#21 — One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Milos Forman, 1975) I think it was an episode of one of Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert’s various program derivations that I was watching in which one of the highly influential Chicago film … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Twenty-One
I’m been stretching my memory for several days now, and I think I can accurately report that I’ve never seen a movie quite like Beasts of the Southern Wild. Movie fans who’ve had happier experiences than me when it comes … Continue reading When you’re golden, I’m your beast
So, Spectrum Culture this week… I truly believe in reviewing films almost entirely on their own merits. It’s hard to confront a film by a major director without putting it into a career-long context (and there’s obviously some merit to that approach), but a significant number of viewers won’t be doing that. They meet a film for what it is and any comparisons to other creative efforts will be superficial at best. Still, it was so very tempting for me to expend a whole lot of words in my review of Nikolaus Geyhalter’s documentary Abendland to the three-hour, staidly observational … Continue reading Spectrum Check
#22 — Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett, 1977) Technically, I suppose, Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep could have also factored into my Top Fifty Films of the 00s list. In fact, that may be the more accurate placement for it … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Twenty-Two
#11 — Nick Nolte as Lionel Dobie in the “Life Lessons” segment of New York Stories (Martin Scorsese, 1989) Of the once bankable, respectable actors who’ve fallen on hard times, typified by mediocre film role options, no descent is more … Continue reading Greatish Performances #11
Humpday (Lynn Shelton, 2009). While I don’t always give the background on my viewing choices, I will note that this finally made its way from out queue to our screen in preparation for watching Lynn Shelton’s excellent follow-up. I’m mostly sharing that to give myself a public chastisement. Humpday is pretty terrific, providing a surprisingly plausible narrative progression to an utterly implausible scenario. Mark Duplass and Joshua Leonard play old college buddies whose reunion after several years apart winds up involving an odd pledge to make a man-on-man pornographic film together, in direct opposition to their heterosexual tendencies, for Seattle’s … Continue reading Jason, Milestone, Minnelli, Scorsese, Shelton
I had a busy week at Spectrum Culture, and one that was significantly more time-consuming than I initially anticipated. As I’ve noted before, we writers largely select exactly which films, CDs and books we want to review. When I picked out the new documentary from Goncalo Tocha, I swear I read that it was ninety minutes long. Then the screener showed up, spread across two DVDs. So on a weekend that I was already somewhat pressed for time, I suddenly had a three-hour film to watch (after I’d already committed to watching a very different one in the theater that … Continue reading Spectrum Check
#23 — M*A*S*H (Robert Altman, 1970) Whenever I look at Robert Altman’s breakthrough 1970 film set during the Korean War, I find it simultaneously completely logical and utterly incomprehensible that it spawned a beloved television series that ran for 251 episodes … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Twenty-Three
It seems too strange to write about The Dark Knight Rises while sitting on this particular square of the calendar without at least acknowledging the most grimly notorious midnight show of all time. I saw Christopher Nolan’s concluding spin with … Continue reading Low rising, ’cause I fear we’ve had enough
I didn’t have that many writing assignments for Spectrum Culture this week, so of course I needed to make certain my one piece was exceedingly long, maybe the longest I’ve ever written for the site. To be fair, the “Re-make/Re-model” series invites length given that at least two films need to be broken down. In writing about Jonathan Demme’s remake of a Stanley Donen classic, I also had the opportunity to reference an old Onion article for which I have a special fondness. I also offered up a far briefer contribution to this week’s List Inconsequential list about great live … Continue reading Spectrum Check
Coffee for Two 