These posts are about the songs that just barely failed to cross the key line of chart success, entering the Billboard Top 40. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 41. Before there was a single note of … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “That Thing You Do”
Christopher Nolan is a masterful cinematic craftsman who compulsively calls attention to his own striking craft. As opposed to Steven Spielberg, his most obvious ancestor, Nolan is largely disinterested in engulfing an audience so completely in the feelings of the … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2017 — Number Nine
A Ghost Story (David Lowery, 2017). There’s been some chatter lately about the divide between film critics and general audiences. I thought about that quite a bit while finally catching up A Ghost Story, David Lowery’s ruminative tale of grief … Continue reading Playing Catch-Up — A Ghost Story; I Am Not Your Negro; Mudbound
992. T Bone Burnett, Proof Through the Night (1983) In the early nineteen-eighties, T Bone Burnett was a musician of high regard who hadn’t yet broken through. A few years earlier, Burnett earned his keep as a guitar-slinger on Bob … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #992 – #989
I’m dusting off this old pile of words in commemoration on the recent announcement that the Warner brothers — and the Warner sister, of course — are on their way back. This was originally posted in my former online home. … Continue reading From the Archive — Animaniacs
When I arrived at the college radio station where I grew up, I discovered a strange, wonderful, boldly enlivening world. That’s hardly a new observation for me to tap out in this space, but I truly can’t repeat it enough. … Continue reading One for Friday — The Fall, “Big New Prinz”
Director Sean Baker is committed to using his art to give voice to the members of society who are too easily diminished. That’s what he did with the marvelous Tangerine, from 2015, and that’s what he does with The Florida … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2017 — Number Ten
Per tradition, the day after the Oscar nominations are announced is also the day I begin the annual process of counting backwards in celebration of the best films of the prior year. Most other fervent film fans engaged in this … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2017 — An Introduction
Heading into this morning, I was fully prepared to tap out a furious diatribe about the likely distribution of this year’s Academy Awards, the ninetieth go-round of the film industry’s highest honor. Although there are always disappointments for those of … Continue reading The Shape of Upset: Hopeful Thoughts on the Oscar Nominations
It’s probably not one-hundred percent correct to say that Phantom Thread is unmistakably a Paul Thomas Anderson film, but it sure feels right. The new cinematic offering is meticulously crafted, resolutely erudite, psychologically complicated, packed with insightful acting, and careens … Continue reading Now Playing — Phantom Thread
