Betraying my bias, the very idea of sitting through Oliver Stone weighing in on a recent affront to the sanctity of the American ideals leaves me preemptively exhausted. Stone has two Academy Awards for directing — one more than Martin Scorsese, … Continue reading From the Archive: W
There are writers who leave me dumbfounded, so thoroughly dazzled by their inventiveness and command of language that I can’t help but speculate on what it must be like within the interconnected passages of their brain. I make no claim on an exhaustive knowledge of the voluminous works of Tom Stoppard, especially since most of the touchstone efforts are best experiences from a seat positioned to face a stage. Still, whenever I come upon one of his landscapes of intricately interlocking ideas, I feel humbled and blessed in equal measure. Like most, I suppose, my welcoming entryway to Stoppard’s art … Continue reading My Writers: Tom Stoppard
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. I’ve been taking my place within the hallowed cathedrals of movie theaters for long enough that I can remember a time when there wasn’t a sitcom-length sprawl of commercials as the preamble to any feature. While the natural presumption is that I — in proper cranky old man form — find such intrusions of corporate marketing to be deplorable, I see it instead as, at worst, a necessary evil in a time of mounting costs and more … Continue reading The Art of the Sell: “Dance with Your Feet”
148. Eurythmics, “Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four)” There was no way the big bosses of the entertainment business were going to let the calendar year 1984 pass without doing their level best to capitalize of the fact it corresponded to one of the most famous titles in 20th century literature. Given the need to heavily prioritize timetables over creative decisions, there was equally little chance they were going to avoid bungling the whole endeavor. While respectfully reviewed upon its release, the 1984 film version of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four was not the sensation, critically or commercially, that the producers expected. Even its … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 148 – 146
When I started reviewing films on the radio, in 1990, Clint Eastwood was still larger considered a movie star who occasionally directing movies, almost as a hobby. That consensus view was understandable, but also needlessly dismissive. Within the first few … Continue reading From the Archive: Changeling
Terminator: Genisys (Alan Taylor, 2015). The reeling lesson of the just completed summer box office season is that the recycled repetition of brand-driven moviemaking may finally be sputtering its last. The ideal case study as to why arrived one year earlier. Arriving six years after the previous attempt at franchise revivification, Terminator: Genisys shows precisely how hollow the endeavor can be. The film trots out a procession of touchstones — familiar lines, restaged scenes, echoed character beats — without a hint of a central vision or an ounce of soul. Director Alan Taylor brings that same sluggish blandness that made … Continue reading Bernstein with Hooker, Chaplin, Friedkin, Lowery, Taylor
Lest anyone think horrendously bad spoof movies was a result of the trailblazing of the Wayans clan, there was an ugly little flare-up of them in the early nineteen-nineties, largely responding to the surprising success of the Naked Gun films. Yes, friends, there are times when being a film critic is pure misery. This review was written for The Pointer, the student-run newspaper at my undergraduate institution. One of the difficulties in creating a Naked Gun style parody film is throwing jokes at the audience as if fired from a machine gun, so there’s not much room for flat, unsuccessful … Continue reading From the Archive: Loaded Weapon 1
This was written for The Pointer, the student newspaper at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. When I look back at my clippings from that publication, I’m reminded of the remarkable number of times I penned reviews on films that the … Continue reading From the Archive: Consenting Adults
#26 — Michael Douglas as Grady Tripp in Wonder Boys (Curtis Hanson, 2000) When Michael Douglas was cast as Grady Tripp, I was mightily disappointed. Wonder Boys was a book I adored, and the news that it was being adapted for the screen by the writer of The Fabulous Baker Boys and the director of L.A. Confidential filled me with brave belief that the commonplace degradation of a literary work by the Hollywood machine would be skillfully sidestepped. I figured it would be easy from there. Cast Jeff Bridges as the lead character, and all would be well. Instead, director … Continue reading Greatish Performances #26
Hell or High Water is about robbery. The more overt way this is true is obvious. The film begins with two men (Chris Pine and Ben Foster), brothers and partners, engaged in armed robbery of a bank, striking early in … Continue reading Now Playing: Hell or High Water
Coffee for Two 