Crowd of Full Pockets

Movie and Music Analysis from One Lacking Any Credentials to Provide It

  • On the Anniversary of William Shakespeare’s Death

    Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet (UK/USA 1996) is suggested viewing for everyone (just remember that you need four hours). Like pretty much all film Shakespeare productions, it’s stagy, but any one of Kate Winslet playing Ophelia, Julie Christie playing Gertrude, or Branagh himself as Hamlet would be worth the price of admission alone, and here you get…

  • Anatomy of a Scene: “Annie Hall” (Woody Allen, USA 1977)

    Annie Hall, one of the greatest films ever made, is at once devilishly complex and remarkably simple. On the side of simplicity, it wears its point on its sleeve and never hides what it’s saying for a second. However, it also is built on a remarkably complex narrative structure (essentially the same structure that director…

  • TV Episode Review: “Orphan Black” “Nature Under Constraint and Vexed” (02.01, 2014)

    Lots of people have played multiple characters in one project (whether film or television). Usually, the hair, makeup, and costuming do most of the work. What makes Tatiana Maslany so amazing is that she isn’t content to leave it to those external factors to separate her characters. When Sarah walks into the Dyad party pretending…