Sony’s Metreon center in San Francisco was designed with high aspirations: It was to be an entertainment complex unlike any other, a shortcut to the future. Clearly, someone in the corporate chain of command had a...
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Coury Turczyn
Q&A: John Dykstra, the special effects pioneer who made us believe in ‘Star Wars’
When Star Wars unleashed the power of the (box office) force in 1977, the cast became instant celebrities and George Lucas was deemed a genius. But for hardcore movie geeks of the science fiction variety, another name...
T&A Q&A: Russ Meyer and his protuberant obsessions
The relationship between sex and filmmaking in mainstream Hollywood was dragged out into the open in 2017. But for the late ’60s-’70s independent filmmaker Russ Meyer, combining the two acts was the entire...
Reassessing: ‘Starship Troopers’ (1997), more of a video game hybrid than great social satire
For the past five years or so, director Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers has been undergoing a nonstop critical reevaluation, led by the Atlantic‘s 2013 declaration that it was “One of the Most...
Yee-Haw Industries’ “new church of typography” sparked a letterpress renaissance
Sadly, Yee-Haw is no more. The print and design shop—among the first of several boutique printers in the mid-’90s to rescue letterpress machinery and type libraries from oblivion—called it quits in 2012. Some of...
John Waters explains the aesthetics of trash, and what separates good filth from bad
John Waters’ next films after this interview appeared were Pecker and Cecil B. DeMented–all quite fair, though perhaps lacking in the full-on trashy delight of his earlier works. Nevertheless, you could never call...
When Prince became [a symbol], the nation’s art directors received a very special gift
In 1993, Prince Rogers Nelson changed his name to a unique glyph of his own design (aka “The Love Symbol”) that was intended to represent his male/female duality. This presented an unprecedented challenge...
Resurrecting the long-lost woodcuts of mid-century artist Jim Flora, the original pop-surrealist
Originally published January 2008. As far as blocks of wood go, this one is extraordinary. Perhaps a lifetime ago it had humble beginnings as, say, a leftover piece of scrap from a long-forgotten carpentry project; it...
Reassessing: ‘Iron Man’ (2008), back where the MCU all began
For all its fantastic scenes of pure hardware lust—growling European supercars, fanged robotic missile launchers, and of course Tony Stark as a human Swiss Army knife—Iron Man is notable for one very un-superhero-movie...
Reassessing: ‘Juno’ (2007), wherein Ellen Page marks her territory
The first clue that you may in fact be watching a quirky indie comedy arrives when Rainn Wilson appears in the opening scene as a convenience store clerk. Second clue: As the main character, a 16-year-old girl, ponders...