I read a lot of comic books as a kid. This series of posts is about the comics I read, and, occasionally, the comics that I should have read. I believe Spider-Man was supposed to be my generation’s gateway into … Continue reading My Misspent Youth — The Amazing Spider-Man by Roger Stern and John Romita, Jr.
“Hints of robustness survived in him, more than a hint of primitive good looks, and Margaret, noting the spine that might have been straight, and the chest that might have broadened, wondered whether it paid to give up the glory … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
The Final Girls (Todd Strauss-Schulson, 2015). This send-up of horror films — with special satiric sanctimony leveled at the slasher films of the nineteen-eighties — can’t help but draw comparisons to similar efforts in recent years. And already muddled film … Continue reading Playing Catch-Up — The Final Girls; Baby Face; Lightning Strikes Twice
Molly’s Game, the feature directorial debut of Academy Award-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin makes a compelling case for his previous practice of turning his material over to others to shepherd it to the screen. More than most, Sorkin had the benefit … Continue reading Now Playing — Molly’s Game
Over seven years ago, I shared the first College Countdown post, taking advantage of an online find — an old CMJ Top Cuts chart, which are devilishly difficult to track down in the otherwise information-packed superhighway — to offer a … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — An Introduction
We’re in that part of the film year when patience is necessary. While a few big cities have every Oscar hopeful cramming onto their screens, those of us residing in less populous burgs have to wait and wait. On a recent trip to New York, I have the opportunity to get ahead of the roll-out release schedule somewhat, but there are a whole slew of titles that have me drumming my fingers while giving sidelong glances at the calendar. Among them is The Phantom Thread, the reunion of director Paul Thomas Anderson and actor Daniel Day-Lewis, the latter purportedly in … Continue reading From the Archive: There Will Be Blood
Thirty years ago this month, the Pogues released their third full-length album, If I Should Fall from Grace with God. A personal favorite, that’s probably something I should have casually been aware of, but instead I was alerted to that … Continue reading One for Friday — The Pogues, “The Broad Majestic Shannon”
The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir, 1939). Considered one of unassailable greats of all cinema (or at least a foundational classic that demonstrated the way the spirited form could be applied to weighty social subjects), Jean Renoir’s farcical examination … Continue reading Playing Catch-Up — The Rules of the Game; Beatriz at Dinner; Miss Sloane
In the early nineteen-eighties, a 17-year-old named Elio (Timothée Chalamet) is, by many measures, enjoying a charmed life. He spends summers in a family house in Italy, where his professor father (Michael Stuhlbarg) goes to be closer to a recent … Continue reading Now Playing — Call Me By Your Name
There are, of course, a multitude of ways to commemorate the ending of a calendar year, from earnest list-making to drunken revelry in the frigid public square. In our household, we decided to revive a beloved practice to finish off … Continue reading Bad Movie Night — Geostorm/The Snowman
