queer — Blog — Reflections on a Silver Screen

"Do me a favor, will you, pal?": a brief moment of tenderness from In a Lonely Place

In the midst of Nicholas Ray’s bitter film noir, this thirty-second scene is striking for its unexpected intimacy.

Hollywood RevisitedBen RendichApril 10, 2024In a Lonely Place, Humphrey Bogart, Davis Roberts, Nicholas Ray, Film noir, queer

"Could be...:" a queer reading of They Live By Night

Director Nicholas Ray eschews codes of patriarchy by comprehending and responding to his leading man’s beauty.

Hollywood RevisitedBen RendichDecember 19, 2023They Live By Night, Nicholas Ray, Farley Granger, Alfred Hitchcock, Rope, Strangers on a Train, queer, gay

Review: Anatomy of a Fall is a deliberate study in uncertainty

Writer-director Justine Triet’s psychological mystery is a meditation on our cultural predilection for interpreting women’s agency as deviant or offensive.