Bong Joon-ho has the panache of a master showman and the cunning of a regime-toppling agitator. His films are trenchant commentary gussied up into inspired entertainments, impressing as dervishes of audacity. Parasite, representing Bong’s return to South Korean filmmaking after … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2019 — Number Three
572. Various Artists, Dance Craze (1981) Although director Joe Massot couldn’t have had particularly warm feelings about working on the Led Zeppelin concert film The Song Remains the Same, having been kicked off the project by the producers, he was … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #572 to #569
The Most Important Comedy Writer of the Last 50 Years Finally Gets Her Due by Elyssa Goodman I am among the quickest to co-sign any declaration celebration the broad cultural impact of David Letterman. But I’m also keenly aware that … Continue reading Outside Reading — My Empty Dish Mocks Me edition
I retain a youthful tendency to fall hard for certain songs, albums, and music artists (and certain films and filmmakers, but that’s a different topic), and no performers have been more successful in recent years at making me dizzy with … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Diet Cig, “Night Terrors”
That Lulu Wang drew from a personal story to craft The Farewell inarguably adds to the aura around the film. What seems like high concept invention — a family conspiring to hit a terminal cancer diagnosis from a sweet, elderly … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2019 — Number Four
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Céline Sciamma, 2019). Set near the close of the eighteenth century, Céline Sciamma’s achingly refined, French drama is about a female artist (Noémie Merlant) who is recruited to surreptitiously paint the portrait of a … Continue reading Then Playing — Portrait of a Lady on Fire; Judy; For Sama
It is a pleasing irony that Marriage Story begins as the legal union of the title is effectively at its endpoint. Theater director Charlie (Adam Driver) and actress Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) have been married for several years, working together on … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2019 — Number Five
Despite protests to the contrary and the little fact that director Martin Scorsese is just a few weeks away from the first shooting day on his next feature film, The Irishman feels like a closing statement. Of course, it is … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2019 — Number Six
576. Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Re·ac·tor (1981) Outside circumstances mandated a new approach for Neil Young when he recorded the album Re·ac·tor. His infant son Ben, his first child with his second wife, had recently been diagnosed with severe … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #576 to #573
100 years after the 19th Amendment women still have yet to achieve equality by Lyz Lenz Using as a prompt the centennial anniversary of women belatedly earning the right to vote in the U.S., Lyz Lenz offers an agitated and … Continue reading Outside Reading — See Yourself Here edition
Coffee for Two 