Nerve Insider : film issue

New on Nerve, 11.1.07: Which John Cusack or Drew Barrymore character are you dating?

Sarah — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 15:45:00 GMT

There's a little John Cusack and Drew Barrymore inside us all. Check out our chart to find out which version is in the person you're dating.

New on Nerve, 11.1.07: Blade Runner Final Cut, Reviewed

Sarah — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 14:55:00 GMT

Today Pete Smith ruminates on the newest Blade Runner director's cut:

We're all biological machines, and death is an annihilation, the loss of all memories and experiences. We all want more life, and we're all out of luck, just as Batty is when he finally breaks into the home of Eldon Tyrell, the man who designed him. "What seems to be the problem?" asks Dr. Tyrell. Batty: "Death." Tyrell: "Death — well, that's a little out of my jurisdiction."

New on Nerve, 10.29.07: How much nipple, exactly?

Sarah — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 14:05:00 GMT

This morning we have a quiz based on Screen It, an online database originally made for parents, that details objectionable content in a movie. Can you identify films based on their unsuitable subject matter? See for yourself…

Sample Question:

This list of "Profanity" comes from what film?

At least 260 "f" words (forty used with "mother" — with another written on a wallet — and four used sexually), eighty "s" words, two slang terms for male genitals (the "d" word), one slang term for female genitals (the "p" word), forty-four asses (four used with "hole"), seven damns, five hells, one S.O.B., and twenty-four uses of "G-damn," three of "Jesus Christ," and one each of "God" and "Jesus" used as exclamations.

Boogie Nights
The Boondock Saints
The Departed
Pulp Fiction

Hollywood gets drunk

Sarah — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 21:50:00 GMT

The Film Issue keeps 'em coming. Today's latest piece is The Hollywood Guide to Drinking, by Gwynne Watkins.

Don't let Kim Basinger drink. See: Blind Date, 8 Mile, My Stepmother is an Alien

Do let Marilyn Monroe drink. See: The Seven Year Itch, Some Like it Hot, The Misfits

"So many Oscar noms, so many talented actors, so much Buffy."

Sarah — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 21:20:00 GMT

Another great dispatch from our film issue: "Do-overs," in which we compare sex scenes in older films and their newer remakes. Below, a scene from 1988's Dangerous Liaisons. Click here to see three other version of this scene.

“He's not weird for the sake of being weird; he's just weird because he's weird.”

Sarah — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 19:00:00 GMT

Two terrific pieces from the film issue that I missed while I was out:

This is a great, long interview with Joseph Lanza, whose book Phallic Frenzy “spends as many pages describing [Ken] Russell's onscreen pageantry as its symbolic underpinnings: exaggerated phallic imagery, abrasive anti-religious scenes, nude male wrestling, incontinence, rape and forced enemas.”

Says Lanza, “Some people will look at the book and say, "Phallic Frenzy? This must be pornography." Well, it's about penises, but it's often about how terrifying they can be, and what the penis might have represented to Ken Russell at various times of his life.”

In Will Doig’s charming piece, “Hollywood Square,” Will talks about his love for mediocre Hollywood comedies. Many of them feature John Candy. None of them are good date movies.

“Made in America is not a film you want anyone to know you've seen, least of all a philosophy major from the University of Maryland whom you're trying to have sex with. I knew, even as I was walking the box to the Blockbuster counter, that I was torpedoing the date. I could have rented a Cassavetes or a Schlesinger, but I couldn't stop myself. I was going to make him watch this, dammit.”

New on Nerve 10.22.07: The Film Issue!

Sarah — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 14:57:00 GMT

Check out Nerve’s film issue! We do special issues every two months or so, although it’s been a while since our last one, the Dating Issue. The kick-off (and kick-ass) piece is by Scanner’s Sarah Hepola, about the cultural impact of Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Can you believe the movie turned 25 this year? Read the piece below and check out the line-up for the issue here.