Past Lives, the feature directorial debut of Celine Song, has a unshakeable emotional elegance about it. Clearly autobiographical, the film meets the simple yet surprisingly elusive goal of speaking to universal through focusing on a highly specific story. The plot … Continue reading Now Playing — Past Lives
#56 — Matthew McConaughey as Dallas in Magic Mike (Steven Soderbergh, 2012) Employing a freshly coined portmanteau that was immediately tiresome, the entertainment press relentlessly invoked the McConaissance all throughout the awards season run that provided a lot of shiny hardware for … Continue reading Greatish Performances #56
Conceding upfront that the sanctity of the film series that chronicles the adventures of an archeology professor who has some especially bustling sabbaticals took a significant hit with a comeback installment centered on a crystal skull, I think it’s still … Continue reading Now Playing — Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
30. The Clash, London Calling (1979) “I remember that things were so up in the air, and there was quite a good feeling of us against the world,” Joe Strummer, guitarist and co-frontman of the Clash, told Rolling Stone several … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #30 and #29
Pink Floyd, ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and Me by Charlie Savage Charlie Savage, who’s now a well-regarded political journalist with a Pulitzer Prize on his shelf, recounts his experience a cub reporter when a human interest piece about stoners syncing … Continue reading Outside Reading — The Dark Side of the Trousers edition
This week brought an uncommonly large batch of the new tracks that tugged at my music-loving soul and demanded placement in this weekly spot. At different points, I was sure this week’s model was a recently unearthed gem from the … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Olivia Rodrigo, “Vampire”
Wes Anderson knows who he is. it’s not as if he’s oblivious to his own artistic peculiarities: the mix of bone-dry humor and cartoonish tomfoolery, the characterizations so broad they actually feel more authentic than more restrained renderings, and, above … Continue reading Now Playing — Asteroid City
Farewell, My Lovely (Dick Richards, 1975). As nineteen-seventies New Hollywood was peaking, Robert Mitchum returned to his natural habitat. Mitchum stars as Philip Marlowe in an adaption of Raymond Chandler’s 1940 novel, Farewell, My Lovely, which had gotten a couple … Continue reading Then Playing — Farewell, My Lovely; Carefree; Yes, God, Yes
INDIGO DE SOUZA All of This Will End (Saddle Creek) — All of This Will End, the third album from Asheville, North Carolina resident Indigo De Souza, is effusive in its caustic cacophonies. De Souza is relentlessly candid in her … Continue reading Medium Rotation — All of This Will End; The First Two Pages of Frankenstein
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. Sometimes I think every movie trailer should introduce close-ups of all the actors introducing themselves in character. … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — Magnolia teaser trailer
