In honor of the spooky holiday coming up this weekend, I could be trying to come up with a kick ass jack-o’-lantern, but I’m afraid the bar has been set too high for me. So instead, I humbly present a … Continue reading I saw a vampire, I saw a ghost, everybody scared me but you scared me the most
Lolita (Stanley Kubrick, 1962). Vladimir Nabokov’s novel was less than ten years old when Stanley Kubrick took a swing at it, so he was working with a best-selling sensation instead of a revered part of the canon. That–combined with the significant detail that he was Stanley Kubrick and he plainly did want he wanted–gives the director great latitude in his adaptation. Nabokov himself is the credited screenwriter, but much of that material was jettisoned by Kubrick on the way to making his own distinct, darkly comic work. James Mason is marvelous as Professor Humbert Humbert, the man who becomes smitten … Continue reading Altman, Clements and Musker, Gordon (and others), Kubrick, Weir
#10 — Dead Man Walking (Tim Robbins, 1995) When a filmmaker is active politically outside of their chosen profession, it can disrupt the balance of their art. That’s especially true when the work in question is itself political in nature. … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Ten
Today is a good day to look elsewhere for my flowery words. Continue reading Boxing’s been good to me, Howard
80. Flesh For Lulu, Plastic Fantastic Tim Burton directed Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson to unprecedented box office heights in 1989, but the caped crusader isn’t the only associated with The Batcave that can claim significant success in the calendar … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1989, 80 and 79
I’ve been waiting for quite some time for this to show up on the Interweb: Continue reading Well it happened years ago when you lived on Stanhope Road
My college radio career was filled with bands that were staples at the time only to fade into the mist in the years after. I suspect that’s fairly common. Even putting aside the artists that took their turn at the top of the CMJ charts and faced eternal indifference outside of the blissful bubble of noncommercial radio, each college radio station always seemed to have their own set of favorites with each new record by the performers in question treated with the same adoration usually reserved for the likes of R.E.M. and Sonic Youth. Often these were local (or at … Continue reading One for Friday: The Darling Buds, “If”
My Brilliant Career (Gillian Armstrong, 1979). It’s always fun to watch Judy Davis lead with her chin, and sharp, distinctive onscreen personality was basically in place from the beginning. She plays a young Australian woman in the late 19th century who is certain that greatness awaits her out in the big, bad world. Her headstrong nature is continually put to the test, and part of the pleasure of the movie is watching Davis emotionally endure the various indignities and challenges laid in her character’s path. Armstrong balances the storytelling nicely, evoking the period without letting the film become needlessly smothered … Continue reading Armstrong, Brooks, Hodges, Laven, Lester
So today is one of those days that I must direct you elsewhere. Continue reading I’m the living result of a man who’s been hurt a little too much
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 don’t have strong, specific memories of most of my comic … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: Marvel Fanfare by Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum and Paul Smith
Coffee for Two 