8 years ago
All posts by Noah Gittell
Tom Hanks and the Power of Fear
Noah Gittell analyzes how fear drives the majority of films in Tom Hanks' career, including "Sully."
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On “Trumbo” And Hollywood’s Love Affair With Itself
If you’re watching the live broadcast of the Oscar nominations tomorrow morning, you are likely doing so out of hope. Or perhaps out of love. What else would inspire an otherwise-logical human to get up early--really early, at 5:30am PST, if you’re on the West...
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An Honest Response to Jesse Eisenberg From a Film Critic
It's hard to believe it was just yesterday that Jesse Eisenberg published his controversial piece "An Honest Film Review" in The New Yorker. Unsurprisingly, his portrayal of a bitter, vindictive film critic struck a nerve in the critical community, although re...
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“The Walk” and The Role of the Critic
I don't usually ask questions at press conferences. I'm too often crippled with self-doubt and assume that my question is not worth asking. But following the New York Film Festival press screening of The Walk, I couldn't resist. I raised my hand and spoke into...
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I Love You, Man: A Discussion on LGBT Films
Kyle: Noah, I unfortunately neglected to read your piece, “Three’s Company: A Trio of Modern LGBT-Themed Comedies”, when it was initially posted, but I was immediately intrigued when I skimmed it that day. Your choices -- I Love You, Man, Talladega Nights: The...
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The Act of Silence: LBJ and the Indonesian Genocide of 1965
Between The Act of Killing and now The Look of Silence, filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer has now given audiences a well-rounded look at a tragic event that had somehow been lost to history’s abyss: the killing of up to a million innocent civilians by the Indonesia...
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Three’s Company: A Trio of Modern LGBT-Themed Comedies
Movies—is there anything they can’t do? On Friday, the Washington Post’s Alyssa Rosenberg celebrated the legalization of same-sex marriage by remembering a film that laid the groundwork for the historic Supreme Court decision: In & Out. The 1997 comedy is ...
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Mea Culpa: Why I Avoided Tyler Perry Films For So Long
A few weeks ago, Scott Mendelson at Forbes published a surprisingly positive survey of Tyler Perry’s film career. The piece, which is worth reading in full, highlights Perry’s unsung contributions to 21st century cinema, including how he essentially served as ...
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Stuck in the Middle with You: Defending “Tammy”
When considering the inherent biases of film critics, we usually think about race and gender first. Despite some progress made in the last few years, the vast majority of critics are still white and male. At least this is a fixable problem, although it will su...
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District Mined: The Gerrymandering of Contemporary Cinema
While concerned citizens and political journalists agonized over the fate of the Senate in the weeks leading up to the mid-term elections, there was a good reason no one was talking about the fate of the House: Due to the gerrymandering of Congressional distri...
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