Category: Film

FilmLeave a comment

Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

My week at Spectrum Culture started with a review that took an atypically long time to show up, or at least longer past the original release than is usual for us. I received my copy of Andrew Bujalski’s Computer Chess after it opened, not at all the norm. Plus it arrived before a short week where the site took a couple days off, so there’s a layer of dust on the movie by the time the review showed up. Of course, that’s always the case here on the good ol’ Coffee for Two page, but it felt weird for me … Continue reading Spectrum Check

Film1 Comment

I hear the human race is fallin’ on its face and hasn’t very far to go

Dan Seeger

As I consider Pacific Rim, one question nags at me: would I be as charitable towards this film if it were from a director other than Guillermo del Toro? Not that I feel all that charitable towards the film, but as I sat through the procession of overblown digital spectacle populated by thinly conceived characters and driven by a plot holey enough to zing like a Wiffle ball, I had to admit that the damn thing won me over by the end, even as that end indulged in every goofy trope imaginable, including the sort of big, dumb, rousing speech … Continue reading I hear the human race is fallin’ on its face and hasn’t very far to go

FilmLeave a comment

Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

I’ve somewhat lost track of all the various assignments I’ve picked up for Spectrum Culture, but I’ve got a funny feeling that I’m going to be hit with a very busy week sometime soon. This week, I had only one full-length effort for the site, but I did my best to make it worthwhile, especially since I feel added pressure whenever I write on something that’s an established classic of cinematic erudition. Specifically, I wrote on the debut feature from Alain Resnais, which also happens to be the first real big-screen role for recent Oscar nominee Emmanuelle Riva. I also … Continue reading Spectrum Check

FilmLeave a comment

Burton, Keaton, Preminger, Trank, Vidor

Dan Seeger

Chronicle (Josh Trank, 2012). Chronicle is good enough to almost–almost–redeem the increasingly tired found footage subgenre. This is in part due to the especially clever use of the footage, drawing it from a variety of sources rather than relying on one dedicated amateur documentarian who keeps the camera running no matter what level of craziness is happening (although the film inevitably must rely on that conceit more than is ideal). Security cameras, police car dashboard cams and other fully believable devices provide all the material that’s stitched together into a narrative. If physics-defying mayhem were happening outside of a upper … Continue reading Burton, Keaton, Preminger, Trank, Vidor

Film, MusicLeave a comment

Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

I pitched it with loads of words this week at Spectrum Culture. First off, I contributed a review of the new Smith Westerns album, an effort I’ve been sitting on for a while because of a shifting release date. I wish the extra time had helped me like the album more, but it wound up being one of those reviews where I really wanted to write, “Pretty dull, huh?” and move on. Too bad, as I liked their previous album quite a bit. Things were a little better for me on the film side, which is my main home on … Continue reading Spectrum Check

FilmLeave a comment

Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Twenty-Five

Dan Seeger

#25 — The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962) There are a plenty of genres and styles that once prospered in American cinema that have fallen out of favor or been modified to the point of being unrecognizable, but none of them inspired observers to see elegiacal profundity in the offerings from their twilight quite like the western. In part, that’s because westerns, no matter how sprightly and charmed, always seemed to carry a tint of the forlorn to them. By the times films were conveying tales of the Wild West, it was already a bygone era being … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Twenty-Five