One for Friday — Jane Wiedlin, “Rush Hour”
Although I was present and aware during the time when the Go-Go’s dominated radio, MTV, and good chunk of pop culture as a full-on sensation, I don’t recall if there was any particular pressure to identify a favorite band member. … Continue reading One for Friday — Jane Wiedlin, “Rush Hour”
My Misspent Youth — Black Panther by Jack Kirby
I read a lot of comic books as a kid. This series of posts is about the comics I read, and, occasionally, the comics that I should have read. Well before there was a comic book industry press eager to … Continue reading My Misspent Youth — Black Panther by Jack Kirby
Top Ten Movies of 2017 — Number Five
Mudbound, directed by Dee Rees, does heavy lifting. Set largely in nineteen-forties Mississippi, the adaptation from a Hillary Jordan novel (Rees and Virgil Williams are co-credited on the screenplay) depicts the hardships endured by two connected families on a sprawling, … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2017 — Number Five
Playing Catch-Up — Murder on the Orient Express; Roman J. Israel, Esq.; A Cure for Wellness
Murder on the Orient Express (Kenneth Branagh, 2017). This adaptation of one of Agatha Christie’s most famed novels finds Kenneth Branagh in his happy showman role, both in the officiously constructed visuals and in his leading performance as detective Hercule … Continue reading Playing Catch-Up — Murder on the Orient Express; Roman J. Israel, Esq.; A Cure for Wellness
Top Ten Movies of 2017 — Number Six
In the basic mechanics of its story, Baby Driver is familiar to the point of farce. There’s our hero, Baby (Ansel Elgort), referenced in the title, a young man of preternatural skill whose excursion in the seedier side of society … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2017 — Number Six
College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #984 to #981
984. UB40, 1980-1983 (1983) The early nineteen-eighties was a good time to be dishing out gentle, reggae-influenced pop in the U.K. The band UB40 started germinating around 1978, when Ali Campbell took the compensatory award he received after enduring a … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #984 to #981
From the Archive — Flags of Our Fathers
Clint Eastwood has a new film out. It is not being especially well-received. In general, I’ve long found the movie critic discourse around Eastwood’s directorial career to be a little perplexing. I’ve liked many of his films, including proud placement of a few on various lists of laudatory accomplishment. But to refer to Eastwood as one of the great filmmakers (I remember at least once critic, circa Mystic River, positing that Eastwood was the greatest American director then working) requires turning a blind eye to a lot of flawed material, even if one generously ignores the absolute worst efforts. I think … Continue reading From the Archive — Flags of Our Fathers
One for Friday — Meryn Cadell, “The Sweater”
As we come upon the time when exhaustive discussion of the Winter Olympics swamps out all other topics for a couple of weeks (with the sartorial and broadcasting stylings of Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir the only aspect of the … Continue reading One for Friday — Meryn Cadell, “The Sweater”
Top Ten Movies of 2017 — Number Seven
There is a truism of storytelling that I think uniquely consistent in its accuracy: Intense specificity is the key to creating a fiction that is strikingly universal. I well remember 1983, the year in which Call Me By Your Name … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2017 — Number Seven
Playing Catch-Up — From Beyond the Grave; The Family Fang; Black Mass
From Beyond the Grave (Kevin Connor, 1974). Drawn from the horror short stories of British author Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes, this anthology film from the macabre minds at Hammer Studios offer a quartet of twisty tales of supernaturally-charged comeuppance, all of them … Continue reading Playing Catch-Up — From Beyond the Grave; The Family Fang; Black Mass
