THE ACADEMIC HACK.
Writings by Michael Sicinski
I. The Common Moviegoer
New Releases Seen 2010 (organized by rating)
Reviews of New Releases 2010 (by title)
------Jan
NYC Releases Seen 2010
Reviews of New Releases 2009 (by title)
-------Jan / Feb / Mar / Apr / May / Jun / Jul / Aug / Sep / Oct / Nov / DecSelections from the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival (although I didn't go)
2009 Cinema Arts Festival Houston
2009 New York Film Festival / Views From the Avant-Garde ("The Home Game")
NYC Releases Seen 2009
Reviews of New Releases 2008 (by title)
Jan / Feb / Mar / Apr / May / Jun / Jul / Aug / Sep / Oct / Nov / Dec2008 Toronto International Film Festival
Selections from 2008 NYFF Views from the Avant-Garde
Reviews of New Releases 2007 (by title)
Jan / Feb / Mar / Apr / May / Jun / Jul / Aug / Sep / Oct / Nov / Dec
2007 Toronto International Film Festival Semi-Actual Retroactively Constructed Pseudo-Coverage
2007 New York Film Festival "Views from the Avant-Garde"
2007 Syracuse International Film and Video Festival
2006 / 2005/ 2004 / 2003 / 2002 / 2001 material
Nothing but Top Ten Lists (in progress - 1963-72; 1974-2006; 2006 updated / corrected)
II. Lines of
Light (a-g film)
-a few chunks of a ponderous wall of text attempting
to grapple with Ken Jacobs's Bitemporal Vision:
The Sea
-excerpts from a discussion about Scott Stark's NOEMA (published in the anthology Porn Studies)
-an open letter of apology to Caveh Zahedi for a bad decision while serving on the SFIFF jury
-an unpublished (and unpublishable) review of
Catherine Russell's book Experimental
Ethnography
-the latest revision of my paper on Snow's Wavelength, Heidegger and Lefebvre (published in Qui Parle)
-an apologetic email
sent to my students, summarizing a lecture on Baldwin's Tribulation 99 and Kubelka's
- "The Fixed
Frame" (latest revision and expansion -- warning, deadly dull)
III. The Funky Diegesis (narrative film)
-Join me, David McDougall, Craig Keller, and Ignatiy Vishnevetky as we go nuts on Alejandro Adams' Canary (for The Auteurs)
-Soderbergh x2! I go guerilla on Che and ponder the deep arschenhaller of The Girlfriend Experience (for Cargo)
-If Prof. Brickell is correct that "philosophy is the talk on the cereal box," Examined Life brings the C.W. Post-Structuralism (for Cineaste)
-Once a soldier in God's Army, Richard Dutcher will fight no more forever (for Cinema Scope)
-It is not always a heavenly romance when two become one. Just ask John Woo's Red Cliff (for Nashville Scene)
-It took me awhile to realize just how awesome Christian Petzold is. (I can be a little thick sometimes.) (for Cinema Scope)
-It's a doggone shame Wendy and Lucy isn't a bit more careful with its class politics (for Cineaste)
-A discussion of the pros and cons of Van Sant's Milk relative to the Obama transitional moment (for Cargo)
-Take the Mulligan and leave the rest! An Education in mediocre filmmaking (for The Nashville Scene)
-Emperor = naked. Tommy Wiseau = sucks. I arrive to kill all joy in The Room (for The Nashville Scene)
-Who here loves TIFF coverage? Yeah, me too! So here's some for ya! One, two, three! (for GreenCine Daily)
-Shin Sang-ok's A Flower in Hell is crazy enough to spirit you away to the other side (for Moving Image Source)
-Alexandra . . . Why? Sokurov tries to puzzle out the Chechen War, with mixed results (for Cinema Scope)
-a rather convoluted attempt at an introduction to the films of Abderrahmane Sissako (for Cinema Scope)
-I talk some about Ousmane Sembčne (for The Nashville Scene)
-Spike Lee knows what it means to miss New Orleans (for Cineaste)
-I was hating Crash when hating Crash wasn't cool (for Cineaste)
-a review of the mock-doc book F is for Phony (for Cineaste)
-Hong Sang-soo's postmodern gamesmanship hits new levels of existential horror in Tale of Cinema (for Cinema Scope)
-sinking my teeth into Land of the Dead (for Cinema Scope)
-wildly enthusing over Kung Fu Hustle with some cross-referencing jujitsu (for The Nashville Scene)
-TIFF wrap-up 2006!!! (for GreenCine Daily)
-"How Alain Resnais Beat the Numbers Game" (tedious excursus on the hazards of the 1-10 scale and Not on the Lips)
-a Deleuzian reading of Bruno Dumont's L'humanité with some odd digressions
-a sample from a long-ass discussion of temporal frameworks in The Shining
IV. A Hundred Flowers in Bloom (web links)
V. Viewer Mail (contact me here)
VI. Talk Was Never Cheaper (my Twitter feed)
NOTE: I am the sole copyright holder of all written
materials published on this site.
Materials previously published elsewhere which are reprinted, partially
or in full, on this site are under copyright through agreement between myself
and the original publishers. In
other words, don't plagiarize me.
I am not a big proponent of "intellectual property" and I am actually
in favor of a certain amount of theft.
But if you are going to steal: (a) steal from better than me; and (b)
steal creatively. Also, despite my
institutional affiliations, I am the sole party responsible for material posted
on this website. Also, note to family members -- sorry about
all the swearing.