Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Twenty-Three
#23 — The Bad and the Beautiful (Vincente Minnelli, 1952) There was a time when Hollywood was all klieg lights and high glamor, at least in its calculated depictions of self. It was lucrative to preserve the myth of happy creative miracles, dreams captured on celluloid for all to enjoy. By the nineteen-fifties, some cynicism was starting to creep in, and filmmakers allowed that their chosen business had a corrosion at its heart. Some of this was surely attributable to the general social shell shock felt in the post-war years, but I think there’s also the slide of Hollywood itself to … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Twenty-Three
The hills ringing hear the words in time, listen to the holler
In a cinematic irony that its subject would surely appreciate, the documentary Life Itself is dominated by the specter of death. Sure, the film does its duty in tracing the life of film critic Roger Ebert, who is arguably the … Continue reading The hills ringing hear the words in time, listen to the holler
Beers I Have Known: Central Waters Brewing Company Sixteen
This series of posts is dedicated to the many, many six packs, pony kegs and pints that have sauntered into my life at one point or another. A generous friend gave me a bottle of this. Released to help celebrate … Continue reading Beers I Have Known: Central Waters Brewing Company Sixteen
College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 2
2. Van Morrison, Wavelength I saw Van Morrison play live once, as the capper to a day-long festival of mostly Irish artists sponsored, of course, by Guinness. This was towards the end of the nineties, so Morrison was well past … Continue reading College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 2
From the Archive: Walk the Line
As I’ve noted before, 2005 was the year that I took advantage of the bountiful blank page afforded me by the interweb and started writing movie reviews again. I tend to to think of it as a relatively slow development process, from noodling around to full-length reviews. But it seems I got to the destination a little more quickly than I remember, as this take on the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line, written just a few months after I’d recommitted to writing about movies, has a hearty word count. There are two moments in the new Johnny Cash biopic … Continue reading From the Archive: Walk the Line
One for Friday: The A-Sides, “Cinematic”
“Cinematic” by the A-Sides is the first song listed in my iTunes. When I start it up at the beginning or the day or slip over to the “Music” list on my iPod, that’s the first song I see. It is the only song I have from the band, a group of indie rockers from Philadelphia. It’s off of Silver Storms, their sophomore effort and sole release for Vagrant. One year later, they announced the dissolution of the band (on their MySpace page, to put the moment in music business history in proper perspective). I like the song, but I’m … Continue reading One for Friday: The A-Sides, “Cinematic”
My Misspent Youth: Marvel and DC Present by Chris Claremont and Walter Simonson
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. I was always on the lookout for things that were true … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: Marvel and DC Present by Chris Claremont and Walter Simonson
Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Twenty-Four
#24 — Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958) Search “Touch of Evil” on Google, and the info box that pops up on the right side of the screen lists its release date as September 11, 1998, even as the synopsis … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Twenty-Four
Top 40 Smash Taps: “Ain’t It True”
These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. Back before he became the poster boy for Branson, Missouri milquetoast schtick and one of the more famous doddering parrots of Fox News petrified nonsense, Andy Williams was a velvet-voiced singer with a string of hits, a sort of safe alternative to those who were were likely to clutch their metaphorical (or, indeed, actual) pearls whenever they heard the raw, reckless sounds coming … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Ain’t It True”
Bayona, Lang, Moore, Sturges, Webb
The Impossible (Juan Antonio Bayona, 2012). At the very core of The Impossible is the commonplace sin of depicting a real-life tragedy in an Asian land through the experience of well-to-do, white, European travelers. The devastating tsunami that struck countries on the Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004 killed approximately a quarter of a million people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand, but its obviously rich vacationers played by Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor whose story whose story needs to be told. This could be acceptable–albeit begrudgingly so–if the film still carried the sort of emotional weight that should … Continue reading Bayona, Lang, Moore, Sturges, Webb
Coffee for Two 