At it’s best, science fiction is all about ideas. Shrewd philosophical debates and trenchant social commentary are housed within fantastical tales of space travel and futurescapes. That’s harder to discern from the offerings in the multiplex, where the default approach … Continue reading I am a visitor here…I am not permanent
The quiz is located at the PBS Website. Continue reading She’s a lot like you, the dangerous type
#38 — Gangs of New York (Martin Scorsese, 2002) There is a contingent of film observers that met Gangs of New York with the perspective that Martin Scorsese’s professional narrative had eclipsed that of his films. Gangs wasn’t about the … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Thirty-Eight
After a long week, my brain is a little mushy. I’ll need to get to number thirty-eight tomorrow. Continue reading And the piano, it sounds like a carnival and the microphone smells like a beer
This is the cover to the issue of Entertainment Weekly that showed up in my mailbox last week: This will be the last issue I receive via subscription unless the number crunchers at Time Warner decide to provide a couple … Continue reading If you’re here ’cause you want to be entertained go away, please go away
Before I made it to the college radio station, I was devoted to the celebration of the album. I was convinced that full-length records were the proper measure of an artist. Anyone could zip out a three minute song, but it took true talent and dedication to construct the heady novel that was a great album. This was, in part, residual Rolling Stone influence–the publication’s review section at the time had no reviews of singles, and, given the nature of music sales at the time, little cause to change that. It was also because the artists who held the greatest … Continue reading One for Friday: The Beautiful South, “Song for Whoever”
#39 — 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu, 2007) The city the characters move through is a bleached slate gray, as if all the color had been systematically drained from it. As if a cold, winter sky … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Thirty-Nine
That has been spread widely across the Interwebs today, but I want to add my digital “Hear! Hear!” I’ve long liked Barney Frank, but I think he may have just become my new favorite Member of Congress. (Posted simultaneously to “Jelly-Town!”) Continue reading I can face your threats, stand up tall and scream and shout about it
Swing Vote (Joshua Michael Stern, 2008). Stern builds his soft political satire around the notion of a contentious U.S. presidential election coming down to one vote, an entirely ambivalent, freshly unemployed middle-aged scamp. That role, as it must, goes to Kevin Costner, who tries to find a new side to the die he’s been casting periodically ever since Bull Durham. It doesn’t work, in part because he can’t quite get a handle on how this guy’s charm should be balanced against his more problematic behavior. It’s mostly due to the tepid script, though. The raw material is there to tackle … Continue reading It’s just another movie, another song and dance
I think you’re supposed to find the word “HULK.” I wish this existed on the Interweb because of me, but I am grateful that it exists on the Interweb because of someone else. (Posted simultaneously to “Jelly-Town!”) Continue reading Can’t get no rest, don’t know how I work all day
Coffee for Two 