THE POET KNOWS HE MUST WRITE THE TRUTH, EVEN IF HE IS KILLED FOR IT, FOR THE SPHINX CANNOT BE DENIED -- Bob Kaufman, "THE POET" The life and times of Bob Kaufman, the influential and defiant Beat poet, are chronicled in Billy Woodberry's spellbinding documentary, And When I Die, I Won't Stay Dead. And while Kaufman may have died over thirty years ago, his beatific … [Read more...]
The Beat Spirit Within Llewyn Davis: A Film Rumination
A film about a struggling artist could be many things: arty, pretentious, too ambitious and above all unfocused. For all its many cinematographic achievements and clever performances, the absurdity of I'm Not There (Todd Haynes, 2007) fell to the weight of its lofty hopes. That film gave a highly-stylized rumination of the six lives, or characters, Bob Dylan sought to live, … [Read more...]