#31 — Grey Gardens (Ellen Hovde, Albert Maysles, David Maysles and Muffie Meyer, 1975) There are some things in this warped, wild, mixed-up world that outpace even the most fantastic and fanciful of imaginations. Upon discovering such a thing, perhaps … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Thirty-One
While I’m falling a little behind in my music reviews, I still had two new film pieces go up at Spectrum Culture this past week. First there was a review of a new documentary that uses one man’s personal experience, documented with a series of video cameras, to illuminate the ongoing challenges of the conflict between Israel and Palestine. While its homemade origins instill some humility into the film, it was also fairly complex and required a certain amount of deftness to detail its strengths and weaknesses. It was a nice challenge to write the review. I also wrote on … Continue reading Spectrum Check
#32 — Husbands (John Cassavetes, 1970) Like most of his very best work, Husbands practically seethes with the enraged creativity of filmmaker John Cassavetes. Notoriously disenchanted with the Hollywood system (or at least whatever splintered remains were left of it … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Thirty-Two
This week for Spectrum Culture, I reviewed a new film that fell into the category of earnest attempts sadly lacking in real chops in the execution. This is the sort of offering that I suspect plays like gangbusters at the smaller festivals on the circuit. I also contributed a short piece for our weekly List Inconsequential feature, because I simply will not pass up a chance to write about “Rowdy” Roddy Piper’s finest film performance. Sorry, friends, but his turn for director John Carpenter ranks second in my book. Continue reading Spectrum Check
#33 — Shampoo (Hal Ashby, 1975) There are so many different that a film can surprise, and I’ll freely and fully admit that I ultimately prefer the shrewder, more low-key surprises to the trickster gotchas designed to upend everything that … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Thirty-Three
#10 — Marisa Tomei as Mona Lisa Vito in My Cousin Vinny (Jonathan Lynn, 1992) Marisa Tomei’s Best Supporting Actress Oscar win for My Cousin Vinny was so surprising and contrary to the typically stuffy Academy voting trends that a fairly mean-spirited myth built up around it. As per Academy custom, the previous year’s Best Supporting Actor winner was invited to present the award, which meant 74-year-old Jack Palance took the stage, looking far less hale than he did a year earlier when he famously treated the audience to a few one-armed push-ups. He fumbled with the names of individual … Continue reading Greatish Performances #10
This week at Spectrum Culture, I started with a piece on the music review side. I’ve previous written on Vivian Girls and La Sera, so it only seemed logical to me that I should continue weighing in on all the groups bobbing across that shared orbit. That meant writing on the second Best Coast album, not really knowing when I claimed it that the band was on the receiving end of enormous antipathy. That at least gave me an angle with which to start the review. I also had my regular contribution on the film side, writing about the new … Continue reading Spectrum Check
When I think back on the artists and albums that were decisively, definitively ours during my youthful days in college radio, I almost always conjure up memories of the bands and performers that started on the left end of the dial and probably never managed to creep up to the higher frequencies: Hüsker Dü, the Replacements, the Smithereens. They certainly represented a central part of my musical experience, but there was a whole other batch of artists that got regular play at 90FM who were more like reclamation projects. These were the performers who had experience some commercial success, unlikely … Continue reading One for Friday: Joe Jackson, “Tomorrow’s World”
#34 — Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977) Let’s start with this important piece of information for the youngsters out there: the word “Episode” does not appear in the title of the film director George Lucas released in 1977. In fact, … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Thirty-Four
It never seemed like Whit Stillman was going to be prolific. There were four years between his 1990 debut Metropolitan and the largely forgotten follow-up Barcelona and then another four years before his third film, 1998’s The Last Days of … Continue reading Don’t you think every kitten figures out how to get down whether or not you ever show up?
Coffee for Two 