ShaunHuston

Member since 7/6/2007, last signed in awhile ago.

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Interested in:Avant-garde / Experimental, Culture & Society, Education, Fantasy, Film, TV & Radio, Historical Film, History, Language & Literature, Science & Technology, Science Fiction, Visual Arts, Western

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Dakota Skye

DVD review at PopMatters
By ShaunHuston in ShaunHuston filmblog
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"My review of the Dakota Skye DVD posted to PopMatters yesterday. Because this is a small film that many will not have seen, here's a one-line synopsis and excerpt from the review. It's essentially a young adult romantic comedy, but low-key and with a particular wrinkle: the female hero has the power to discern when people are lying. While this conceit creates some problems for the narrative, it also opens up some interesting possibilities: Indeed, the most important function of Dakota’s truth-seeing is that it gives the filmmakers the freedom to develop her as a complex teen/young adult, and not reduce her to a girl looking for love. During the course of the movie, she engages in a number of behaviors largely forbidden to female romantic leads. She ditches her friends. She cheats on her boyfriend with his best friend, and does so without any overt displays of guilt. She continues to act as a dutiful girlfriend after the infidelity. She appears to enjoy sex. In the moral economy ... " [More]

Two or Three Things I Know About Her

New review at PopMatters
By ShaunHuston in ShaunHuston filmblog
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"I have a review of the Criterion Collection DVD of Jean-Luc Godard's 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her at PopMatters today. Read the review. PopMatters home. Originally posted on:Short-Circuit Signs " [More]

2001: A Space Odyssey

Bullets of Summer: Movie Edition
By ShaunHuston in ShaunHuston filmblog
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"Picking up more pieces from this summer of non-blogging. Now, summer films. Star Trek. Like, well, pretty much everybody, I found the new Trek film to be well-cast and thoroughly entertaining. Structurally, I think that the intro for Kirk could have been tighter – the joyride scene in no way needs to be as drawn out as it is, especially not when followed by the bar fight. For me, the movie really gets started when Spock shows up. And yet, I do agree with Chris Wisniewski at Reverse Shot about the lack of philosophical ambition in JJ Abrams' reboot. Trek's creators have always strived to make the franchise about something, and while this hasn't always led to good film or TV, it does, I think, help explain the durability of the storyworld. The new movie is not only the first installment that seems to have been made purely for thrill and spectacle, but allows horrific genocide to go by with hardly more than a nod in the direction of the profundity of such an event. I still enjoyed the ... " [More]

RiP: A remix manifesto

Catching up with DVD reviews at ...
By ShaunHuston in ShaunHuston filmblog
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"Since my last update, I have had three new DVD reviews post at PM: A Film is a Burning Place: Works by Enid Baxter BladerInside Ouside: Vandalism, Art and Vandalism as Art (On spout) RiP: A Remix Manifesto (On spout) Cross-posted on Spout. Originally posted on:Short-Circuit Signs " [More]

Tags and tagging
By ShaunHuston in ShaunHuston filmblog
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"Many times when I add a new item to my delicious account or LibraryThing or to Spout, etc., I have a moment when I pause to think about my tags. I go back-and-forth about adding new tags to items that I know ought to be applied to ones already in my account. With tags I use commonly, I sometimes can't remember my original construction (lower case, upper case, and so on; services vary in how easy it is to check this kind of thing). And there's frequently the temptation to apply unique, virtually one-of-a-kind tags to items. Sometimes I resist this temptation, why create something you're only going to use once, but at other times I know I'll want a label that will give me virtually certain one-click access to the item. So, some days I tag very conservatively, and on others I tag with abandon (hee). But today I've been wondering how much of this is beside the point. Maybe tagging is about the moment and then discovery later? On the other hand, doesn't there need to be some kind of ord ... " [More]

Ashes of Time: Redux

Yes, another PopMatters pointer
By ShaunHuston in ShaunHuston filmblog
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"I have a review of the Ashes of Time Redux DVD that posted today.Read the review.PopMatters home. Originally posted on:Short-Circuit Signs " [More]

PopMatters: "Most Memorable Fil ...
By ShaunHuston in ShaunHuston filmblog
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"To commemorate the site's 10th anniversary, PopMatters is rolling out a special feature on the sixty-two most memorable films of 1999. This entry will link to each day's selection.Monday: January-May.Tuesday: May-August.Wednesday: August-October (includes my entry on The Limey).Thursday: October-November.Friday: November-December.(Cross-poste d on Spout). Originally posted on:Short-Circuit Signs " [More]

To Catch a Thief

To Catch A Thief DVD review posted
By ShaunHuston in ShaunHuston filmblog
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"My review of the new "Centennial Collection" DVD of To Catch a Thief posted to PopMatters yesterday.Read the review.PopMatters home. Originally posted on:Short-Circuit Signs " [More]

Touch of Evil

PopMatters feature on Touch of ...
By ShaunHuston in ShaunHuston filmblog
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"I have a feature on directors, marketing, auteur-ship, Orson Welles, and Touch of Evil up at PopMatters. It will be on the front page for another day or so. " [More]

Touch of Evil

More on the writing of DVD reviews
By ShaunHuston in ShaunHuston filmblog
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"A little while ago, I posted an entry about my evolving approach to writing DVD reviews. Since then, I have thought more about how my writing process has changed over the past few years.One mental block I have had to push past is the idea that each review needs to hold some grand insight into cinema, or pop culture, or society, or, at least, the TV series or film itself.The truth is not every film or TV show lends itself to such statement-making. I have been detaching myself from this idea for awhile, but it was my recent, forthcoming review of Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief that crystalized the need.When confronted with a film by someone like Hitchcock, I immediately gravitate towards the Statement, but Thief, not surprisingly, deflected such thinking. Yes, it's well-crafted, etc., etc., but no one is going to mistake it for one of the director's masterworks. It's high gloss entertainment. No reason to make it into much else (by way of example, I think I forced the modest Dig ... " [More]

Re:What is your favorite movie ...
By ShaunHuston in Movie Polls
"Days of Heaven is one of three or four films I routinely cite as my favorite. One of the best experiences I have had was being able to see it on the big screen a few years ago. The print wasn't anything special, but up until then I had only viewed it on DVD. Responding to this poll was clearly a different kind of decision for me than others who have commented, as I love all of the movies in Malick's body of work. I think that his films are among the most philosophically ambitious to be found in theaters. The attention he pays to landscapes and to themes of contact between different worlds - European and Indigenous, Modern and Non-modern, human and natural - is intended, I think, to visualize some of the intangible or ineffable qualities of being in the world - sense of place, wonder and beauty - that can perhaps only be expressed in art. One of my favorite scenes in The Thin Red Line gets at this perfectly: a native Islander with a spear walks upright through the brush as American ... " [More]

Re:Short documentary on 24-Hour ...
By ShaunHuston in Filmmakers Forum
"[quote user="seely"] Thanks for sharing that. What inspired the project? Any great stories to tell of the trials and tribulations of funding and production? I'm always curious to hear about the industry... [/quote] I teach geography and film studies at Western Oregon and am interested in the relationships between people, place, and culture. I began noticing that Portland was home to a large number of comics writers and artists and was interested in exploring why that was. Cities like Portland have been successful at attracting the "creative class", but not every city has been a magnet for this particular group. I wish I had good funding stories! I have built up my equipment over a few years, partiy with my own funds and partly with university support. My work last summer was underwritten by a development grant from Western, and I had a small group of students and recent grads working on the project for credit and experience. From here, who knows. I am benefitting from the access ... " [More]