Tag Archives: Marlon Brando

“Masters of the Acting Art”: An Interview with Author Dan Callahan

Dan Callahan is one of our best writers on the craft of acting. Not only does he describe why a performance is good, he digs into the much thornier issue of how it is good. This is where most critics … Continue reading

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For Truman Capote’s birthday: his notorious profile of Brando

A re-post for Truman Capote’s birthday, which is today. Gerald Clarke devoted an entire chapter to how this 1957 profile of Marlon Brando came about in his definitive biography of Truman Capote. ‘The Duke In His Doman’ is a famous … Continue reading

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From Lillian Gish to James Dean: My Interview with Dan Callahan

I had a lot of fun interviewing Dan Callahan about his new book The Art of American Screen Acting, 1912-1960. It’s now up at Slant Magazine: Mystery of Screen Acting: An Interview with Dan Callahan.

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December 2017 Viewing Diary

Supernatural, Season 11 (2015-16) What an incredible season, right up until the moment …. it was not an incredible season. I hadn’t re-watched in its entirety since it aired, although I cherry-picked favorite episodes to re-watch (of which there are … Continue reading

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Kristen Stewart. Androgyne. Beautiful Boy. Gamine. Epicene. Tomboy. Either/Or. Neither/Nor. Both.

Camille Paglia is not the only one to observe that the great movie stars – of any era – are those with androgynous characteristics. The same could be said for literary characters (people always seem to forget the cross-dressing incident … Continue reading

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Year in Review: Shooting My Mouth Off in 2016

I look at this and I wonder why I always feel like I haven’t done jack-squat. Or, at the very least, I could do more. Well, I always can do more. Regardless, here are links to some of the things … Continue reading

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Marlon Brando’s Wardrobe Test for Streetcar

It’s the shoes that make it. Well, and everything else, too.

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“Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.”

My second piece for Epicurious on food and film, this one on The Godfather.

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Year in Review: Shooting My Mouth Off in 2013

Some of the things I’ve written in 2013, for my own site, and also other outlets. Thoughts on Memphis. “Memphis is wounded, and Memphis is obviously depressed. There are a lot of sad ghosts here. But Memphis does not forget. … Continue reading

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The Long Night (1947), Lee Daniels’ The Butler (2013), The Fugitive Kind (1959)

The Long Night Directed by Anatole Litvak I saw this movie for the first time during my wintry month out on Block Island. I watched it in the teeth of one of the biggest storms I have ever experienced up … Continue reading

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