Cinematical

WHERE DO YOU WRITE FROM?

I write from my curiously dusty desk, with a nice big window and a view of the San Francisco fog.

WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO WRITE ABOUT MOVIES?

I think it's some kind of sickness. I love movies, but I also have an obsessive need to list, rate and catalogue everything.

WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE GENRE?

I love Horror and Westerns above all, but I like really good movies of any genre. Mostly I'm a director cultist (see below).

WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE MOVIES?

Carl Dreyer's "The Passion of Joan of Arc" is my official favorite, or on another day, it may be Buster Keaton's "Sherlock Jr.," or Val Lewton's "Cat People" (1942), followed by "Chimes at Midnight," "Bringing Up Baby," "Rio Bravo," "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie," "Dead Ringers" and "Close-Up." More recently, I've been most fond of "Ed Wood," "Pulp Fiction," "Eyes Wide Shut" and "Lost in Translation." I've also seen "Repo Man" more than 20 times.

WHO ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE DIRECTORS?

The list might never stop, but let's start it with: Welles, Hitchcock, Hawks, Bunuel, Ozu, Bresson, Jacques Tourneur, Dreyer, Murnau, Kubrick, Keaton, Chaplin, Ulmer, John Ford, Abbas Kiarostami, Mario Bava, Cronenberg, Lynch, George A. Romero, Monte Hellman, Jacques Rivette, Kathryn Bigelow, Terry Zwigoff, William Friedkin and John Woo.

WHAT'S THE CRAZIEST COMMENT YOU'VE EVER GOTTEN?

That's a tough one. The biggest loonies who have written to me have been nearly incomprehensible. Sometimes I get e-mail from people very angry over a certain movie, but they neglect to say which movie. I've been told to quit many times, and a few times I've been told that I should leave the country.

WHAT ARE THE BEST PERKS OF THIS GIG?

Right now I believe we are read by more pairs of eyes than many of the country's daily print newspapers. And some of our readers are people we've actually heard of! I love writing for an international audience, and knowing that, if I comment upon the fine lighting on a particular movie, the guy who lit the movie may actually read the comment!

WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE THING ABOUT WRITING FOR CINEMATICAL?

Whenever anyone talks about the general low quality of blogging on the web, I get to step in and correct them and give them a concrete example. I've never met most of them in person, but I'm very proud of our team.

Meet the rest of the Cinematical team ...

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