Jake Cole

LATEST ARTICLES ( 682 )

• The Front Line (Jang Hun, 2011)

  Jang Hun's The Front Line liberally takes from Saving Private Ryan, but then so does every modern war movie about a past conflict (and, often, a present one). Read more

  Posted on 25 January 2012 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES, MUSIC, TV & VIDEO

• 50 Book Pledge #3: Martin Amis — Money

  

  Like a Bret Easton Ellis novel as written by John Kennedy Toole, Martin Amis' Money is a savage gutting of the Reagan era as seen through the eyes of a clever... Read more

  Posted on 23 January 2012 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES, MUSIC, TV & VIDEO

• 50 Book Pledge #2: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle — A Study in Scarlet

  

  BBC's simply fantastic Sherlock series inspired me to revisit the Sherlock Holmes stories, and I was happy to stumble across some great new hardcovers from... Read more

  Posted on 20 January 2012 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES, MUSIC, TV & VIDEO

• 50 Book Pledge #1: Vladimir Nabokov — Pale Fire

  

  Nabokov's Pale Fire may be even better than his Lolita. A total put-on of a work—consisting of a poem by one "John Shade" and a foreword and commentary by... Read more

  Posted on 20 January 2012 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES, MUSIC, TV & VIDEO

• Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol (Brad Bird, 2011)

  

  The trait that links all four Mission: Impossible movies, each helmed by a different director of wildly differing stylistic sensibilities, is a certain amount o... Read more

  Posted on 20 January 2012 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES, MUSIC, TV & VIDEO

• I'm on Episode 50 of the Matineecast

  So, last week, Ryan McNeil of The Matinee asked me to do a podcast with him on War Horse and Steven Spielberg in general. I happily agreed and we had a fantasti... Read more

  Posted on 16 January 2012 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• El Sicario, Room 164 (Gianfranco Rosi, 2011)

  In an age where "FAKE!" greets even the most honest video, the almost-too-consistent dramatic ups and downs of this extended talking head about a reformed... Read more

  Posted on 12 January 2012 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Criminally Underrated: Jackie Brown

  Jackie Brown is one of my favorite movies, and I've been meaning to write a full post on it forever. I wrote a brief piece for my lovely Twitter pal Sasha... Read more

  Posted on 12 January 2012 MOVIES

• Jennifer Egan — A Visit from the Goon Squad

  Jennifer Egan's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel/short story collection/who-cares A Visit from the Goon Squad has racked up enough accolades for a defining work of... Read more

  Posted on 05 January 2012 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES, MUSIC, TV & VIDEO

• Capsule Reviews: Weekend, Tuesday After Christmas, Into the Abyss, Cave of...

  

  Weekend (Andrew Haigh, 2011)Occasionally a bit precious in its cinematography (one too many woozy shots and obvious visual cues), Andrew Haigh's Weekend is... Read more

  Posted on 05 January 2012 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES, MUSIC, TV & VIDEO

• Blind Spots 2012

  So, various bloggers I read and like have decided to address various, wait for it, blind spots in their movie viewing in 2012. Read more

  Posted on 02 January 2012 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES, MUSIC, TV & VIDEO

• The Best Films of 2011

  

  [Note: Films chosen by non-festival U.S. release date]With best-of lists having trickled in since the start of the month, I've seen more than one critic allegin... Read more

  Posted on 01 January 2012 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES, MUSIC, TV & VIDEO

• A Dangerous Method (David Cronenberg, 2011)

  

  David Cronenberg throws the audience for a loop from the start of A Dangerous Method. The stately opening credits, unfolding gracefully over close-ups of ink... Read more

  Posted on 31 December 2011 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES, MUSIC, TV & VIDEO

• Books I Read in 2011

  

  I fell shamefully behind on reading when I went to college, first overburdened by an engineering course load then spending so much time writing stories for... Read more

  Posted on 31 December 2011 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES, MUSIC, TV & VIDEO

• 2011: The Year in Review

  

  The last year-end post, I swear. Last year I did a similar round-up separate to my best-of list, but this year I had even more reason to hand out "awards" for... Read more

  Posted on 31 December 2011 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES, MUSIC, TV & VIDEO

• War Horse (Steven Spielberg, 2011)

  

  Like his other release this year, The Adventures of Tintin, Steven Spielberg's War Horse indulges in the best and worst of a particular facet of the director's... Read more

  Posted on 29 December 2011 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES, MUSIC, TV & VIDEO

• The 10 Worst Films of 2011

  

  Given that I do not do this for money and therefore mostly have complete freedom in my film selections, my worst-of list is always void of some of the more... Read more

  Posted on 27 December 2011 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES, MUSIC, TV & VIDEO

• Capsule Reviews: Trespass, My Week With Marilyn, We Need to Talk About Kevin

  

  Trespass (Joel Schumacher, 2011)Having premiered at TIFF in September and come to DVD not two months later, Trespass couldn't possibly have been any good, but... Read more

  Posted on 27 December 2011 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES, MUSIC, TV & VIDEO

• Capsule Reviews: Submarine, The Iron Lady, I Melt With You

  

  Submarine (Richard Ayoade, 2011)Referencing The Catcher in the Rye with equal parts sincerity and irony, Submarine likewise moves so awkwardly between self-awar... Read more

  Posted on 24 December 2011 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES, MUSIC, TV & VIDEO

• The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius, 2011)

  

  Much as I desired some kind of return for silent filmmaking in the 21st century, Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist does not resemble a silent picture so much as... Read more

  Posted on 23 December 2011 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES, MUSIC, TV & VIDEO