Email Author Michael Atkinson

1998 Stories by Michael Atkinson

• Psycho-a-Go-Go

  published December 22, 1998

  Now that Gus Van Sant's voodoo-reenactment of Psycho has had its day in court, little else requires address besides the simple fact that... More >>

• Shelf Life

  published December 22, 1998

  New to video and rare in any other form, the films in Kino Video's fresh spate of "From the Studio Vault" releases are each the unheralded work of... More >>

• It Takes a Cinema Village

  published December 15, 1998

  To face film culture reality on the cusp of the big '00—the transformed markets, audiences, profit patterns, and distribution... More >>

• Hallelujah! Ron Athey: A Story of Deliverance

  published December 8, 1998

  In terms of performance art's potential for flabbergasting bullshit in the name of "transgression," Ron Athey tries and in a sense succeeds at... More >>

• Monkey See

  published December 1, 1998

  So, it's Thanksgiving—what do you rent? What, Hannah and Her Sisters? Growing up a New Yorker in the TV strangeland of the '70s,... More >>

• All Clair

  published December 1, 1998

  The René Clair story goes like this: once considered one of the greatest of French filmmakers, Clair was lambasted by the Cahiers du... More >>

• Running on Empty

  published November 24, 1998

  Abald attempt at recapturing '70s loser cinema à la Midnight Cowboy, Scarecrow, and Wanda, Amos Kollek's Sue... More >>

• Endgame

  published November 17, 1998

  All that ends in movies does not necessarily end well. Narrative films must, by definition, have an ending (nonnarrative films don't— they... More >>

• The Big Shop of Horrors

  published November 3, 1998

  The only great roar of pure Gothic spirit in American film, the classic Universal horror cycle of the '30s and '40s wore its expressionism... More >>

• Velvet Crush

  published November 3, 1998

  Loudly hallowed though he is by directors and fans alike, Christian Bale is still one of Hollywood's best-kept secrets and has been since his... More >>

• From Bad to Verse

  published October 13, 1998

  In the opening moments of Slam, the movie's weed-hawking, rhyme-spouting protagonist, Ray (Saul Williams), buys what looks like 30 kids ice... More >>

• Ho Hum Humbert

  published October 6, 1998

  Although the theatrical release of Adrian Lyne's beleaguered Lolita has by this time as much cultural significance as another post-Maris... More >>

• Developing Dr. Seuss

  published October 6, 1998

  Regarding Jim Carrey's recent casting in a live-action remake of How the Grinch Stole Christmas: Carrey may be the most Seussian movie star... More >>

• Ill in the Family

  published September 22, 1998

  It was as inevitable as the full moon: the materialization of Anna Quindlen's semiautobiographical novel into a Hollywood tearjerker angling for... More >>

• Out of the Running

  published September 15, 1998

  It's the paradigmatic pop cult tale of the last half of the 20th century: the guileless hayseed attaining popular godhood by virtue of unschooled... More >>

• Bravo New Worlds

  published September 1, 1998

  Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet called it "retro-futurism," and that's as good a label as any to slap on Terry Gilliam's Brazil, a... More >>