I’m genuinely excited to see the art house sensation of the moment: Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). Still, as someone who believes in the primacy of the director in shaping cinema, I simultaneously keep reminding myself that the … Continue reading From the Archive: Babel
I was a student in college radio when the grunge revolution took over. Nirvana’s Nevermind, Pearl Jam’s Ten, and Soundgarden’s Badmotorfinger all arrived within weeks of each other in the late summer and early fall of 1991 (although our station … Continue reading One for Friday: Top, “Easy”
Someday when the sins of our modern age are tallied up, the culture will provide ample evidence that the worst infractions committed in our name weren’t done so in secrecy. Given what it depicts, Camp X-Ray should play like an … Continue reading She could only do so much in these crazy days
#9 — All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950) Margo Channing, played by Bette Davis, is responding to a direct question. The tension in the room is stirred and the temperature is rising. She’s asked if the darts she’s already been hurling represent the end or the beginning of her charged activity for the evening. She throws back her cocktail, strides purposefully away from her group, pausing one step up the stairwell to turn back and advise, curdled smile on her lips, “Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.” It is the sort of perfect line … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Nine
The Sacrament (Ti West, 2014). Following a couple elegant, artful horror features, West finally goes where all modern directors with a propensity to scare must. The Sacrament is a “found footage” that relies on the conceit of a couple Vice News reporters who tag along when a fashion photographer acquaintance goes looking for his sister, who has become a resident with a cult-like commune that has recently relocated to a remote area in South America. The plot draws heavily on the 1978 Jonestown Massacre, right down to the notorious beverage of choice when it comes time to draw the experiment … Continue reading Donahue, Hitchcock, Lang, Scorsese and Tedeschi, West
I don’t think I’ve ever been a reader who sticks firmly to one type of writing, but I did read a lot of horror fiction throughout high school. That’s partially explained by my commitment to Stephen King, who was (and … Continue reading My Writers: Clive Barker
11. U2, Rattle and Hum The swirling stars have barely settled into place above the snowy mountain peak in the Paramount logo before Bono announces, “This song…Charles Manson stole from the Beatles. We’re stealing it back.” In no time at … Continue reading College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 11
This is one of those films from the old reviewing days that I remember only vaguely. Clearly I liked it fairly well. In fact, this review kind of makes me want to watch it again. I guess that means, for all the writing weaknesses I see throughout — led by opening and closing sentences that both make me wince a little — the review does its job. When he’s really cooking, Robert De Niro is an actor that can instantly electrify the screen. The latest film to boast the talents of De Niro is “Night and the City,” and, as … Continue reading From the Archive: Night and the City
By the late-nineteen-nineties, my connection to new music was in dire shape. It had only been five years since I’d last had the opportunity to log some regular hours on a college radio station, but my instincts for sniffing out the top newcomers had atrophied thanks to some time toiling for a commercial alternative station, where only bands that had a sound within echoing distance of Pearl Jam need apply. I did what I could with the resources at hand — including the increasingly fruitful but not yet fully helpful land of web-based music coverage — but I was finding … Continue reading One for Friday: XTC, “Your Dictionary”
#10 — The Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean, 1957) David Lean’s The Bridge on the River Kwai is one of the films that I remember as being a fairly constant presence when I was much younger, always helping a … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Ten
Coffee for Two 