#19 — Midnight Run (Martin Brest, 1988) Action-comedies featuring a pair of charmingly mismatched partners weren’t invented in the nineteen-eighties, but Hollywood studios sure spent the better part of that span of years cranking them out as if they were … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 80s — Number Nineteen
8. Hoodoo Gurus, Magnum Cum Louder Hoodoo Gurus was one of my favorite band names to say on the air. It sounded silly and yet it didn’t. Those O sounds just begged to be elongated, the words stretching out and … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1989, 8
There are a few things I will always, always, always be ready to do. One of them is expounding on my admiration for the films, artistry and general cinematic passion of Martin Scorsese. I was given the opportunity to do just that for the current Best Living Directors series. I did the best I could, but it always feels like there’s more to say, more to write about the way he both honors and reshapes classic Hollywood narrative storytelling. Someday I’ll get it right. I also wrote a new film review about a film that’s about as grimly nutty as … Continue reading Spectrum Check
Youth in Revolt (Miguel Arteta, 2009). This was Arteta’s first film in almost a decade after some quick, buzzy success to kick off his career. All the time between features didn’t eliminate his slightly arid style, which has a tendency to deaden the drama after a while. More problematically, the film exhibits a offbeat pushiness as it heaps in quirky details and disaffected anguish. It simply tries to hard. Michael Cera plays a sweet, timidly pining young man who conjures up an imaginary tough-talking alter ego who drives him to get the girl while also slipping deeper into a quicksand … Continue reading Arteta, Feig, Hayward, Malick, Ritchie
#20 — Zelig (Woody Allen, 1983) Most comedies posing as documentaries cheat. Much as I love many of them, I’m aware that the nonfiction form they’re employing is just a means towards easing the storytelling and the character development, or … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 80s — Number Twenty
This week, I had the chance to write about one of those dark indie sensations with the stuff to become an instant cult classic. This is exactly the sort of film I would have probably missed out on without this side writing gig, so it was a nice reminder of the ample perks that go along with the banging out a few hundred words a week for the site. I also contributed to a feature about the best movies of the past ten summers, getting a welcome opportunity to profess my affection for Toy Story 3. I would, however, like … Continue reading Spectrum Check
#21 — The Verdict (Sidney Lumet, 1982) Sidney Lumet directed his first feature film in 1957 and his last one in 2007. Both those efforts were sensationally good, and Lumet had enough similarly marvelous efforts during the half-century between the … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 80s — Number Twenty-One
This week, I did my duty on the film side of the site, reviewing a new French thriller, which largely served as a reminder that same curve of quality applies across all facets of film. There are just as many drab, by-the-numbers movies available for the art houses as there are in the multiplexes. I also wrote about the latest Lykke Li album for a feature on the best music of the year so far. If pressed, I’d probably still designate the latest PJ Harvey record as the best of the year, but I’ve already written about that one for … Continue reading Spectrum Check
Nim was the name given to a chimpanzee who was born in an Oklahoma research facility in late 1973. At the behest of a Columbia University professor named Herb Terrace, Nim was removed from his mother’s care at the earliest … Continue reading Standing in the concrete cave, swaying sad and insane
#22 — Say Anything… (Cameron Crowe, 1989) As I acknowledged at the beginning of this particular countdown project, the peculiarly personal tug I have for some of the films from this ten-year span had a significant impact when I sat … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 80s — Number Twenty-Two
Coffee for Two 