Laughing Man’ (J.D. Salinger)
-
Tag Archives: Lili Taylor
“I also like to play roles where the women are a little crazy. I just have a feel for crazy people.” – Lili Taylor
“If someone puts up $100 million on a movie, they’re gonna be concerned about whether they’ll get it back. So they’re not gonna make a movie about three girls, you know?” — Lili Taylor It’s her birthday today. Like most … Continue reading
Dynamic Duo #41
River Phoenix and Lili Taylor Thank you so much for stopping by. If you like what I do, and if you feel inclined to support my work, here’s a link to my Venmo account. And I’ve launched a … Continue reading
Posted in Actors
Tagged Dogfight, dynamic duo, Lili Taylor, Nancy Savoca, River Phoenix
Leave a comment
Emir Kusturica
This Bosnian-born Serbian filmmaker has my love for his film Arizona Dream, his first American film, starring Faye Dunaway, Johnny Depp, Lili Taylor, Jerry Lewis, and Vincent Gallo. I wrote about it for my Film Comment column. The film was … Continue reading
Posted in Directors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Arizona Dream, Balkans, Faye Dunaway, Jerry Lewis, Johnny Depp, Lili Taylor, Serbia, Yugoslavia
3 Comments
Review: The Evening Hour (2021)
I reviewed for Ebert. I didn’t care for it.
Year in Review: Running my mouth in 2020, Part 1
What a year. Hard to say “the worst” because I was at least somewhat mentally stable during 2020, but this year was an assault. An assault after a couple of years of exhausting assault. It was an assault on us … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Directors, Movies, RIP
Tagged Arizona Dream, Aubrey Plaza, Australia, Derek Mahon, Dorothy Arzner, Eavan Boland, England, Faye Dunaway, Germany, H.D., hockey, Iranian film, Jane Austen, Jean Arthur, Jerry Lewis, John Sturges, Johnny Depp, Jonathan Demme, Josephine Decker, Kurt Russell, Lili Taylor, Linda Manz, Little Richard, Lucille Ball, Martha Coolidge, Maureen O'Hara, miracle on ice, Nick Nolte, Patricia Bosworth, Shirley Jackson, Steve McQueen, Supernatural, women directors, year in writing
2 Comments
Present Tense: on Emir Kusturica’s Arizona Dream (1993)
I’ve been obsessed with Arizona Dream – the 142-minute version, not the BUTCHERED version released in theatres or on DVD (at least in the US) for decades now. It stars Jerry Lewis, Faye Dunaway (in one of her best performances), … Continue reading
March 2020 Viewing Diary: A Before and After List
I began this viewing diary in a time of innocence (and naivete) before social distancing became compulsory (or at least strongly suggested). We here were months behind schedule, due to the disgraceful anti-science buffoonery of the current administration, who do … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Cary Grant, Claude Rains, comedy, coming of age, documentary, drama, Faye Dunaway, film noir, Frank Capra, Gary Cooper, George Stevens, Germany, Jane Austen, Jean Arthur, Jerry Lewis, Jimmy Stewart, John Garfield, Johnny Depp, Johnny Flynn, Lili Taylor, literary adaptation, Natasha Richardson, Paul Schrader, romantic comedy, Supernatural, Thomas Mitchell
9 Comments
The Return of Nancy Savoca’s Dogfight
For a while now, Nancy Savoca’s masterpiece Dogfight has been out of print. It had been released on DVD, with a wonderful commentary track by Savoca, but it was threatening to slide into obscurity. (I have made a couple of … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged Dogfight, Lili Taylor, Nancy Savoca, River Phoenix, romantic drama
2 Comments
Matt Zoller Seitz and I Discuss Nancy Savoca’s Dogfight
Dogfight, written by Bob Comfort, and directed by Nancy Savoca, stars Lili Taylor as Rose Fenny, a shy frumpy waitress living in San Francisco in 1963, dreaming of being a folk singer, and River Phoenix, at his very best, as … Continue reading
Fall 1995: Acting Notebook
Going through all these old notebooks – I came across the notebooks I kept during grad school. At first they start out all work, no play … which is interesting in and of itself – but the notebooks I kept … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Personal, Theatre
Tagged Al Pacino, Anton Chekhov, Brian De Palma, Chinatown, Christopher Walken, Dog Day Afternoon, Elia Kazan, Faye Dunaway, Harold Pinter, John Guare, John Strasberg, Johnny Depp, Lee Strasberg, Lili Taylor, Mickey Rourke, Network, Nicholas Mosley, Nijinsky, Olympia Dukakis, Sanford Meisner, Tennessee Williams, Two-Character Play
11 Comments