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Django

Film

A Beginner’s Guide to Spaghetti Westerns

By Jason Bailey on

Next week marks the DVD and Blu-ray debut of Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino’s Oscar-winning tribute to his favorite of all cinematic subgenres, the Spaghetti Western. Ah yes, you might nod, unafraid to ask the follow-up question: And what, exactly, is a Spaghetti Western? The short answer — if you’re willing to allow the use of the term, which some of those who made these films take as a slam — is an Italian-made western made roughly between 1964-1973 (there were about 500 of them, give or take a few). But if you’d care to sound a little more informed than that at your next film-geek gathering (shut up, we occasionally gather), or if you’d like to use Django as a jumping-off point for a deeper exploration of these popular works, we offer another of our helpful Beginner’s Guides, this one giving you a brief overview of the practitioners and practices of the Spaghetti Western. … Read More

Film

Celebrate Quentin Tarantino’s 50th Birthday With 16 of His Favorite Films

By Jason Bailey on

Quentin Tarantino, America’s favorite over-caffeinated movie geek, turns the big 5-0 today — a bit of a shock, considering that he seems forever frozen as the animated, motor-mouthed kid we first met back in 1992, via his shockingly assured debut film Reservoir Dogs. Your film editor had the opportunity to spend a fair amount of time considering Mr. Tarantino’s influences and filmography while writing the forthcoming 20th anniversary volume Pulp Fiction: The Complete Story of Quentin Tarantino’s Masterpiece (out October 15th — but already available for pre-order!). Part of the fun of trying to figure out what makes a movie encyclopedia like Tarantino tick — particularly one who wears his influences so proudly — is in diving into his favorite films and tracing the path his own work took from them. So if you’d care to celebrate QT’s 50 years by watching some of his most beloved pictures, join us after the jump for an adapted excerpt from the book, with a few recommendations from his favorite flicks. … Read More

Web

What’s On at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office

By Alison Nastasi on

Today at Flavorpill, we voted for Time’s Person of the Year. We crushed on Ryan Gosling in his new glasses. We remembered Tony Stark’s super sassy nicknames for his Avengers pals. We learned nine ways to make sure the restaurants we eat in are clean. We watched a… Read More

Film

The Most Durable Film Franchises of All Time

By Jason Bailey on

Tomorrow marks the release of The Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the latest installment of the surprisingly robust franchise that began way back in 1968 and has withstood five original sequels, a television series, a cartoon series, comic books, and a Terrible Tim Burton Remake™. (Between Apes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Alice in Wonderland, the Terrible Tim Burton Remake™ has proven a fairly stable subgenre, but I digress.) Though its 40-plus year run makes Planet of the Apes quite a long-running series, its meager seven films (so far) is dwarfed by several other, far more durable film franchises. We’ve collected a few of our favorites after the jump; check ‘em out, and add in your own long-running favorites in the comments. … Read More