Mark James
At the Smithsonian, the cake is a lie
In 2010, critic Roger Ebert proclaimed that “video games can never be art.” Up against gamers who appreciate the increasingly cinematic qualities of the medium, the debate over whether video games are a legitimate avenue for art is a contentious one that has been invigorated by new graphic and technological capabilities. Unfortunately, the new Smithsonian exhibit The Art of Video Games ignores the artistic process in the development of video games, focusing instead on the 40-year history of video game consoles.
By Mark James March 22, 2012
Box Office, Baby! Bad Casting: What Dafoe?
You probably know who Willem Dafoe is—you’ve seen him as the Green Goblin in Spiderman, or recognized him in Platoon, The Boondock Saints, or American Psycho. But to this writer, he’s more than just an actor. He’s an artist. No, he’s an icon. Maybe it’s his deep, grainy voice. Maybe it’s the intensity of his facial features. Whatever it is, Dafoe has a lure that keeps me shelling out money to see him on the big screen, as I, in a state of fanboy hypnosis, continually ignore the title or synopsis of the film I’m about to witness. Forget the movie; it’s Willem I’m paying to see.
By Mark James March 15, 2012
Box Office, Baby! Little gold men please Academy
There’s something special about the Oscars. Maybe it’s the glamorous red carpet entrances, where the freshly Botoxed faces mumble on about their bewilderment (and our bewilderment) at being invited to the Academy Awards without having appeared in any of the nominated films. Maybe it’s the gathering of unnatural-looking old men who have several lifetimes’ worth of accomplishments packed under their belts. Maybe it’s the celebration of cinema, both old and new. But most of all, the real meaning of the Oscars is berating the Academy for consistently handing those little golden men to undeserving candidates.
By Mark James February 23, 2012
Lez’hur ledger: Want your money back, you will
This Saturday, I wasted 16 dollars on a ticket to the 3D re-release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. The following is a letter I wrote to George Lucas explaining my disappointment.
By Mark James February 16, 2012
Box Office, Baby! Kindergarten commentary
“This scene is unbelievable because my frustration about this taxi cab does not understand where I want to go.” These words were mangled together by two-term governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, who evolved from iron-pumper into action star before he started signing bills. And, if more than 20 people had watched the DVD commentary of his film Total Recall before his election bid, lines like this one could have single-handedly sabotaged his run for office. If only the people of California had known that they were casting their ballots for a man wholly incapable of making a routine DVD commentary track.
By Mark James February 9, 2012
Box Office, Baby! Trailer trash pollutes cinema
Watching a crowd walk out of a movie theater provides an instant litmus test for a film’s success. Groups of friends usually huddle together to debate a film’s merits, except in those rare occasions when a movie leaves them speechless—imagine the scene after a premier of 2001: A Space Odyssey or Apocalypse Now. Regardless, there should a knee-jerk reaction; you watch a film, and you judge it. Recently, though, the process has been reversed: people watch trailers over and over on the internet and pass judgment on a film before they’ve seen the real thing. As a trailer addict myself, I’ve found myself enjoying movies less and less recently. Going to a movie just seems like setting myself up for an inevitable disappointment.
By Mark James January 26, 2012
Box Office, Baby!: No Green for NC-17
Walking into a screening of Shame, an upcoming film labeled with the dreaded NC-17 rating, I felt a tingle of excitement. No, not the excitement a pubescent boy feels before opening his first Playboy, but the excitement that I was about to witness a quality film. Unfortunately, the stigma of pornography that an NC-17 rating carries has left many independent films like Shame at the cruel mercy of the Motion Picture Association of America.
By Mark James December 1, 2011
The apocalypse has never looked this good
Lars von Trier is no stranger to the grotesque. His 2009 film Antichrist, an antidote to his debilitating period of depression, featured talking animals, the self-mutilation of body parts you’d rather not know, and, quite unexpectedly, gorgeous cinematography. In Melancholia, the director introduces a lavish wedding party-gone-wrong in the context of the imminent destruction of the earth in his typically provocative fashion. Yet to lead actress Kirsten Dunst’s credit, the film is able to explore unsettling themes without gratuitous gore in its presentation of picturesque, slow-motion imagery, Wagnerian opera, and genuinely erratic characters.
By Mark James November 17, 2011
Laziness: a college gamer’s biggest obstacle before Level 1
This Friday, Bethesda Softworks will release Skyrim, the fifth installment of The Elder Scrolls series of role-playing video games, and my GPA will subsequently plummet to unprecedented lows. Or at least that’s what I hope. In the summer of 2006, when The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion came out, I logged about 150 hours playing the game. When I say that I have been counting the days to Skyrim’s release, I am not lying. But there is an obstacle that may keep me from recording monumental hours on my Skyrim account. Since graduating from high school, I have become too lazy to play video games.
By Mark James November 10, 2011
A Band of Brothers: Music at Georgetown
In Georgetown, even daytime house concerts attract police attention.When student band Text Message played a daytime house show, they had multiple run-ins with the Metropolitan Police Department. The band tried to take it in stride. “The police disturbances split the show into three 20-minute sets,” Mike Jaroski (COL ’14) said.
By Mark James November 3, 2011