By Jack Sinclair

Rango – 2011 – dir. Gore Verbinski

In preparation to play an exaggerated, though realistic, portrayal of Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, Johnny Depp spent several months living in Thompson’s basement looking through the writings and mementos from the drug filled adventure that became the book “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas“. Depp was also studying his mannerisms, he wanted to bring the whole aura of Thompson, with the guns, the drugs, and more, to life. When the film adaptation of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas came out, Depp received a lot of positive reviews for the way that he accurately portrayed the larger than life persona of Thompson. In the years since Fear and Loathing, Depp has found various ways to pay tribute to the man that let him into his home. When Thompson died in 2005, Depp paid for the outlandish funeral party. He also narrated the Alex Gibney 2008 documentary, Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Depp has even stated that Thompson was part of his influence for the character of Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean films.  In 2011, Depp ventured into the animated Wild West in the form of a chameleon, in the popular film Rango. Though the character is animated, as well as a reptile, one can see that Depp intended the unnamed chameleon to be a tribute to the author.

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By Adam Shalvey

Drive – 2011 – dir. Nicholas Winding Refn

Driver is a quiet, sometimes menacing, often violent, but ultimately gold-hearted stunt-and-getaway-driver, and we don’t know much else about him in Nicholas Winding Refn’s beautiful 2011 film Drive. But, in James Sallis’ “Drive,” the 2005 novel on which Hossein Amini based his screenplay for Mr. Refn’s film, we are given the shorthand of his genesis, and more depth into the carnage he consistently leaves in his wake.
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By Jack Sinclair

Midnight in Paris – 2011 – dir. Woody Allen

Nostalgia comes from a combination of two Greek words: “nóstos” meaning homecoming and “álgos” meaning pain or ache. Woody Allen must have felt this familiar ache while writing and directing Midnight in Paris, as the film’s lingering shots of the beautiful City of Lights suggest he may too dream of coming home to Paris.

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By Rachel Thibault

Bill Cunningham New York – 2010 – dir. Richard Press

Who is Bill Cunningham? To start, he’s an enigmatic octogenarian and fixture of the streets of New York. He’s obsessed with the wild styles and bold colors of New Yorkers, yet wears a simple blue smock and a pair of khakis while photographing fashion’s flashiest.He rides a Schwinn around town (his 29^th; the first 28 were stolen), sleeps on a cot in a cramped tiny Carnegie Hall studio, and mends his plastic raincoats with black duct tape. He doesn’t speak of favorite designers and refuses the pate and cocktails offered to him at the galas he photographs.

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By William Benker

13 Assassins – 2010 – dir. Takashi Miike

13 Assassins is visually stimulating, philosophically compelling, and dripping with gore, but just in the right places.  Takashi Miike’s prolific career in the Japanese film industry has given him the freedom to do his fair share of genre bending, but this time he’s kept it contained.  While all the elements of the samurai epic are there, Miike’s gruesome touches are found only in the grisly efforts of the evil heir to the Akashi Clan, Naritsugu.  An easy indication of good versus evil is presented early on, yet in the execution of the story is where the real eloquence lies.

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