Category: Film

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From the Archive: Used People

Dan Seeger

Several weeks back, I offered up several short reviews I’d written for the “Best of 1992” episode of our movie review show on the radio. On the back of one of those pages was a true rarity from my time doing that program: a hand-written script. I wonder if that means I wrote it in an odd place, far away from a word processor, as if I needed to get my animosity down as quickly as possible, hoping to lose none of my spite for the film in question in the journey to a more familiar writing space. Regardless, from … Continue reading From the Archive: Used People

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Now Playing: Ghostbusters

Dan Seeger

The idiotic braying of misogynistic, righteous anger that has nipped aggressively and constantly at that ankles of the new reworking of Ghostbusters necessitates an opening statement of opinion on its merits simply as a concept. As a resolute admirer of Ivan Reitman’s original film, I think swapping the genders of the characters donning jumpsuits and bearing proton packs is an inspired hook. If we’re going to continue to grope and stumble through the misty morass of a popular culture that values brand recognition over originality, then at least this simple yet significant twist gives the new Ghostbusters a reason for … Continue reading Now Playing: Ghostbusters

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From the Archive: The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

Dan Seeger

This review was written fairly early in the run of The Reel Thing, the movie review radio show I co-hosted from 1990 to 1993. I worked as hard on this piece as anything I wrote in those first months of the show, because I knew I was out of step with the broader critical community. More than that, I knew my partner on the program absolutely loved this film, so I had to make my case as sharp and compelling as possible. As soon as I was done, there was going to be an on-air fight. It wasn’t going to … Continue reading From the Archive: The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

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Laughing Matters: Key & Peele, “Ray Parker, Jr. Theme Songs”

Dan Seeger

Sometimes comedy illuminates hard truths with a pointed urgency that other means can’t quite achieve. Sometimes comedy is just funny. This series of posts is mostly about the former instances, but the latter is valuable, too. There’s obviously an admirable surplus of material from the sketch comedy series Key & Peele that is engaged in the most significant political and social concerns of the current era. Much as I admire that, my true weakness when it comes to the collaborative work of Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele is for their jabs at the entertainment business. I find that material to be … Continue reading Laughing Matters: Key & Peele, “Ray Parker, Jr. Theme Songs”

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My Writers: Joss Whedon

Dan Seeger

I was dismissive of Joss Whedon at first, needlessly so. And I probably should have known better. My first exposure — knowingly anyway — to Whedon’s writing was with the 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which arrived with the excited promise of flinty ingenuity. It delivered far less, and Whedon was easy to dismiss as another breathlessly celebrated Hollywood wunderkind who didn’t have that much to contribute beyond a couple hooky notions. The nineties were lousy with those. As opposed to now, there weren’t a fleet of entertainment reporters prepared to dutifully transcribe Whedon’s complaints about how his original conception … Continue reading My Writers: Joss Whedon