Category: Film

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Theatre goddess, film destroyer, New York girls are sure to enjoy her

Dan Seeger

The Women (Diane English, 2008). This remake of the 1939 George Cukor-directed comedy had been in development for so long that I swear we reported on it on the movie review radio show I co-hosted in college. That show ended in 1993. Watching the finished product, it’s easy to understand what inspired the reluctance. Similarly, the easiest explanation for the project finally coming to fruition is sheer attrition: Diane English must have simply outlasted the studio execs with sounder taste. As nice as it is to see the rarity of a movie filled with female characters, it would be nicer … Continue reading Theatre goddess, film destroyer, New York girls are sure to enjoy her

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A new-wave Hollywood where everybody’s good but not great

Dan Seeger

Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa, 1957). You probably don’t need me to tell you this is masterful. Kurosawa’s adaptation of Macbeth is raw, muscular, urgent. Revisioning it to accommodate samurai doesn’t deepen or otherwise change the story in any dramatic way. It really just winds up being a different way to tell it, letting the natural power of the story emerge. (Sometimes this sort of thing can get tripped up by its own trickiness, even when well done like the version of Richard III starring and partially orchestrated by Ian McKellen.) Toshiro Mifune brings exactly the right intensity to the … Continue reading A new-wave Hollywood where everybody’s good but not great

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One for Friday: Concrete Blonde, “Carry Me Away”

Dan Seeger

Now it seems that any indie-inclined band or performer that concocts a bright song around a clever hook can get massive exposure on a commercial for a hip automobile or a sleek Apple product. That wasn’t the case when I was in college. This was in part because the bands the filled the programming hours at our student-run radio station were still operating under the notion that during their songs into jingles was the pinnacle of selling out, but it was largely attributable to disinterest in connecting to youth culture through the cult hits that received little exposure apart from … Continue reading One for Friday: Concrete Blonde, “Carry Me Away”