#22 — Amour (Michael Haneke, 2012) Michael Haneke is not gentle with viewers. The Austrian filmmaker built his formidable reputation with material that dwells, to different degrees, on the significant cruelties human beings exact on one another. The appalling instincts … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Twenty-Two
Bad Education (Cory Finley, 2020). Based on a real incident, as reported in a New York article, Bad Education is a portrait of criminal greed dressed up as glad-handling public duty. Frank Tassone (Hugh Jackman) is the superintendent of a … Continue reading Then Playing — Bad Education; The Story of Temple Drake; Rocketman
476. Love Tractor, This Ain’t No Outer Space Ship (1986) The early nineteen-eighties was a good time for a band to ply their trade in Athens, Georgia. In addition to an especially fertile club scene, boosted by a college crowd … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #476 to #474
COVID-19 should encourage creative reform in higher education by John McNay I’ve previously used my little corner of the digital world to share articles that detail the opportunity of the current moment, the clearing of stagnant practices that would allow … Continue reading Outside Reading — Breathing Lessons edition
Hypnotic and steely, the new single from Ela Minus is a forceful techno anthem for our wounded times. Born in Bogota and based in Brooklyn, Minus makes music with an impeccable sense of craft, layering on airy, rich vocals that … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Ela Minus, “megapunk”
It Chapter Two (Andy Muschietti, 2019). After his big-screen adaption of Stephen King’s It outperformed any reasonable expectations at the box office, it was pretty much inevitable that director Andy Muschietti would go back to Derry, Maine, the small town … Continue reading Then Playing — It Chapter Two; Sounder; Thoroughbreds
#23 — Inside Llewyn Davis (Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, 2013) No other filmmakers thwart their characters’ ambitions and unravel their dreams with quite the same aplomb as Ethan and Joel Coen. The brothers are often lauded for their uncanny … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Twenty-Three
Don’t Think Twice (Mike Birbiglia, 2016). This rueful comedy follows a modestly successful improv group that starts buckling when one member (Keegan-Michael Key) get his big break through being cast on a national television show akin to Saturday Night Live. … Continue reading Then Playing — Don’t Think Twice; Relic; Archive
If the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences can go ahead and pretend they can proceed with the usual glad-handling and self-congratulation of an awards season, I guess I can keep up my corresponding tradition. Tradition holds that the … Continue reading Top Ten Television, 2019-2020 season
479. Roxy Music, Flesh + Blood (1980) After Roxy Music returned from an extended hiatus to make the 1979 album Manifesto, they found themselves making significant adjustments intended to insinuate their music into the marketplace. Songs from the album were … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #479 to #477
