New York is about to explode! Sidney Lumet's tense filmmaking spills onto the streets as the century's most pivotal confrontations with American authority are still in the rearview mirror. Making the most of its real-life subject material, the documentary-like approach to tracking Al Pacino's Sonny Wortzik and his every move makes for one of the most thrilling and *sweatiest* heist films ever made. Sonny becomes a searing light - a media sensation walking a tightrope between financial freedom and queer condemnation. Once his sexuality is brought into the public sphere, the film provides a look at incarceration of all kinds, replete with an earnest and incredibly prescient look at trans identity, as well as the double-edged sword we call privacy. Your hosts stake out this classic's propulsive cinematography, proximity to biopolitics, and brilliant performances, all while meditating on the film tragically serving as a brutal indictment to this day.
Melissa Hardie's Article on Modernism/Modernity - The Ante-Closet: Figurability, Sexual Modernity, and Dog Day Afternoon
P.F. Kluge and Thomas Moore's 1972 Article on LIFE - The Boys
New York is about to explode! Sidney Lumet's tense filmmaking spills onto the streets as the century's most pivotal confrontations with American authority are still in the rearview mirror. Making the most of its real-life subject material, the documentary-like approach to tracking Al Pacino's Sonny Wortzik and his every move makes for one of the most thrilling and *sweatiest* heist films ever made. Sonny becomes a searing light - a media sensation walking a tightrope between financial freedom and queer condemnation. Once his sexuality is brought into the public sphere, the film provides a look at incarceration of all kinds, replete with an earnest and incredibly prescient look at trans identity, as well as the double-edged sword we call privacy. Your hosts stake out this classic's propulsive cinematography, proximity to biopolitics, and brilliant performances, all while meditating on the film tragically serving as a brutal indictment to this day.
Melissa Hardie's Article on Modernism/Modernity - The Ante-Closet: Figurability, Sexual Modernity, and Dog Day Afternoon
P.F. Kluge and Thomas Moore's 1972 Article on LIFE - The Boys