Category: Film

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Top Ten Movies of 2014 — Number Two

Dan Seeger

There are a multitude of reasons for the outrage that greeted the omission of Selma from key categories in this year’s Academy Award nominations. While some of the most compelling involve taking issue with the willful and arguably cowardly disregarding of its current political pertinence, my personal fierce disappointment is inspired by a far simpler reason: Ava DuVernay’s depiction of a seminal moment in the Civil Rights movement is one of the great filmmaking achievements of the year, joined in my mind with only a couple other of releases as a pure triumph of directing. DuVernay delves into a portion … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2014 — Number Two

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Top Fifty Films of the 40s — Number Forty-Eight

Dan Seeger

#48 — 3 Godfathers (John Ford, 1948) A common and entirely apt complaint about modern Hollywood filmmaking is the evident pronounced disinterest in the pursuit of originality in favor of figuring out ways to cram familiar brands into the CGI-shaped contours of self-perpetuating (and, increasingly, interlocking) blockbuster franchises. It’s not unreasonable to wish for more invention and less anxious opportunism in the creative choices of modern crafters of cinema, and yet any misty-eyed pining for more golden eras necessarily require a certain amount of willful amnesia. Back in the time before older movies hung around like atrophied specters on late … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 40s — Number Forty-Eight

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From the Archive: Hudson Hawk

Dan Seeger

  When I wrote about critics attacking a film with malevolent glee earlier this week, I was reminded of an earlier instance when I employed the same term in a review of a similarly reviled film. If it seems odd that I so clearly recall two words from a review I penned nearly twenty-five years ago, the explanation is simple: I mispronounced the word “malevolent” on the air, spitting out something that sounded like “male-vahl-ent.” I had read the word many times over, but I don’t believe I’d ever heard it spoken. Luckily, my radio show partner corrected me in … Continue reading From the Archive: Hudson Hawk

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Top Ten Movies of 2014 — Number Three

Dan Seeger

Coherence takes place almost entirely within a single house, and yet it truly resides in an incredibly expansive existence. A group of friends gathers for a dinner party. The scene is filled with the sort of easygoing banter that carries with it a complicated shared history, include a few passing hints of resentments and conflicts previously addressed and bypassed but not quite forgiven. In the midst of all this chatter arises curious, largely unworried conversation about news stories about a comet passing through the night sky. Then the power goes out. From there, James Ward Byrkit’s feature directorial debut spins off … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2014 — Number Three

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Top Ten Movies of 2014 — Number Four

Dan Seeger

Snowpiercer achieves remarkable narrative freedom precisely because director Bong Joon-ho believes in sticking to the rules. Other films that strive for thrill ride status, either in terms of vividly stirred intellect or full-throttled action (Snowpiercer is one of the rare beasts that goes for both), are all too quick to abandon internal logic when it serves the perceived need to set pulses pounding with clockwork regularity. Bong understands the value of setting parameters — maybe your own wonderfully gonzo parameters, but parameters nonetheless — and then honoring them. A movie doesn’t have to be believable to be plausible. It can … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2014 — Number Four

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Your apocalypse was fab for a girl who couldn’t choose between the shower or the bath

Dan Seeger

I’ve been enthusiastic about Jupiter Ascending for quite some time, and that anticipation only ticked upward when the film suffered the ignominy of a postponement from the heart of summer to the dreary days of early February, a scheduling shift announced a mere six weeks before its original release date. That’s because I wasn’t necessarily craving my time in the theater before the latest sci-fi extravaganza from Andy and Lana Wachowski (or as they’re billed in the credits for Jupiter Ascending, simply “The Wachowskis,” like they’ve formed a traveling family band) out of a belief it was going to be good. Given what … Continue reading Your apocalypse was fab for a girl who couldn’t choose between the shower or the bath

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One for Friday: Eggs Over Easy, “Henry Morgan”

Dan Seeger

Among the many targets of my retroactive pop culture grumpiness, classic rock radio is one especially deserving of my ire. There wasn’t a flood of rock ‘n’ roll history available to anyone with an on-ramp to the information superhighway and the diligence to keep following hyperlink spurs until they discovered something wild and different. There were magazines to read, but they could only describe the sound, not share it. Some benefitted from cool older siblings or other local rock aficionados who were happy to pass along some black vinyl wonder with an insistent “Listen to this.” The best bet, though, … Continue reading One for Friday: Eggs Over Easy, “Henry Morgan”

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Top Ten Movies of 2014 — Number Five

Dan Seeger

One of my favorite modern tropes — or at least one that amuses me a great deal — is the presentation of the male libido’s helpless susceptibility to the overtures of attractive women leading to men constantly strolling right into peril because they believe the sexy women really wants a tryst, when the real end goal is quite different. The apotheosis arrives in Under the Skin, as, say, the sexy spy in a catsuit who clobbers aroused males to swipe government secrets levels up significantly to become an otherworldly seductress able to lure random strangers into an oily pool that … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2014 — Number Five

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Top Ten Movies of 2014 — Number Six

Dan Seeger

Appropriately enough, Lukas Moodysson’s We Are the Best blasts forward like a great punk song. It’s spirited and loose and free. It smacks of jubilance and a certain willfully amateurish quality. It is utterly enthralling in its committed belief in self, in the notion that anyone can find their purpose by expressing themselves purely and honestly. And of course it’s lifeblood is kicked into motion by an act of rebellion. A pair of thirteen year old girls (Mira Barkhammar and Mira Grosin) start their own punk band, largely so they can reserve the rehearsal room at a local rec center, annoying some older … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2014 — Number Six