Shaun of the Dead was clearly a take on zombie movies, and Hot Fuzz took direct aim at action films, even calling out Michael Bay by name. According to star and co-writer Simon Pegg, the third film in the loosely … Continue reading Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn
#18 — The Hustler (Robert Rossen, 1961) It’s helpful that Paul Newman eventually paired famously with Robert Redford onscreen, a teaming that was so renowned and beloved that it obscures the little detail that it only happened twice, in 1969’s Butch … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Eighteen
I was irritated that I had a day this past week when I plainly gave up on writing a post for this space. Here’s part of the reason why: I wrote an awful lot for Spectrum Culture this week. First, I wrote about the new album from Washed Out, which I think is a significant improvement on the full-length debut from a couple years back. I asked for the release because it’s a little different material for me, and I thought it would be a good stretch for me. When I sat down to write the review last weekend, I … Continue reading Spectrum Check
#19 — Repulsion (Roman Polanski, 1965) Repulsion is the first film in what is loosely termed as director Roman Polanski’s “apartment trilogy,” a series that continued with 1968’s Rosemary’s Baby and culminated with The Tenant, release in 1976. Connecting the … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Nineteen
This was a typical week at Spectrum Culture for me: one movie, one album. On the film side of things, I reviewed the Kid-Thing, which has inspired other critics to all sorts of quasi-surreal interpretations but which I found to be a middling drama with a virulently indie sensibility. As I alluded on Twitter, I was inordinately pleased that I worked in the term “dirtbag kitsch” in writing about the film. I wrote about the debut album from Rose Windows for the music section. I’m not certain what inspired me to raise my hand for this one in the first … Continue reading Spectrum Check
Sarah Polley has directed two prior feature films, but Stories We Tell represents her first foray into the documentary form. It’s not hard to fathom what led her to explore this particular story as a non-fiction effort. A skilled screenwriter, … Continue reading And if you ever wonder why you ride this carousel
#20 — Pierrot Le Fou (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965) I suspect the average French New Wave classic is exactly the sort of thing a casual moviegoer pictures when considering the sorts of painfully arty fare that film critics usually champion, the material … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Twenty
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
#21 — The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969) I’m going to wind up dealing with this sort of thing again when I get to the nineteen-fifties, so let’s address it head on. When I put The Wild Bunch on this … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Twenty-One
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
