Capital New York

Holy Motors: Leos Carax's Chaplin-like statement on these modern times

Leos Carax's Holy Motors is another 2012 film giving the 20th century and its cinema a lingering, loving, wistful goodbye kiss. More

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By Steven Boone

on October 18th, 2012 10:11am

Damon Packard, reluctant YouTube-mashup genius, is looking for a budget now

Damon Packard's Reflections of Evil is one of the great American independent films, a surreal survey of the pop culture landscape as it devoured itself across the 1970's, '80s and 90's. Time has deepened its legend as a D.I.Y. masterpiece. Though the "present day" of this film's wildly veering timeline is 1991, Reflections was shot in the early 2000's and now plays like a nutty requiem for the 9/11 decade as well. More

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By Steven Boone

on October 5th, 2012 7:53pm

Steven Boone commented on The musical ads you saw if you grew up in New York in the '70s and '80s

As a child who habitually sang (to the irritation of elders), "Gimmetheball, gimmetheball yeaaaah!" in the early '80s, without ever having seen A Chorus Line, I must thank you for this. You haven't missed a one, looks like. And don't think I missed the reference to a certain home electronics chain. (Not Crazy Eddie.) If you can devote your journalistic resources to digging up early '80s Milford Jai Alai commercials, I will pay top dollar. "Miiillll.... forrd.... Jai-AlaiiiiI!!!" Or send you tickets to beautiful Mount Airy Lodge. http://youtu.be/3dOsgyw7yBw

Posted on September 7th, 2012 9:59pm

The story of the story of Cop Shoots Dog

A neat bundle of olive drab baggage was sitting a few feet away from the animal, on the edge of the sidewalk. I took it to be the belongings of a crusty punk. Crusty punks, drifters who combine the grunge of hippies and the combat-boot toughness of punk rockers, have been an East Village/Lower East Side staple for decades. On 14th Street, they traditionally squat near the corners of Third, Second and First avenues, panhandling with cardboard signs and empty cups. Often, a lone crusty punk will travel with a dog, for protection. But where was this dog’s owner? The sight of his belongings near the wounded dog was ominous. More

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By Steven Boone

on August 14th, 2012 3:52pm

Steven Boone commented on 'The Dark Knight Rises': Gotham's final, reactionary State of the Union

Well, occasionally, I'll mix it up by writing on things that I'm oozing with resentment over. In the business, we call that RANGE. Stay tuned for a future column on subjects that leave me seething with impotent rage. All my suffering, just for your reading pleasure, brother.

Posted on July 25th, 2012 11:00pm

Two views of 'The Dark Knight Rises'

Steven Boone and Ben Parker on the last of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. More

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By Steven Boone and Ben Parker

on July 20th, 2012 1:21pm

'The Dark Knight Rises': Gotham's final, reactionary State of the Union

One of the lovelier tricks a movie can pull is to make us miss somebody and then be grateful for even one fresh glimpse of them. It works on two levels. We are delighted to see or meet a memorable character in narrative context but also to find a familiar actor still alive and thrashing, on the screen, at least. More

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By Steven Boone

on July 20th, 2012 12:55pm

Steven Boone commented on The Last of Us, and other video games that leave absolutely nothing to the imagination

Just getting around to a lot of these comments, sorry. I have been far, far away from computers and screens. Termi, you don't make much of convincing case, to me, at least, by citing industry awards. (I'm a film critic who thinks the Oscars are useless, a pageant for the liberal wing of the 1%.) Citing consensus opinion regarding Uncharted, The Walking Dead and The Dark Knight (all overblown and overrated titles, IMO) doesn't do much to move me either. I am aware that just consulting the awards listings and aggregators like the Tomatometer settles it for a lot of folks, though. Citing the stated intentions of a game's creators carries a little weight, sure, but never more than the evidence of the work itself, or, in this case, the way the work was sold to an apparently bloodthirsty audience. And you might have missed it, but we do get to see the spray of blood and bone before the cut to the title card. See my followup article and my comment under it to get a little more of where I'm coming from. Or try to peek over somebody's shoulder if you're worried about giving me more clicks. So long as you actually read it, brother.

Posted on July 9th, 2012 12:32am

Steven Boone commented on Video games should aim higher than Michael Bay movies

I really appreciate this thoughtful, well-written response, MrMindGame. I plan to play and review "The Last of Us" when it comes out. I was definitely familiar with Naughty Dog's past work but nowhere near as impressed by the complexity and realism therein. That isn't to say that complexity and realism aren't present in "Uncharted" or TLoU; just that those qualities aren't the top prize from my perspective, in a media landscape that has gorged on the unfathomability and volatility of this world since 9/11. That's one reason why I pointed to "The Dark Knight" as an exemplar of the complex/real post-9/11 style. TDK tells us that its facing up to new realities and dangers when, at bottom, its really just the same old militaristic triumphalism with a rougher surface, in high-definition. I think our movies have hardened us far worse than 9/11, and, as I said in the article, it's more a matter of violent form than content. Games are naturally less violent in this sense than "Puss in Boots" or "Chipwrecked." We'll talk. I won't go any further into abstraction here, lest Capital suspend me for weirdness.

Posted on July 8th, 2012 11:55pm

Video games should aim higher than Michael Bay movies

Last week, scores of gamers and video game industry insiders took to the warpath over a Capital article I wrote because it asserted that The Last of Us, a hotly anticipated new survival-horror game, left “nothing to the imagination.” More

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By Steven Boone

on June 29th, 2012 6:45pm