Email Author Michael Fox

2009 Stories by Michael Fox

• Inside the Frame

  published December 30, 2009

  The movies typically show museums as oases of civilization providing escape from the cacophony and chaos of the outside world. In his... More >>

• Return of the Banshee

  published December 30, 2009

  Steven Severin and Siouxsie Sioux carried the postpunk banner longer than nearly all of their contemporaries, from the mid-'70s through the... More >>

• Police and Thieves

  published December 30, 2009

  Your self-improvement regime for the New Year likely pales next to Spiderman’s: The 28-year-old Rio kingpin, whose given name is Juarez... More >>

• At the Kids’ Table

  published December 16, 2009

  Uncle Walt, like many a kindly relative, concealed some untoward secrets behind his benevolent smile and neat mustache. Yet his household name... More >>

• Otter Pop

  published December 9, 2009

  Somewhere, Jim Henson is smiling. Twenty years after his death, so-called children’s entertainment — especially animation, in all its... More >>

• Notorious, Psycho Birds Cause Vertigo

  published December 9, 2009

  When today’s torture porn makes old slasher films look like after-school specials, Alfred Hitchcock’s movies must seem mighty quaint.... More >>

• Film Threat

  published December 9, 2009

  Kenneth Anger grew up in the '30s and '40s in glorious Southern California, a rare boy for whom the toxic proximity of the Dream Factory... More >>

• Quiet on the Set

  published December 2, 2009

  Among the legions of innovative directors of the silent era, D.W. Griffith (The Birth of a Nation), Cecil B. DeMille (The Ten... More >>

• Devolution

  published December 2, 2009

  It’s a dismal sign of the times that “altered states” has been supplanted by “alternate realities.” Instead of drug... More >>

• Growing Up Goldwyn

  published November 25, 2009

  It’s a tad disturbing that the latest films by two of our more interesting midcareer directors, Spike Jonze and Wes Anderson, are adaptations... More >>

• A Life More Ordinary

  published November 18, 2009

  Movies about losers — ahem, underachievers — comprise a delicious yet underrated genre. In films like Big Deal on Madonna Street,... More >>

• Tropic of Kuchar

  published November 18, 2009

  The influential filmmaker George Kuchar first won a fringe following decades ago with his pioneering aesthetic of low-budget kitsch and bad-taste... More >>

• Beyond the Great Wall

  published November 11, 2009

  For U.S. fans eager to see the latest films from China (or India or Japan, for that matter), DVD has long been the mode of choice. There’s a... More >>

• Voices Carry

  published November 11, 2009

  The self-effacing form of public performance known as karaoke combines the familiar words and melodies of popular songs with cheap, liberating... More >>

• Single-Cel Organisms

  published November 11, 2009

  It’s a crime, frankly, that Pixar will shortly be salivating over a fifth Animated Feature Oscar at a time when Hayao Miyazaki, The... More >>

• Franco Goes Hollyweird

  published November 11, 2009

  James Franco isn’t just a live-wire actor and a certified hunk; he’s also a helluva good sport. Rather than parlaying his role in the... More >>

• Trans-Mission

  published October 28, 2009

  More curators and programmers should follow the flamboyant lead of Tranny Fest, aka the Transgender Film Festival. Tonight’s opening... More >>

• Asia Express

  published October 28, 2009

  Neorealism never went out of style; it just keeps gravitating from country to developing country. The latest stop is Kashmir, in which a cunning... More >>

• Cinema Mon Amour

  published October 21, 2009

  While foreign filmmakers not named Almodovar or von Trier have a tougher time than ever getting into U.S. theaters , French directors reap one... More >>

• Local Heroes

  published October 14, 2009

  Every fall for more than 20 years, the Film Arts Foundation showcased the best new work by Bay Area filmmakers in one ferociously crammed weekend.... More >>

• Beyond the Keffiyeh

  published October 7, 2009

  Even the most fervent adherents to a cause or country grow weary of polemics. So the challenge for Palestinian filmmakers is to find fresh ways to... More >>

• Truth Squads

  published October 7, 2009

  In the camcorder and YouTube age, we will all truly get our 15 minutes in the spotlight. (Don’t worry, your time is coming.) Take the... More >>

• Think Pink

  published September 30, 2009

  The image of the polite, conformist Japanese person somehow lingers despite (or because of) the last decade’s onslaught of J-horror flicks.... More >>

• Found Masterpiece

  published September 16, 2009

  Thanks to pioneering Bay Area film artists Bruce Conner and Craig Baldwin, as well as the less sophisticated wits behind the subtitled variations... More >>

• The Goodis Touch

  published September 16, 2009

  David Goodis rode a bumpy rocket to hell. Fresh out of college, he published his first novel in 1939. Universal threw him a wad of cash to pen a... More >>