Gus Van Sant Archives - Parallax View

by Richard T. Jameson, Contributors, Film Reviews, Horror

Review: Psycho (1998)

Written by Richard T. Jameson October 23, 2018

[Originally written for Mr. Showbiz, December 4, 1998]

Set the wayback machine to 1998. Parallax View presents reviews of films released 20 years ago, written by our contributors for various papers and websites. Most of these have not been available for years.

Is there anybody on this planet who doesn’t know Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 horror-suspense classic Psycho? Or hasn’t been exposed to its sundry bastard offspring (name any slasher movie), hommage-y imitations (the collected works of Brian De Palma), and sequels (none of them Hitch’s); or the hundreds of jokes it has inspired; or the earnest insistence of any number of aunts, neighbors, or co-workers that, no sirree, they haven’t felt comfortable taking a shower ever since. So there won’t be lots of folks who’ll wander innocently into a theater where Gus Van Sant’s virtually line-for-line, shot-for-shot remake is playing, experience the story of Marion Crane, Norman Bates, and the dark doings at the Bates Motel as something brand-new, and say, “Heavens to Betsy, that took me by surprise!”

Review: Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot

Written by Robert Horton July 26, 2018

Review by Robert Horton for Seattle Weekly

Portland’s resident filmmaking genius, Gus Van Sant, can go either way. Sometimes he’s mainstream (lest we forget Good Will Hunting) and sometimes he’s experimental (in the remarkable Elephant and Gerry). For his latest film, he wears both hats.

Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot is Van Sant’s tribute to fellow Portland legend John Callahan. You may remember Callahan: the carrot-haired quadriplegic cartoonist whose squiggly-lined drawings repeatedly crossed the borderline of good taste. The title refers to the caption of one of his most famous panels, a picture of some cowboys pondering an abandoned wheelchair in the middle of the desert. Before his death in 2010, Callahan worked with Van Sant on developing this biopic.

Continue reading at Seattle Weekly

by Sean Axmaker, Contributors, Essays

The Modern Breakthrough of ‘Mala Noche’

Written by Sean Axmaker June 28, 2016

The feature debut of Gus Van Sant, adapted from the autobiographical novel by Portland author and street poet Walt Curtis, is an intimate black-and-white tale of l’amour fou steeped in the culture of Portland’s (now long gone) skid row. Shot on 16mm, on a tiny budget of $25,000, Mala Noche is a true American indie, made before the term was ever coined, let alone used as a marketing hook. It’s a modern beat movie of lust and friendship and unrequited love among the down-and-outs. And it’s also a groundbreaking landmark of queer cinema thanks to its offhanded acceptance of a gay character as a protagonist. Walt’s homosexuality is a given, a simple matter of fact, rather than a statement. Rare enough at the turn of the 21st century, this was unheard of in 1984, when Van Sant shot the film on the streets of his adopted home of Portland, Oregon.

Continue reading at Keyframe