Top Ten Movies of 2019 — Number Seven
I admire Jordan Peele’s sophomore directorial effort for a lot of reasons, chief among them its overstuffed grab bag of fierce, pointed ideas. In Us, Peele heaves weighty social commentary concepts like chunks of glistening coal into an already well-stoked … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2019 — Number Seven
Then Playing — Under the Silver Lake; Apollo 11; Joker
Under the Silver Lake (David Robert Mitchell, 2019). No one quite knew what to do with writer-director David Robert Mitchell’s follow-up to the indie horror hit It Follows. A shaggy modern detective story, Under the Silver Lake plays like Robert … Continue reading Then Playing — Under the Silver Lake; Apollo 11; Joker
Top Ten Movies of 2019 — Number Eight
With a level of specificity that should be the aspiration of all filmmakers, directors Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego tells the long, complicated story of a crime family in Birds of Passage. Beginning in the late-nineteen-sixties and spanning a generation, … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2019 — Number Eight
Top Ten Movies of 2019 — Number Nine
With a graceful intensity, writer-director Joanna Hogg traces the rough surface of a romance in The Souvenir. Resolutely autobiographical (Hogg doesn’t take the usual director’s tack of downplaying the personal nature of her storytelling, noting she meticulously recreated her own … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2019 — Number Nine
College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #580 to #577
580. The Untouchables, Wild Child (1985) Well before the advent of Kickstarter campaigns, the Los Angeles band the Untouchables figured out a way to draw an advance from the enthusiasm from their fans. When the group was playing shows to … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #580 to #577
Outside Reading — Gender Specific edition
The Third Rail of Calling ‘Sexism’ by Rebecca Traister The endless frustration of the media’s coverage of political campaigns continued this past week as policy discussions (not to mention the ongoing criminality of the amoral marauders currently occupying the White House) were largely set aside to eagerly pursue an inconsequential squabble between two candidates who almost entirely agree. Even putting aside the likelihood that the reportorial astonishment about freshly unearthed behind-the-scenes discussion was likely hogwash, there was an especially nettlesome aspect to the need to contrive drama. Think pieces and cable pundit pontification proliferated, all musing about the electability of … Continue reading Outside Reading — Gender Specific edition
This Week’s Model — U.S. Girls, “Overtime”
“Overtime,” the new song from U.S. Girls, isn’t all that new. A version of the song cropped up earlier, on the 2013 EP Free Advice Column. Meg Remy, the creative force behind U.S. Girls, decided to revisit “Overtime” for the … Continue reading This Week’s Model — U.S. Girls, “Overtime”
Now Playing — 1917
What hath Alfonso Cuarón wrought? When the director peppered his masterful film Children of Men with action sequences that unfolded in long, unbroken takes (or at least appeared to so), he was hardly the first director to employ the technique. … Continue reading Now Playing — 1917
Top Ten Movies of 2019 — Number Ten
With a rare and gratifying exuberance for the abundant possibilities found in genre-based storytelling, writer-director Rian Johnson proved anew his mighty abilities to slyly invert tropes with Knives Out. A modern polish on the twisty mysteries tapped out by Agatha … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2019 — Number Ten
Top Ten Movies of 2019 — An Introduction
Now that the Academy has weighed in on the top achievements in the cinema for the 2019 calendar — with some suspect choices, I’d say — it’s time for me to do the same. As I usually do, I’ll tick … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2019 — An Introduction
Coffee for Two 