From the Archive: Reservoir Dogs
As you can see, getting to my yearly top ten list a little later that most has been a longtime problem. Back when the radio movie review program was a going concern, the program went on hiatus during the college’s winter break. Upon our return, we reintroduced ourselves with our respective top ten lists of the prior film year, which could be a challenge even at this late date, since there were plenty of Oscar hopefuls still dragging their feet when it came to claiming a screen in our humble Midwestern town (the nominations announcement and the ceremony itself both … Continue reading From the Archive: Reservoir Dogs
One for Friday: Tin Machine, “Baby Can Dance”
I doubt there’s anyone who considers Tin Machine to be first tier David Bowie. That includes myself. Even still, I hold a great deal of affection for the digression into clattering rock that Bowie made in the late nineteen-eighties. If Bowie dominated the seventies, the eighties proved to be a touch more complicated. For one thing, his remarkably prolific creativity ebbed somewhat. Bowie issued eleven solo studio albums during the seventies, and only four during the eighties. While he still had hits — he never had as strong of a showing with a trio of consecutive tracks on the U.K. charts … Continue reading One for Friday: Tin Machine, “Baby Can Dance”
We skipped the light fandango, turned cartwheels ‘cross the floor
Hey, as long as the Academy keeps delivering these melanin-challenged rosters of acting nominees, I’m going to keep drawing from “A Whiter Shade of Pale” to headline my reaction posts. I’ll concede that this is something of a case of industry opportunity limiting the viable contenders, but Idris Elba’s performance in Beasts of No Nation had a place in nearly every set of precursor nominations and Michael B. Jordan deserves at least as much consideration for his work in Creed as Sylvester Stallone. It turns out Academy voters were as forgetful about the black artists’ contributions to the film as Stallone was … Continue reading We skipped the light fandango, turned cartwheels ‘cross the floor
Now Playing: The Revenant
It is probably my own fault, believing on the scantest of evidence that director Alejandro González Iñárritu had found a new avenue for his artistic expression. As problematic as Birdman might be as the reigning Academy Award winner for Best Picture, particularly over Richard Linklater’s remarkable Boyhood, it signaled a useful shift in the filmmaker’s blindingly self-satisfied march through ever-mounting misery. The film still trafficked in overt nihilism, but couching it in the wryest comedy gave it just enough of a tinge of enlightenment to make it devilishly engaging rather than redundantly soul-deadening. If The Revenant is an accurate example … Continue reading Now Playing: The Revenant
Now Playing: The Danish Girl and Joy
In this era of Caitlyn Jenner and loads of respectful awards attention paid to the Amazon series Transparent, it’s tempting to look at the tepid, staid The Danish Girl as sadly behind the times in its depiction of an individual coming to terms with their true self. Then Ricky Gervais returns to the Golden Globes hosting gig with a slew of jokes that utilize cheap, hateful mockery of transgendered individuals as punchlines, the least offensive of which is the dig at Jenner which has stirred the most ire. (The casual derision towards Jeffrey Tambor’s work in Transparent, with Gervais, for … Continue reading Now Playing: The Danish Girl and Joy
David Bowie, 1947 – 2016
“TOMORROW BELONGS TO THOSE WHO CAN HEAR IT COMING” Fittingly, it is unreal, like an elaborate ruse. In my heart, it is simply another strange, challenging expression of restless artistry. David Bowie always had an otherworldly authority to him, even aside from the instances in which he purposefully claimed alien personae, so it stands to reason that a late-in-life guise, a long-gestating follow-up to Ziggy Stardust or the Thin White Duke, would involve something more ethereal. Here’s a method to haul the heavens down to the earthly firmament, claiming an angelic cloak nicely timed to coincide with the release of a new … Continue reading David Bowie, 1947 – 2016
College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, An Introduction
Though I occasionally postured otherwise, I arrived at my college radio station in the fall of 1988 with a keen awareness that I had a lot to learn. Much as I wish I could report that I filled my high school years with gloomy nights in my basement bedroom playing Meat is Murder or Psychocandy over and over again, taking solace in the solidarity of bands that expertly tapped into levels of despair that had a tangy tinge of teenaged agony to them, I was a relative latecomer to college rock. There were surely flirtations before, but I didn’t fall … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, An Introduction
From the Archive: Shining Through and Medicine Man
This doubled-up review was written for The Pointer, the weekly student newspaper at UW-Steven Point, where I secured my undergraduate degree. I tended to write about two films per week, especially since it was so rare the Central Wisconsin theaters provided really interesting titles while school was in session. Sometimes, I strained a bit to find a way to link the films in the obligatory introduction. This isn’t exactly one of the stronger efforts, I’ll admit. February releases provided their own set of challenges. It’s hard to fault a movie for having ambition. As dull sequels, idiotic comedies, and one-note … Continue reading From the Archive: Shining Through and Medicine Man
One for Friday: Smart Remarks, “Mary’s Got Her Eye On Me Tonight”
I recently noticed that Little Hits is gone. As anyone who’s been scoring along at home might know, Little Hits was a music blog that went a long way towards inspiring this weekly feature. Updated regularly, the blog shared MP3s and reminiscences about the songs and bands they contained. My affection didn’t simply stem from the fact that I enjoyed the music shared there, nor was it the genial, knowledgable essays that earned my devotion. I did like the songs and the writing, but it was the actual nature of the selections that thrilled me, specifically the way in which the name … Continue reading One for Friday: Smart Remarks, “Mary’s Got Her Eye On Me Tonight”
Broomfield, Demme, Radice, Safdie and Safdie, Truffaut
Ricki and the Flash (Jonathan Demme, 2015). By the last third of the film, it seems clear that Demme’s chief motivation for taking on this project is the opportunity to apply his extensive experience directing concert films to this fictional story of a derelict mother (Meryl Streep) who fronts a bar band. He certainly demonstrates only passing interest in the tepid familial drama in the script, written by Diablo Cody with a equal freedom from her previous dialogue quirks and recognizable humanity. When Streep’s bedraggled singer returns to her former home, responding to a suicide attempt by her daughter (Mamie Gummer), every … Continue reading Broomfield, Demme, Radice, Safdie and Safdie, Truffaut
Coffee for Two 