#15 — Malcolm McDowell as H.G. Wells in Time After Time (Nicholas Meyer, 1979) By now, it’s firmly established that playing a historical figure necessitates an actor pursue expert mimicry and slavish adherence to documented tics and tendencies above all … Continue reading Greatish Performances #15
#41 — Hiroshima Mon Amour (Alain Resnais, 1959) History doesn’t slow down, and it doesn’t pause to give affected observers time to process what has happened. Sometimes art has to rush to keep up. In the process, it can unearth … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the Fifties — Number Forty-One
At this point in the director’s career, it may be easier and more instructive to catalog how a new Wes Anderson film is different than its predecessors. For example, his latest, The Grand Budapest Hotel, is packed with all the … Continue reading What a beautiful dream that could flash on the screen in a blink of an eye and be gone from me
Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954). I sometimes identify Akira Kurosawa’s Ran as epic filmmaking writ as large as the screen allows. Seven Samurai, made over thirty years earlier, is epic filmmaking in the inverse, pruned and delicate and piercingly intimate. There are major moments to it, too, and scenes of pounding cinematic glory, but what really makes it work is the painstaking intricacy of Kurosawa’s storytelling. There’s a reason other creators return to it time and again, extracting what is useful for their own tales of valor and ironic victory. Kurosawa and his collaborators (Shinobu Hashimoto and Hideo Oguni are … Continue reading Frears, Kurosawa, Robson, Sturges, Taylor
19. The Rolling Stones, Some Girls Some Girls is the best-selling Rolling Stones album in the United States, by a healthy margin. The 1978 release has been certified platinum six times over by the RIAA, with only 1981’s Tattoo You … Continue reading College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 19
Reviewing films in a small, Central Wisconsin community led to some strange situations. It was always a bit of a crapshoot as to what would actually come to town, not just on opening weekend but at any point during its run. We spent a lot of time with our weekly radio show trying to figure out how to handle it when only one new release came to town, or other things that we were actively excited to cover dragged their way in well past the point when the national media was covering them. Given that, I’m sometimes amazed at the … Continue reading From the Archive: Rush
I’d like to say that I grabbed a hold of Fountains of Wayne after seeing That Thing You Do!, but that’s not quite accurate. Fountains of Wayne songwriter Adam Schlesinger penned the title cut to Tom Hanks’s directorial debut, miraculously creating an instantly catchy number that never overstayed its welcome despite being circled back to repeatedly in the film (and then there are those of us who’ve watched the film countless times and still never gotten sick of it). That introduction should have reasonably been enough to convince me that this was an artist made for me, particular since his … Continue reading One for Friday: Fountains of Wayne, “Utopia Parkway”
Right now, I feel a little like Godzilla’s logo up there. So limited words tonight. “One for Friday” will be here at it’s regularly scheduled time tomorrow. Continue reading Programming Note
#42 — High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952) Beware the film critic who has stumbled upon a thesis. This isn’t automatically a problem, but it does lead to an overvaluing of certain films over others, sometimes for fairly questionable reasons. For example, Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, which we will get to before this feature has run its course (although more quickly than most writers about film would consider prudent), has been elevated to the consensus pinnacle among The Master’s works perhaps as much because of how neatly it fits into pre-existing narratives of the his predilections and obsession than of any exhibited … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Forty-Two
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. The perennial. The standby. Mother’s milk. What one drinks for strength. Hell, what one drinks for glory. It is a meal. It actually may be healthier than most meals. It’s famously a booster of strength. And it’s a full-bodied brew for able-bodied men. Of late, it’s been on the right side of history. It’s an amazing elixir: creamy, rich, and hearty. It’s difficult to get it to the proper temperature, which is mildly … Continue reading Beers I Have Known: Guinness
Coffee for Two 