The Art of the Sell: “Dance with Your Feet”
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. I’ve been taking my place within the hallowed cathedrals of movie theaters for long enough that I can remember a time when there wasn’t a sitcom-length sprawl of commercials as the preamble to any feature. While the natural presumption is that I — in proper cranky old man form — find such intrusions of corporate marketing to be deplorable, I see it instead as, at worst, a necessary evil in a time of mounting costs and more … Continue reading The Art of the Sell: “Dance with Your Feet”
College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 148 – 146
148. Eurythmics, “Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four)” There was no way the big bosses of the entertainment business were going to let the calendar year 1984 pass without doing their level best to capitalize of the fact it corresponded to one of the most famous titles in 20th century literature. Given the need to heavily prioritize timetables over creative decisions, there was equally little chance they were going to avoid bungling the whole endeavor. While respectfully reviewed upon its release, the 1984 film version of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four was not the sensation, critically or commercially, that the producers expected. Even its … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 148 – 146
From the Archive: Changeling
When I started reviewing films on the radio, in 1990, Clint Eastwood was still larger considered a movie star who occasionally directing movies, almost as a hobby. That consensus view was understandable, but also needlessly dismissive. Within the first few … Continue reading From the Archive: Changeling
One for Friday: The Bens, “The Emperor’s New Clothes”
It only made sense. A trio of Bens — with the last names of Folds, Kweller, and Lee — emerged on the alternative music scene at about the same time, in the mid-nineteen-nineties. (It’s not quite accurate to term them peers since two of the three were literally kids and the third could accurate reference multiple ex-wives in his lyrics.) Besides a forename, all three songwriters had a propensity for clever, genially comic lyrics. Around ten years later, the music business landscape around them had changed dramatically: album sales started their precipitous plummet, the once hot alternative radio format was … Continue reading One for Friday: The Bens, “The Emperor’s New Clothes”
My Misspent Youth: Hero for Hire by Steve Englehart and George Tuska
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. The nineteen-seventies were a weird time, man. Freshly freed from the constraints of the strict content guidelines and emboldened by the surging influence of the counter-culture, American cinema pushed into edgy new territory, and practically every other form of visual storytelling followed suit. In particular, Marvel comic book creators took their cues from what was happening on big screens, especially as the publisher’s bullpen filled up with writers and artists who … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: Hero for Hire by Steve Englehart and George Tuska
Bernstein with Hooker, Chaplin, Friedkin, Lowery, Taylor
Terminator: Genisys (Alan Taylor, 2015). The reeling lesson of the just completed summer box office season is that the recycled repetition of brand-driven moviemaking may finally be sputtering its last. The ideal case study as to why arrived one year earlier. Arriving six years after the previous attempt at franchise revivification, Terminator: Genisys shows precisely how hollow the endeavor can be. The film trots out a procession of touchstones — familiar lines, restaged scenes, echoed character beats — without a hint of a central vision or an ounce of soul. Director Alan Taylor brings that same sluggish blandness that made … Continue reading Bernstein with Hooker, Chaplin, Friedkin, Lowery, Taylor
Laughing Matters: Monty Python’s “Argument Clinic”
Sometimes comedy illuminates hard truths with a pointed urgency that other means can’t quite achieve. Sometimes comedy is just funny. This series of posts is mostly about the former instances, but the latter is valuable, too. When I was a kid, Saturday nights were a sketch comedy goldmine. At least one robust vein is obvious: the programming night is right there in the title. Saturday Night Live endured some complicated seasons during the nineteen-eighties, but it was also the decade that saw the likes of Eddie Murphy, Billy Crystal, Martin Short, and Christopher Guest pass through Studio 8H, and all … Continue reading Laughing Matters: Monty Python’s “Argument Clinic”
Programming Note
After extensive consideration, I have decided to take advantage of my first Labor Day that is officially a day off in nearly ten years to equally give myself leave from mortaring together words for this digital outpost. Have a fine holiday, friends. Continue reading Programming Note
College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 151 – 149
151. The Dead Milkmen, “Instant Club Hit (You’ll Dance to Anything)” The adamant disdain suggested by the parenthetical annexation to the Dead Milkmen single “Instant Club Hit” wasn’t a mistake. It was a clear expression of lead vocalist Rodney Anonymous’s intent in writing the song. “For a couple months, I hung out at this club in Philly,” Anonymous reported. “I have, like, no sense of rhythm, so I can’t dance. So I wouldn’t dance at this club. I’d just sit there at the bar and drink and growl, basically. To people like me who aren’t hair farmers, it’s just a horrible … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 151 – 149
From the Archive: Loaded Weapon 1
Lest anyone think horrendously bad spoof movies was a result of the trailblazing of the Wayans clan, there was an ugly little flare-up of them in the early nineteen-nineties, largely responding to the surprising success of the Naked Gun films. Yes, friends, there are times when being a film critic is pure misery. This review was written for The Pointer, the student-run newspaper at my undergraduate institution. One of the difficulties in creating a Naked Gun style parody film is throwing jokes at the audience as if fired from a machine gun, so there’s not much room for flat, unsuccessful … Continue reading From the Archive: Loaded Weapon 1
Coffee for Two 