FEATURES
FAHRENHEIT 9/11
By Kent Jones
Michael Moore’s unmissable polemic is devastating: devastating to watch, devastating to think about, and a devastating indictment of the fraudulent presidency of George W. Bush. It’s the Movie of the Moment—no, make that the year.
Plus: an interview with Michael Moore by Gavin Smith
THE STEPFORD WIVES
By Alissa Quart
The title of the original 1975 “women’s lib gothic” instantly entered the language as a synonym for vapid suburban conformism. Now, 30 years later, a comedy remake reveals that the more things change…
ROSS MCELWEE
By Godfrey Cheshire
In Bright Leaves, the latest installment of his ongoing cinematic autobiography, America’s foremost practitioner of the first-person documentary returns home again to try to come to terms with his southern heritage and its ties to the tobacco industry.
JACQUES TATI
By Richard Combs
M. Hulot, the ever-apologetic everyman at the center of the filmmaker’s comedies, is cinema’s Man Who Wasn’t There. What does the dynamic between this French icon and the women in his life reveal about his uniquely disconnected nature.
MAKING OFS
By Paul Arthur
The “behind-the-scenes” film brings together documentary and promotional impulses. Here’s the lowdown on a proliferating postmodern genre as old as cinema itself but only now coming into its own.
KILL BILL
By Chuck Stephens
You’ve read the rest—now read the best. Why Quentin Tarantino conceived and gave birth to his epic tribute to global grindhouse.
JUON
By Grady Hendrix
Forget Ring—Japanese horror has a new cult, and it’s (sort of) headed this way.
DEPARTMENTS
EDITOR’S LETTER
OPENING SHOTS
News, Distributor Wanted: Checkpoint by Chris Chang, Guy Maddin’s Jolly Corner: Guy Maddin on They Won’t Believe Me
GUILTY PLEASURES
By Joan Rivers
OLAF’S WORLD
Olaf Möller on Sohrab Shahid Saless
FIRST LOOK
Michael Mann’s Collateral by Gavin Smith
SOUND & VISION
Phil Towle by Chris Chang & Jon Routson by Rhonda Lieberman
FESTIVALS
Cannes by Amy Taubin, Kent Jones, Phillip Lopate, Joumane Chahine Trad, Richard Peña, Gavin Smith, and Manohla Dargis & Tribeca by Amy Taubin
FICTION
King of Handcuffs by Ron Savage
REVIEW
Red Lights by Amy Taubin, Los Angeles Plays Itself by Paul Arthur, The Terminal by Michael Koresky, and She Hate Me by Nathan Lee
BOOKS
Stanley Cavell’s Cities of Words by Phillip Lopate
VIDI VIDI VIDI
Spartan by Gavin Smith, Tom Dowd & the Language of Music by Chris Chang, Judex by Guy Maddin, 3 Women by Chuck Stephens, Deathdream by Kent Jones
FSLC SEEN
Who’s who at recent Film Society events
