Willem Dafoe — Happy Place — It Turns Out the Naming Rights! Membership Option Was For Real and Someone Is Now Five Hundred Bucks Poorer Presents Nat

Shards From the Fractured Mirror: Best Worst Movie, Clerks III, My Life's in Turnaround, The Shadow of the Vampire and Stardust Memories

In the latest round up of movies about filmmaking I cover a quintet of films featured in my upcoming book The Fractured Mirror

The 2016 Neo-Noir Dog Eat Dog is a Tough, Nasty Little Sleeper With Fine Work from Paul Schrader, Nicolas Cage and Willem Dafoe

The Paul Schrader-directed 2016 Neo-Noir Dog Eat Dog, which pairs Nicolas Cage with Willem Dafoe, doesn’t have much of a reputation but I dug it.

Travolta/Cage, The Travolta/Cage ProjectNathan RabinJune 22, 2023Paul Schrader, Willem Dafoe, Nicolas Cage, Edward Bunker, Neo-Noir, crime

Control Nathan Rabin 4.0 #236 The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)

My patron-funded exploration of the films of David Bowie hits another major milestone with 1988’s The Last Temptation of Christ, which smartly casts the late pop icon as a cooly pragmatic Pontius Pilate opposite Willem Dafoe’s punishingly intense Jesus.

Control Nathan Rabin 4.0Nathan RabinSeptember 30, 2021David Bowie, Willem Dafoe, Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader, Harvey Keitel, Harry Dean Stanton, Christianity, Jesus Christ, controversy

Control Nathan Rabin 4.0 #215 Born on the Fourth of July (1989)

Tom Cruise chased Oscar gold in Born on the Fourth of July, Oliver Stone’s messily compelling adaptation of Ron Kovic’s anti-war memoir.

Control Nathan Rabin 4.0Nathan RabinJuly 29, 2021Tom Cruise, Vietnam, Oliver Stone, Willem Dafoe, Tom Berenger, Kyra Sedgwick, Film, Oscar nominee, Frank Whaley, Stephen Baldwin

Control Nathan Rabin 4.0 #197 Platoon (1986)

Time has not been kind to 1986’s Platoon, which sucks even harder than most Best Picture winners.

Control Nathan Rabin 4.0Nathan RabinApril 28, 2021Oliver Stone, Johnny Depp, Willem Dafoe, Tom Berenger, Forest Whitaker, Keith David, Tony Todd, Vietnam, Oscar winner, movies that suck, John C. McGInley, John C. McGinlet, John C McGinley

A Spider-Man That Fucks My World of Flops Case File #133/My Year of Flops II #30 Spider-Man 3 (2007)

Sam Raimi’s famously disastrous third Spider-Man movie, featuring Tobey McGuire as a disco-dancing Emo web-slinger and a bleached blonde Eddie Haskell Venom is a goddamn mess but also surprisingly entertaining and weird, particularly in this era of cookie-cutter superhero sequels.

My World Of Flops, My Year of Flops IINathan RabinJuly 16, 2019Spider-Man, Sam Raimi, Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Willem Dafoe, Thomas Haden Church