Esquire Columns
Columns I wrote at Esquire magazine. Available online for the present moment. Illustrations by Frank Stockton, Andy Friedman, Nathan Fox, Andy Friedman
- Jul 2008: Christopher Nolan, pegged to The Dark Knight (then unseen by me)
- Jun 2008: Documentary narcissism, pegged to Surfwise
- May 2008: No column; it's officially a trend
- Apr 2008: Funny Games
- Mar 2008: Alternative Oscars
- Feb 2008: No column; I couldn't find anything worth writing about
- Jan 2008: Daniel Day-Lewis (pegged to There Will Be Blood)
- Dec 2007: Notable performances of 2007 (as chosen by Esquire)
- Nov 2007: Reservation Road, sort of.
- Oct 2007: Casey Affleck (pegged to The Assassination of Jesse James... and Gone Baby Gone)
- Sep 2007: Showtime original dramas, mostly Dexter and Weeds
- Aug 2007: Joshua
- Jul 2007: Carell vs. Carrey (pegged to Evan Almighty, unseen by me)
- Jun 2007: Michael Shannon (pegged to Bug)
- Online exclusive: Why poker movies suck (pegged to Lucky You, then unseen by me)
- May 2007: Some random nonsense
- Apr 2007: Mark Wahlberg (pegged to Shooter, then unseen by me)
- Mar 2007: Alternative Oscars
- Feb 2007: The Host and The Lives of Others
- Jan 2007: Actors should not attempt accents.
- Dec 2006: Breaking and Entering
- Nov 2006: Ridley Scott vs. Tony Scott (pegged to A Good Year and -- then unseen by me -- Déjà Vu)
- Oct 2006: Babel and Fast Food Nation
- Sep 2006: Black Snake Moan
- Aug 2006: Ryan Gosling (pegged to Half Nelson)
- Jul 2006: Ian McShane on "Deadwood"
- Jun 2006: Jack Black (pegged to Nacho Libre, unseen by me)
- May 2006: The Notorious Bettie Page
- Apr 2006: High school as alternate reality (pegged to Brick)
- Mar 2006: Alternative Oscars
- Feb 2006: Steven Soderbergh's weirdo films (pegged to Bubble)
- Jan 2006: Michael Haneke (pegged to Caché (Hidden))
- Dec 2005: Brokeback Mountain
- Nov 2005: Good Night, and Good Luck.
- Oct 2005: Stop-motion animation (pegged to The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Tim Burton's Corpse Bride)
- Sep 2005: Scarlett Johansson (pegged to Match Point and The Island)
- Aug 2005: Grizzly Man and Last Days
- Jul 2005: Remakes Hollywood should try
- Jun 2005: Brad Pitt (pegged to Mr. & Mrs. Smith, as yet unseen by me at the time)
- May 2005: For fuck's sake do not go see Revenge of the Sith
- Apr 2005: J-horror and Hollywood's appropriation of same (pegged to The Ring 2, unseen by me)
- Mar 2005: Alternative Oscars
- Feb 2005: In defense of screen nudity (sorta vaguely pegged to Closer)
- Jan 2005: Wes Anderson (pegged to The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou)
- Dec 2004: Death to the Great Man Biopic (pegged to Kinsey, Finding Neverland and Beyond the Sea)
- Nov 2004: Primer
- Oct 2004: Jamie Foxx (pegged to Collateral and Ray; I hadn't yet seen the latter)
- Sep 2004: The varying post-Y tu mamá fortunes of Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna (pegged to Bad Education, The Motorcycle Diaries and Criminal)
- Aug 2004: Open Water vs. The Blair Witch Project
- Jul 2004: No column by me, still alternating with Richard Roeper
- Jun 2004: Tom Hanks (pegged to The Ladykillers)
- May 2004: No column by me, alternating at the time with Richard Roeper
- Apr 2004: Dogville