Category: Film

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From the Archive: Basic Instinct

Dan Seeger

Many of the reviews to be shared in this space will come from my time as co-host and co-producer of The Reel Thing, the WWSP-FM radio show where I first took a spin a genuine film critic. There were a few other outlets that deigned to distribute my words, the most natural of which was the student newspaper, with offices directly adjacent to the radio station that was my most consistent collegiate home. I’d actually had an earlier stretch as a writer for the The Pointer, penning a terrible, under-conceived column in the first semester of my freshman year. Thankfully … Continue reading From the Archive: Basic Instinct

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Cretton, Hood, Kanin, Minnelli, Sturges

Dan Seeger

Next Time I Marry (Garson Kanin, 1938). The earliest film that gave Lucille Ball star billing casts her as bratty heiress who needs to marry the right man to secure her inheritance, the sort of dilemma that only exists in the movies. Arriving a few years after It Happened One Night, the film is transparently a riff on the Frank Capra hit, with Ball’s entitled scold being tamed by the regular joe (James Ellison) she impulsively weds to get her money. They road trip across the country in a race to secure an annulment, director Garson Kanin staging everything with … Continue reading Cretton, Hood, Kanin, Minnelli, Sturges

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Top Ten Movies of 2013 — Number Five

Dan Seeger

When director Richard Linklater unexpectedly delivered a sequel to the 1995 romantic drama Before Sunrise, he revisited the same characters nearly ten years later, largely sticking to the established formula. In Before Sunset, released in 2004, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) had another decade of mileage on them, but the film offered a similar dance of philosophizing and courtship in a European capital. The novelty in seeing characters who were slightly more mature didn’t necessarily change the dynamic all that much. To me, at least some of the praise heaped on the second installment felt like a critical … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2013 — Number Five

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From the Archive: Darkman

Dan Seeger

As promised, this new Saturday feature will be “nicely mortifying.” The title of the feature should make it clear enough. I will dig into my big bin of old reviews and share something here every week, no matter how painful it may be to retype it without making any fresh edits. I’ll even try to refrain from too much second-guessing or grousing about syntax errors in the freshly-penned annotations that will serve as introductions. Anything that has not previously shown up in this little corner of the internet is fair game, so even items from my former online home may … Continue reading From the Archive: Darkman

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Philip Seymour Hoffman, 1967 – 2014

Dan Seeger

Without exception, it was a pleasure to watch him meet a role. Even in those rare instances when the ideal dynamics of the part eluded him or there simply wasn’t enough there–not necessarily there on the page, since there’s reason to believe he was capable of bringing more than he found–for him to build a fully-realized, deeply-felt character, it was clear that Philip Seymour Hoffman took to his roles with a deep integrity designed to gain him insight. He was a character actor in the truest sense, including the predilection to disappear into roles, changing his physical appearance to suit … Continue reading Philip Seymour Hoffman, 1967 – 2014