What you see, above—an Italian 4-fogli, or four-sheet, for the 1973 film, Coffy—is, for its subject, size, and graphical power, to me, the single most desirable ephemeral object in all of Black film, and possibly connected to any movie.
Why?
Entries Tagged 'Film' ↓
Mamma Mia.
October 13th, 2008 — Advertising, Art, Design, Entertainment, Film, Pop Culture, Sex
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
October 8th, 2008 — Black Music, Entertainment, Film, Hip-Hop
All hail the Queen: Photo by Robert Maxwell for The New York Times
Is Queen Latifah gay?
Her flattering and attentive profile in this past weekend’s Sunday New York Times Magazine detailed many aspects of her professional life and career: Over thirty films, two years as host of her own talk show, Grammy-nominated albums, an Oscar nod, her landmark endorsement with Cover Girl, a thriving management business.
But it also raised the question that has attended the Queen, aka Dana Owens, and her reign, almost as long as she’s been in the public eye: Is she a lesbian?
Give That Guy a Prozac Food Pellet.
October 2nd, 2008 — Advertising, Animation, Film
Pretty much anything Disney does in animation these days is annoying. But the trailer, above, for Bolt, out Nov. 26, is pretty good. It’s about a television superhero dog who escapes the set of his show for the real world, but doesn’t realize he’s actually an actor with no special powers. As one writer noted, think The Truman Show meets Ol’ Yeller. Plus, try and take your eyes off the skittish and impressionable hamster.
Suddenly, Hard-Working Americans, White Americans, Switch to Coors.
October 1st, 2008 — Advertising, Controversy, Film, TV
I think director Christopher D’Elia’s spec commercial for Bud Light is pretty funny, at least as far as the brand’s actually-sorta-troubling, guys-using-beer-to-get-over-on-women schtick goes. Plus, the music cues are golden.
But as American commercial advertising, its racial politics are in a fantasyland, and getting an actor who looks like Obama Girl isn’t gonna change that. You mest not be frum ‘roun’ these parts, eh, Chrissy? If you want a job in Hollywood, stick to racism.
The Mac is Back.
September 26th, 2008 — Advertising, Film
It’s a very strange detail, but ever since Bernie Mac died, I’ve been unable to watch reruns of his syndicated show.
I distinctly remember sitting in front of the TV, the very first night after he’d died last month, as The Bernie Mac Show came on. I tried to watch it, you know, in honor of him and all, but found myself succumbing to this dreadful sense that what I was doing was kind of morbid and vulgar. It wasn’t a grief thing, as much as it was a sense that what I was doing was false.
I hope this feeling goes away by November 7 when his final work, Soul Men—that’s the one-sheet, above—with Samuel L. Jackson and Isaac Hayes, hits theaters. (As we all know too well, Hayes died the day after Mac of an apparent stroke.) Or, maybe the sight of both Mac and Hayes will make me completely unwilling to suspend my ongoing disbelief.
Could Bristol Palin, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s pregnant, 17-year-old daughter, have benefited from the public school sex education classes to which Republicans are opposed?
September 4th, 2008 — Film, Politics
That’s the question Max Blumenthal, of The Nation, asks John McCain’s daughter and mother, above, as well as other G.O.P. operatives on the floor of the convention, in this short, Juno From Juneau. Way too short.
[Via HuffPo]
Don LaFontaine, 1940-2008
September 2nd, 2008 — Advertising, Film, Obituary
It’s weird to be writing twice in the space of a few hours about great voice talents, but, man, the giant has left the building. Don LaFontaine, whose low, gritty, rock-hard “In a world, where…” anchored so many of the over 5,000 trailers he voiced during his 33-year career—like this one for Tyler Perry’s upcoming The Family That Preys—passed away on Monday at the age of 68.
The Mellifluous Overtones of Doom.
September 2nd, 2008 — Film
In Diary, Gary Anthony Sturgis, left, tells his lawyers who’s boss
I was flipping channels this past weekend, saw three black men walking around the curve of a Richard Meier-esque expanse of office building white marble, above, noticed actor Steve Harris acting lawyerly, and figured I’d tuned into a rerun of The Practice.
Wrong. It was Tyler Perry’s Diary of a Mad Black Woman. Overbroad and maddeningly melodramatic, I would have immediately jumped over to some reality show had it not been for what I heard next.
The Cruelest Joke.
August 5th, 2008 — Art, Comics, Film, Politics, Satire
Caricaturist Drew Friedman sums up the psychopathic presidency of George W. Bush in this illustration, “No Joke,” for Vanity Fair, brought to yours truly’s attention via Boing Boing.
Out, You Must Let, the Inner Fett
August 4th, 2008 — Film, Humor, Science-Fiction
It’s a hard life, being Star Wars bounty hunter Boba Fett, going from star system to star system in your spaceship, Slave I, digging through wretched hives of scum and villainy on a thousand known worlds. Sure, if things get too hectic, you can ignite your Mitrinomon Z-6 Jetpack and blast off, but sometimes you need to really…open up…set yourself free…what a feeling….
