Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Eleven
#11 — A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes, 1974) It’s monstrously difficulty to detail the strengths of the cinematic signature pieces of John Cassavetes. The revolutionary filmmaker’s defining strengths are well-established: a bruising verisimilitude, a compulsion to push his … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Eleven
You’re talkin’ a lot, but you’re not sayin’ anything
Sometimes a movie can be too clever for its own good. Irish playwright Martin McDonagh’s sophomore directorial effort, Seven Psychopaths, settles snugly into this category. On one level, it’s a black comedy that builds its humor out of the bullet-blasting … Continue reading You’re talkin’ a lot, but you’re not sayin’ anything
Great Moments in Literature
“Clinton sighed and gave up. All his life he had given up. He didn’t know why it was like that; why a man who wanted nothing but to live honestly and industriously and usefully — who, briefly, asked only the privileges of giving and helping — had had to compromise and surrender at every turn. But that was the way it had been, and that was apparently the way it was to be.” –Jim Thompson, The Getaway, 1958 “AND THERE, AGELESS SERENITY SHATTERS, SPLINTERED BY THE SOFT SCRABBLE OF FINGERNAILS CLAWING CLAY–AND BY A SUDDEN ERUPTION OF SCRAWNY HANDS THRUSTING … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
In Hollywood where all the lights are low, and truth’s as rare as the winter snow
When Ben Affleck made his directorial debut with Gone Baby Gone in 2007, there were a few qualities that merited special praise which have since grown into genuine strengths he has as a filmmaker. There’s a laudable focus, a pronounced … Continue reading In Hollywood where all the lights are low, and truth’s as rare as the winter snow
College Countdown: KROQ-FM’s Top 40 Songs of 1987, 36 and 35
36. “Alone Again Or” by the Damned Given the opportunity, I don’t think I ever would have listed Love, the nineteen-sixties band fronted by Arthur Lee, as an influence on the Damned. But the U.K. punk legends gave exactly that reason when asked why they recorded a cover of Love’s seminal song from Forever Changes, their 1967 masterpiece. The cover version showed up on the band’s 1986 album entitled Anything, which came out well after the point that most were even paying attention to the group, at least stateside (they were still making regular visits to the Top 40 back … Continue reading College Countdown: KROQ-FM’s Top 40 Songs of 1987, 36 and 35
Spectrum Check
I had a fairly light week at Spectrum Culture, in part because a malfunctioning streaming screener caused me to falter in my marital pledge to use my position as a film reviewer to secure access to intriguing new horror films. Instead, I only had a single music review go up, covering the full-length debut of Poor Moon, a Fleet Foxes side project. It’s mostly a useful album for those looking for a sleep aid. I also kicked in a few words for this week’s List Inconsequential, focused on cover songs that are better than the originals. In this instance, I … Continue reading Spectrum Check
One for Friday: Senseless Things, “Ex Teenager”
Strangely enough, you often can judge an album by its cover. While the old adage about books and covers remains fairly sound when applied to the products of the publishing industry, there’s a remarkable correlation between awful album art and bands that have plainly run out of ideas. Similarly, an album cover that absolutely leaps out and grabs the viewer often houses a record that contains equally striking music. And then there are those particularly fortuitous times when an album cover somehow conveys the entire sense of the music it fronts and promotes. The second full-length from the U.K. punky … Continue reading One for Friday: Senseless Things, “Ex Teenager”
My Writers: Jonathan Lethem
I was voraciously seeking out new fiction in the late nineteen-nineties, no doubt partially inspired by the fact that it was realistically the first time in my life I had enough disposable income to regularly offer business to local bookstores … Continue reading My Writers: Jonathan Lethem
Top 40 Smash Taps: “What Now”
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. Upon its release in 1964, Billboard reviewed Gene Chandler’s single “What Now” in the following manner: “Tear-jerker tale of a guy done wrong by a fickle gal! Gene wails in fine style backed by driving instrumentation.” The track was Chandler’s fourth song to grace the Billboard Top 40 and the third straight, following “Just Be True,” which peaked at #19, and “Bless Our … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “What Now”
Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Twelve
#12 — Last Tango in Paris (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1972) I’ll admit that I don’t even have the time to watch everything I want to (an issue to which some of the omissions from this list may attest), much less immerse … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Twelve
