Top Ten Movies of 2021 — Number Six
As guided by first-time feature director Lin-Manuel Miranda, tick, tick…BOOM! is a thrilling tribute to the act of creation itself. Miranda, working with screenwriter Steven Levenson, adapts Jonathan Larson’s autobiographical stage work of the same name with a resolute determination … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2021 — Number Six
The Art of the Sell — The Ideal Muppets
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. In 1966, three years before Sesame Street and a full decade before The Muppet Show, the first … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — The Ideal Muppets
Then Playing — Wuthering Heights; Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street; Logan’s Run
Wuthering Heights (William Wyler, 1939). This adaptation of the classic 1847 Emily Brontë novel of the same name is a signature example of the epic sweep filmmakers could conjure up on soundstages during Hollywood’s golden age, well before it was … Continue reading Then Playing — Wuthering Heights; Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street; Logan’s Run
Top Ten Movies of 2021 — Number Seven
Directors Sushmit Ghosh and Rintu Thomas distinguish themselves as masterful storytellers with the documentary Writing with Fire. Like other crafters of nonfiction cinema, they had the good fortune to come upon a story worth telling. According to the filmmakers, it … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2021 — Number Seven
College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #233 to #231
233. Pixies, Surfer Rosa (1988) Not long after the release of their debut EP, Come On Pilgrim, the Pixies got to work on their first full-length. After plans to simply duplicate the process of recording their earlier tracks were scuttled, … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #233 to #231
Outside Reading — Stuff Some Adults Don’t Want You to Read edition
The Truth About School Indoctrination by Jessica Valenti Writing for her own newsletter, All in Her Head, Jessica Valenti addresses the latest manufactured outrage of the political right, which at its most dramatic has led to genuine book burnings. More … Continue reading Outside Reading — Stuff Some Adults Don’t Want You to Read edition
This Week’s Model — Romero, “Turn It On!”
Hailing from Melbourne, Australia, Romero makes big swaggering power pop. The opening riff of the newly issued track “Turn It On!” surges with a hard rollercoaster turn of guitar-slinging confidence, and then lead singer Alanna Oliver makes her own assertion, … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Romero, “Turn It On!”
Top Ten Movies of 2021 — Number Eight
The defining achievement of Steven Spielberg’s version of West Side Story is that it is inadequate to the point of flat-out inaccuracy to term the film an adaptation or a remake. Yes, the work is taken directly from the enduring … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2021 — Number Eight
Now Playing — Kimi
In Kimi, the new film from director Steven Soderbergh, Zoë Kravitz plays Angela Childs, a quality control worker for a fledging tech company. Her employer’s main product is a virtual personal assistant device called Kimi, and its distinctive attribute is … Continue reading Now Playing — Kimi
Top Ten Movies of 2021 — Number Nine
Director Todd Haynes adheres to many of the standard practices of musical documentaries in The Velvet Underground. In tracking the history of the monumental band that toiled in Andy Warhol’s Factory, transformed rock music, and inspired countless descendants who sometimes … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2021 — Number Nine
Coffee for Two 