Author: Dan Seeger

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Top Ten Movies of 2014 — Number Ten

Dan Seeger

There are so many ways for the film version of Wild to go wrong. Adapted from Cheryl Strayed’s bestselling memoir of the same name, Wild is practically designed to lapse into feel-good platitudes cheering the triumph of the human soul over adversity. Following a personal spiral triggered in large part by the death of her beloved mother, Cheryl (played in the film by Reese Witherspoon) set out to hike the thousand-plus miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, despite (or maybe because of) her relative inexperience in such an endeavor. Nick Hornby’s screenplay and Jean-Marc Vallée’s direction admirable cohere to present the monumental … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2014 — Number Ten

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Top Ten Movies of 2014 — An Introduction

Dan Seeger

Though I’d love to weigh in earlier on such matters, the vagaries of being a devoted film fan in a little mountain town, far removed from the urban centers which screen absolutely everything, require a little more patience in getting to a tally of the best films of a calendar year. Even as I buckle down to this task, there are a small slew of films that remain in my blind spot, some by my own error and plenty that haven’t found their way to one of my community’s modest number of screens devoted to artier fare. My tradition holds, … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2014 — An Introduction

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College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 87 – 85

Dan Seeger

87. The Freddy Jones Band, North Avenue Wake Up Call At the time North Avenue Wake Up Call was released, the Freddy Jones Band included the following members: Jim and Rob Bonaccorsi, Wayne Healy, Simon Horrocks, and Marty Lloyd. According to Wikipedia, others who can claim one-time membership in the group are Jeff Duffy, Mark Murphy, and Scott Larned. Not a single “Freddy” or “Jones” among them. Evidently, the band has never revealed the derivation of the moniker that gives them their name. This is exactly the sort of generic roots rock that expect to flourish at my broadcasting alma mater … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 87 – 85

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From the Archive: Desperate Hours

Dan Seeger

When I wrote this, I don’t think I realized the film was a remake (and also had earlier iterations as both a novel and a stage play). So, that’s embarrassing, especially when I make the observation that the makings for a good film are present, betraying no evident knowledge that maybe one already existed. I still haven’t seen the 1955 version, directed by William Wyler and starring Humphrey Bogart, so I can’t even weigh in on that now. This was the penultimate feature in the career of Michael Cimino, Academy Award winner for The Deer Hunter and Hollywood cautionary tale … Continue reading From the Archive: Desperate Hours

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One for Friday: Possum Dixon, “Emergency’s About to End”

Dan Seeger

When I worked commercial radio, toiling at a “new rock alternative” station in the mid-nineteen-nineties, I desperately appreciated those handful of artists that reminded me of my time in the woolier sonic lands of a student-run part of the FM band. I don’t really mean those major college radio bands that had decisively crossed over by that point, like R.E.M. and U2. Nor am I referring to the bevy of grunge rock bands that were the beneficiaries of Nirvana’s success, those groups that largely made college radio a mere pit stop before going on to massive record sales and monstrously … Continue reading One for Friday: Possum Dixon, “Emergency’s About to End”

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I was feeling kinda seasick, but the crowd called out for more

Dan Seeger

As it takes me until late in the day to offer my reactions to this year’s slate of Academy Award nominees, expressing my own sense of disappointment-tilting-towards-outrage over the exclusion of Ava DuVernay and David Oyelowo from their respective categories becomes the latest in a long line of echoes. Regardless of where the respective films will land on my own personal top ten list for the year, I think there are three 2014 movies that are true feats of directing: Birdman, Boyhood, and Selma (with The Grand Budapest Hotel very nearly deserving of that designation). That the one of those … Continue reading I was feeling kinda seasick, but the crowd called out for more

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You think you’re alone until you realize you’re in it, now fear is here to stay, love is here for a visit

Dan Seeger

I’ve had a couple different conversations by now which involved listing all the other filmmakers that come to mind when watching Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice. The director has already acknowledged a surprising influence from the early nineteen-eighties oeuvre of Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker, especially Top Secret!, and the film does often play like one of their outlandish comedies dragged through a heavy Anderson filter in much the same way that Punch Drunk Love is a standard Adam Sandler comedy given the same transformative treatment. There’s also the clearest echo of Robert Altman since Anderson’s Magnolia, if only in a clear resemblance to … Continue reading You think you’re alone until you realize you’re in it, now fear is here to stay, love is here for a visit

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Ford, Hancock, Huston, McDonagh, Robespierre

Dan Seeger

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948). Huston’s famed exploration of greed tainting a slapdash partnership of aspiration gold miners in the Mexican mountains is so deviously ingenious that the director booming cackle virtually echoes through the most feverish scenes. The best Tim Holt can do as the most upstanding, straightforward member of the trio is stay upright against the buffeting winds of Humphrey Bogart, all sweaty paranoia and flash fire intensity, and Walter Huston, delivering a just Oscar-awarded turn as the weather-beaten old-timer whose the one member of the party who’s not a neophyte. The film is … Continue reading Ford, Hancock, Huston, McDonagh, Robespierre

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Just try to do your very best, stand up and be counted with all the rest

Dan Seeger

In the immediate aftermath of watching Selma, I was one of those many people who marveled at what a leap forward it was for director Ava DuVernay, considering the perceived degree of difficulty in shifting from small, intimate dramas to a period picture on a wide scale depicting a signal moment in recent American history. Then I revisited my own review for DuVernay’s prior film, Middle of Nowhere, and I realized the resounding inaccuracy of that perception. Yes, the scale of Selma is very different, most evident in the scenes recreating the various attempts at mounting a protest march the fifty … Continue reading Just try to do your very best, stand up and be counted with all the rest

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College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 90 – 88

Dan Seeger

90. The Falling Wallendas, The Falling Wallendas The Falling Wallendas were a power-pop outfit out of Chicago, close enough to 90FM’s Central Wisconsin home base that there was surely a little regional affection and pride for many of the deejays that played their self-titled debut. After an admittedly cursory search, I wasn’t able to find any music from this album readily available on the interweb for open listening. The closest I got was a live version of the song “Porn,” which appears in its studio version on their sophomore effort, Belittle. That second outing was also their last. Besides having an aces band … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 90 – 88