#2 — Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959) Some Like It Hot, a film routinely cited as one of the greatest straight comedies Hollywood ever produced, begins with an act of mass murder. And it’s not some gently softened version … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Two
Here’s a perplexing equation: nearly every individual element of The Theory of Everything that might be singled out for analysis is admirable, at least to a degree, and yet the long string of addition doesn’t lead to particularly satisfying film. … Continue reading But nine nine nine for a lost god, and ten ten ten ten for….
This series of posts is dedicated to the many, many six packs, pony kegs and pints that have sauntered into my life at one point or another. (picture credit) Much as I’m an advocate for exploring the bevy of options … Continue reading Beers I Have Known: Asheville Brewing Company Rocket Girl
It’s a testament to the toxic narcissistic nepotism of the Smith clan that I completely forgot After Earth is a directorial effort by the favorite whipping boy of modern cinema, M. Night Shyamalan. Under other circumstances, I might have immediately … Continue reading The Unwatchables: After Earth
4. Siouxsie and the Banshees, Peepshow When Peepshow arrived in the fall of 1988, it was seen as something of a resurrection for Siouxsie and the Banshees, touched with a little welcome reinvention. The post-punk and goth-rock pioneers hadn’t exactly … Continue reading College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 4
At the point I wrote this, I was fairly certain Michael Keaton was going to transition into an important actor, collecting an Oscar nomination or two as he did strong, compelling work. I was only off by two-and-a-half decades or … Continue reading From the Archive: Pacific Heights
There are those songs that are immediately rejuvenating. I suspect we all have them, those tracks that are perhaps somewhat designed to have that effect (uplifting lyrics, soaring melodies, music that builds and builds), but, more importantly, hold with them some beneficial added history. They were there at exactly the right time, the message, the sound, and everything hitting in the right way, like tumblers in a lock falling into proper place. Maybe the sweet spot was hit even more cleanly because the accumulated history of prior listens had finally accumulated to the point that the song shifted from casual … Continue reading One for Friday: Guadalcanal Diary, “Litany (Life Goes On)”
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 was a sucker for a lot of different superhero comics … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: What If? #31 by Rich Margopoulos and Bob Budiansky
#3 — Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950) At the time Sunset Boulevard was released, Gloria Swanson hadn’t appeared in a film for nearly ten years. Between 1933 and 1950, she had roles in only two releases. In that respect, she was … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Three
Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau, 1946). Cocteau’s take on the famed French fairy tale is elegant and unsettling, standing as a cunning exploration of the ways in which imagery and mood can reshape a familiar story. Beginning with opening credits written on a chalkboard (and then promptly erased) and an explanatory that calls for the film to be viewed with the appropriate childlike wonder, Cocteau also establishes a terrific playful quality. The resulting mix of the sublime and the goofy gives Beauty and the Beast (or, if you prefer, La Belle et la Bête) an absolute surplus of charm. … Continue reading Cocteau, Keaton and Crisp, Kent, Reed, Welles
Coffee for Two 