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The Crop Duster | Robert Horton, Writing About Film
The Crop Duster has two goals. One is to organize links to my critical work: reviews written for The Herald (Everett, Washington) and Seattle Weekly; and public appearances and TV jobs. Selected past work for Film Comment and elsewhere is also linkified. You may also link to my website of 1980s reviews and learn more about my book on Frankenstein and my graphic novel, ROTTEN.
The second goal is to keep a daily record of films watched, annotated with brisk, brief comments. It's a slightly more advanced version of the movie list I kept, in Flair pen, thumbtacked next to my bed when I was twelve.
You do the translation: "Robert Horton en un infatigable crítico residente en Seattle y colaborador habitual de Film Comment. Su espacio en la red está en The Crop Duster acaso el mejor blog de un cinecrítico profesional americano después del de Roger Ebert." --Ernesto DiezMartinez Guzmán, editor of Vértigo
My piece for the Scarecrow blog this week, and etc.
Love Lies Bleeding. “At some point you just have to roll with the confident daftness of the thing.”
Tomorrow, Saturday 3/16, we’ve got another free online session in Scarecrow Academy, as part of our semester titled “Election Year: Politics on Film.” The movie up for discussion is John Frankenheimer’s 1962 classic The Manchurian Candidate. I start talking at 2 pm Pacific Time; register here and join us.
Barton Fink (Joel Coen, 1991). A re-visit to a film that looks very tidy, but without the density of the Coens’ general run. It doesn’t keep repaying you, I mean. When the two fast-talking detectives (a Coen specialty, as Ethan has recently reminded us in Drive-Away Dolls) come into the scene, it’s a relief. Despite Turturro’s prominence, John Goodman owns this one.
Wham! (Chris Smith, 2023). A documentary about those chaps. Let he who is without sin cast the first etc.
The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 1962). Here’s our next film up for discussion as part of Scarecrow Academy’s free online “Election Year: Politics on Film” series. One of the all-timers. Sign up here for our Zoom session on Saturday March 16 at 2 pm Pacific Time. There’s some extended writing on the film from me here.
Join us for another free online session of Scarecrow Academy on Saturday, March 9, as we continue our semester on “Election Year: Politics on Film.” Tomorrow I will lead a talk on Elia Kazan and Budd Schulberg’s A Face in the Crowd, that startling 1957 account of a populist who becomes a threat to society. That’s at 2 pm Pacific Time; register here.
Next Monday, March 11, I’ll be presenting my Humanities Washington talk online, at the behest of the Camas Public Library. This is “Un-American Activities: The Blacklist Era and Hollywood,” a consideration of the Red Scare. It’s free, via Zoom, and begins at 6 pm Pacific Time; register here.
A Face in the Crowd (Elia Kazan, 1957). Here’s our next selection in Scarecrow Academy’s current series, “Election Year: Politics on Film,” for which we’ll gather on Saturday, March 9, at 2 pm. An amazing movie on all kinds of levels, and a treat to talk about. Register here for the free online experience.
Love Lies Bleeding (Rose Glass, 2024). Zany doings, like a trashy novel brought to slightly supernatural life; Kristen Stewart and Ed Harris are game indeed to commit to something like this. Will review next week.
My piece for the Scarecrow blog this week, and etc.
Dune: Part Two. “Part Two is not merely an improvement but almost a different film. Villeneuve’s imagination is unleashed here in a way that frequently thrills, even if the actual storytelling is sometimes dutiful; it’s more Jodorowsky than Lucas.”
Tomorrow, Saturday March 2, we kick off another free online semester of Scarecrow Academy. Our subject for the next nine weeks is “Election Year: Politics on Film,” in which I will lead some conversations about how that topic has been treated in American cinema. We begin with Frank Capra’s 1939 classic Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Start time is 2 pm Pacific Time; check the info and registration links here.
Tonight I’m giving a talk through the Humanities Washington program at the Camano Island Library, at 7 pm. It’s called “Un-American Activities: The Blacklist Era and Hollywood,” and will be a free event at the library. See more info here.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra, 1939). We kick off our sixth year of Scarecrow Academy on March 2nd with this classic, the curtain-raiser for our “Election Year: Politics in Film” semester. The Academy meets online on Saturday afternoons at 2 pm Pacific Time via Zoom, where I lead a consideration of the movie in question. It’s free, and there’s information about how to sign up at the Scarecrow website. Check the website or the poster below for the entire roster. See you there?
Coming up: Scarecrow Academy returns for its sixth year! Our free online “semester” kicks off on Saturday, March 2, with a nine-week series called “Election Year: Politics on Film,” where we will consider some classics of the political world. The sessions take place at 2 pm Pacific Time via Zoom. Full lineup and more info here.
New episode of “The Music and the Movies” this week, this time listening to selections from films that were NOT nominated for Best Score this time. So: music from movies such as MAY DECEMBER, ASTEROID CITY, and SALTBURN, a zany Finnish cover song from FALLEN LEAVES, a schmear of Leonard Bernstein, and a great track from A THOUSAND AND ONE. Plus a certain song from ANATOMY OF A FALL that actually plays a role in the plot – you know the one. Listen at the Voice of Vashon page, at least for the next couple of weeks or so.
I will be delivering a new talk for Humanities Washington next Friday, March 1, at the Camano Island library at 7 pm. This is called “Un-American Activities: The Blacklist Era and Hollywood,” which is what it sounds like; there’s more information here. The event is free, so if you’re in the neighborhood, please stop by.
Dune: Part Two (Denis Villeneuve, 2024). I’ll review this later, but first impression: a big, and sometimes thrilling, improvement on the first part of the saga – Villeneuve really captures the epic scale here, with certain shots that fulfill the storybook visions you have in your head for a saga like this (even if you haven’t read the book). The damn thing still needs the scope of a longer-form project, but this half does have life. New cast members give a much-needed boost, too.
Raising Arizona (Joel Coen, 1987). Apparently I haven’t yet over-watched this movie, an American comedy classic. I still remember the first time seeing it, the thrill of realizing how its opening stanza was unfolding, how nobody made movies like that anymore, and how confident all that was. I should be writing about Ethan Coen’s Drive-Away Dolls later this week, and there’s one little echo I want to explore. There’s nothing extraneous in this movie, which befits the Coens’ meticulous style, but the one exception, which I cherish, is John Goodman’s delicious “I love to drive,” which exists as yet another example of how closely the Coens hear the way men speak.
HATEFUL DEEDS is a novel of political satire and suspense. Read more and download it here!
FRANKENSTEIN
FRANKENSTEIN is my take on the 1931 film's making and legacy, plus some old-school film criticism. From Columbia University Press's "Cultographies" series. Click the image to order.
The long-suppressed 1877 diary of a ROTTEN agent, now available for the first time!
Rotten
Be More Rotten
Learn more about the blood-soaked yet critically-acclaimed graphic novel, and order the trade paperbacks and the “lost diary” right now.
Rotten Diary
Get the long-suppressed diary of a ROTTEN agent! From Moonstone Books
What a Feeling!
What a Feeling!
My other website: a you-are-there journey through the flabbergasting world of 1980s movies.
The Crop Duster 