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- 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
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Tag Archives: Mickey Rourke
“When you lose everything, and I mean everything, you sit there in this empty room in the dark, and the only person who can get you out is you.” — Mickey Rourke
It’s his birthday today. It’s hard to fully express what he meant to actors who came up at a certain time. You’ll sound hyperbolic. But as a young actor, he was SUCH a meaningful figure. I was obsessed with his … Continue reading
This Could Be A Total Bust, or Mickey Rourke Inside The Actor’s Studio, by Brendan O’Malley
My talented brother Brendan O’Malley is an amazing writer and actor. He maintained a blog for many years (he doesn’t blog anymore) -in 2020 I posted links to his 50 Best Albums essays, as well as all of his music … Continue reading
April 2022 Viewing Diary
When I first got the Raging Bull gig, I began a re-watch of all the Scorsese-De Niro movies – at least the ones clustered around that period. I grew up on these films. These movies were huge to me as … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Anjelica Huston, biopic, Brian De Palma, Canada, Christopher Walken, comedy, Dana Andrews, documentary, drama, Elia Kazan, F. Scott Fitzgerald, France, historical drama, Italy, Jack Nicholson, Jane Fonda, Joan Didion, John Cazale, Liza Minnelli, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, Mickey Rourke, musicals, Ray Milland, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Robert Mitchum, romantic drama, Russia, sci-fi, Tuesday Weld, Ukraine, Vietnam, women directors, WWII
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“Hey, Mister …”
Commercials in Germany are a little different than they are in America. The UK version of this same commercial features one of my best friends, David Wagner. For some reason, when I try to embed it here it keeps saying … Continue reading
R.I.P. Jean-Paul Belmondo
The outpouring of love for Belmondo has been very heartening to see and I was particularly touched by Mickey Rourke’s Instagram post about him. Mickey Rourke is in a direct line from Belmondo. It’s like a baseball play: Brando/Dean to … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, RIP
Tagged Alain Delon, France, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Mickey Rourke, mirrors
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Angles and Archetypes: From Burt to Brando to Rourke to Jensen Ackles to Martha Graham to Hieroglyphs to Paul Le Mat
“Cock your hat – angles are attitudes.” — Frank Sinatra When Burt Reynolds died I wrote this whole thing about how he “worked his angles.” Like Tyra Banks tells you to do. Like all the great personae of yore knew … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, Television
Tagged Bette Davis, Burt Reynolds, James Dean, Jensen Ackles, John Wayne, Marlon Brando, Martha Graham, Mickey Rourke, Supernatural
6 Comments
October 2019 Viewing Diary
Semper Fi (2019; d. Henry-Alex Rubin) Reviewed for Ebert. Metropolitan (1990; d. Whit Stillman) God, I love this movie. It’s so so strange. It weaves a spell. I love Whit Stillman. He’s a modern-day drawing-room-comedy guy, and it’s the 21st … Continue reading
September 2019 Viewing Diary
Satanic Panic (2019; d. Chelsea Stardust) Rebecca Romijn is reason enough to see this. My review at Ebert. A Hidden Life (2019; d. Terrence Malick) The new Terrence Malick film, about WWII conscientious objector Franz Jägerstätter, a man from Austria, … Continue reading
Mirrors #5: For Oscilloscope: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall
Here it is, a piece I have wanted to write for years, and finally got around to it. For Oscilloscope: Mirror, Mirror: When Movie Characters Look Back at Themselves
Posted in Movies
Tagged Alain Delon, Faye Dunaway, Francis Ford Coppola, Fritz Lang, Gena Rowlands, John Travolta, Johnny Handsome, M, Marlon Brando, Martin Scorsese, Martin Sheen, Mickey Rourke, mirrors, Paul Schrader, Peter Lorre, Richard Gere, Robert De Niro, Rocky, Saturday Night Fever, Sylvester Stallone, Taxi Driver, William Shakespeare
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