Issue 63: Work Archives - Bright Wall/Dark Room

Though the actors’ imperative to “use it” presumes that every feeling’s instrumental function may be clear, graspable, and harmless, there’s a well-documented dark side to improvisational energy, to working without scripts and roles; boundaries that protect as well as corral.

Robert Redford and Paul Newman in The Sting (1973) | art by Brianna Ashby

Ready to Risk It All: Falling in Love with the Big Con

Helena Bacon·

Issue 63: Work

For a film that essentially centers on deception and theft, The Sting is eminently generous.

You’d Think Everything Just Happens By Itself

Conner Reed·

Issue 63: Work

In Mildred Pierce, Todd Haynes creates one of the most powerful pieces in his already-estimable repertoire: an intimate story about the fundamental tragedy of climbing uphill.

Five Easy Pieces and the Impossibility of New Beginnings

Chris Stanton·

Issue 63: Work

In Five Easy Pieces, Jack Nicholson's Bobby Dupea is less a participant in any form of counterculture than someone who runs parallel to it, propelled from one place to the next by lingering dissatisfaction and an aversion to emotional labor.

Amy Adams in Sharp Objects | art by Brianna Ashby

The Work Never Ends

Katherine Webb·

Issue 63: Work

Sharp Objects is a slow-burning gothic horror about rage and shame and grief, one that explores—in meticulous, at times uncomfortable detail—what it feels like to live in both the midst and the aftermath of trauma.

I’m Here To Take You Out Of This Place

Travis Woods·

Issue 63: Work

Haunting and luminously textured, the haptic expressionism of You Were Never Really Here violently disrupts the pulp tropes that underpin the damaged-man-saves-helpless-girl movie.

Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf in THE HOURS (2002) | art by Brianna Ashby

A Woman’s Whole Life in a Single Day: On Insignificant Work, and Its Significant Absence, in The Hours

Madison Miller·

Issue 63: Work

The film adaptation of Michael Cunningham's novel tells three intertwining stories about three women faced with three different tasks on one insignificant (and in this way, wholly significant) day.

Beautiful Things (2017) | Biennale College Cinema

The Siren Song of Capitalism

CJ Sheu·

Issue 63: Work

Beautiful Things is a documentary-musical of machinic assemblage and desire, a rapturous becoming-object, a euphoric celebration of accelerationism, and a vision of the role of the human in a world dominated by our technological children.

Cary Grant and Jean Arthur in ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS | Columbia Pictures

I Can’t Go On Killing Nice Kids Like That

Sarah Shachat·

Issue 63: Work

Part of the work of being human is finding ways to deal with the fact that we’re not going to be human for very long. Defining yourself by what you do, and the professionalism with which you do it, is the solution that Only Angels Have Wings puts forward, and it’s a hard one to argue with.

Gary Oldman in 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' | art by Tony Stella

Circus Life: The Clockwork Pleasures of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Asher Gelzer-Govatos·

Issue 63: Work

Though John le Carré’s work has been adapted many times, far and away the best adaptation, Tomas Alfredson’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, succeeds in large part because it understands le Carré’s underlying fascination with bureaucratic management.

It’s Not Your Blood: Labor as a Dehumanizing Force in Fat City, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and Blue Collar

Danny Cohen·

Issue 63: Work

In each film, violence exerts a gravitational pull, as if destruction is the logical end point of capitalism.

Ray Liotta and Lorraine Bracco in GOODFELLAS | art by Tony Stella

For Love or Money

Kellie Herson·

Issue 63: Work

Karen Hill's development is the backbone of Goodfellas, the piece that enables much of its thematic and emotional heft.