Usually I’d fill this space with some collection of observations about the film or the review, but I’m highly distracted today. So I’ll stick with just the older words. More than any other current director I can think of, Wes Anderson … Continue reading From the Archive: The Darjeeling Limited
With limited radio options and meager fiscal resources to boldly build my own collection when I was in high school, I relied on music writing to build my comprehension of the vast expanse of tuneful wonderment that existed outside of the Top 40. As a result, I was often more fascinated by lyrics, which could be excitedly quoted in reviews, than the actually combinations of instruments cranking out the rhythm and melody. My attention was also disproportionately captured by any song that had an elaborate title. Often unable to experience the tracks properly, I got a little charge from feeling … Continue reading One for Friday: Johnny Boy, “You Are the Generation That Bought More Shoes and You Get What You Deserve”
I take great pleasure in the notion that George Miller finds takes the opportunities of caution presented to him by the entertainment industry and transforms them into wildly audacious cinematic creations. He did it nearly two decades ago when he parlayed his screenwriting and producing credits on the gentle hit Babe into more creative control, including the directing role, on its more ambitious, decidedly darker, and markedly beautiful sequel (which, of course, didn’t fare nearly as well at the box office). Now, with the studios’ seemingly unstoppable hunger for any project that carries even a hint of brand recognition and the possibility … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2015 — Number Two
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. In my dull snobbery, enhanced by an equally misguided tendency to dismiss anything viewed as too girly from my pop culture consideration, I was an unlikely reader for a series featuring She-Hulk, the unfortunately named cousin to Marvel’s signature green goliath hero. Introduced in a comic book with a 1980 cover date, She-Hulk was the titanic alter ego of Jessica Walters, previously unmentioned cousin of Bruce Banner. When her relative happened to be … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: Sensational She-Hulk by John Byrne
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (J.J. Abrams, 2015). As a piece of nostalgic reclamation, the latest “Episode” of the Star Wars saga does its job so efficiently that its hard to get overly enthused about it as cinema. In a strangely fitting turnabout, the film series that fundamentally changed the business of U.S. moviemaking has turned into a follower, adhering closely to the mighty Marvel model. There’s little indication that The Force Awakens is laying the groundwork for vaster, interconnected stories, but it’s all introduction and reassurance, a tapping of the baton before commanding the symphony to life. The sense of … Continue reading Abrams, Benson and Moorhead, Fosse, Jones, Roach
Based on Colm Tóibín’s novel of the same name, Brooklyn demonstrates the reservoirs of emotional power that can be tapped by telling a quietly compelling story unadorned by pushy narrative tricks, by letting the particulars of wisely conceived drama stand as the prevailing voice of the film. Set in the nineteen-fifties, it tells the story of a young immigrant named Eilis (Saoirse Ronan). She settles into an existence of minor yet impactful unease after journeying from Ireland to find her place in the title borough. The relatively modest scale of her challenges serves to settle the film into an endearingly realistic space … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2015 — Number Three
238. The Jam, “Absolute Beginners” Paul Weller reclaimed the title for the The Jam’s 1981 single “Absolute Beginners” from the Colin MacInnes novel of the same name. The second book in the British author’s London Trilogy, Absolute Beginners was first published in 1958. Though already a revered work, it was experiencing a bit of a revival around the time the nineteen-seventies slipped tumultuously into the eighties, partially tied to the nostalgic interest in mod culture that followed the release of the film version of Quadrophenia, in 1979. Most of Weller’s cultural compatriots had read the book. Funny enough, Weller himself … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 238 – 236
When I raid the old blog for material, I tend to recycle film reviews. It’s part of my ongoing effort to get the bulk of my digital film writing swept into this corner of the internet. This week, though, the … Continue reading From the Archive: Flashback Friday — 1996
I’ve featured the music of Jon Astley in this weekly space once before, quite some time ago. Interestingly enough, the cited impetus for that post was a song that wasn’t featured in it, presumably because I was convinced of its availability at the time. Or maybe I thought I’d get around to it a little later. If it was the second option, then a little later has finally arrived. Astley was a longtime record producer who took a crack at releasing his own albums, beginning with impishly titled 1987 LP Everyone Loves the Pilot (Except the Crew). In some ways, his … Continue reading One for Friday: Jon Astley, “Jane’s Getting Serious”
Befitting his status as a filmmaker approaching his octogenarian years, Ridley Scott is something of a throwback. Until The Martian, I didn’t realize just how far in Hollywood’s history his creative instincts lie. Since he made his feature directorial debut in the latter half of the second, Scott was easy to plop into the categories of the other auteurs from around that era, deeply informed by the greater artistic latitude afforded to those behind the camera. That he truly made his name with a pair of films that combined harder science fiction elements with more audience-friendly directness (as if George … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2015 — Number Four
Coffee for Two 