Spectrum Check
This week, my Spectrum movie review duties absolutely gave me the chance to see a fine film that I probably wouldn’t have gotten to otherwise. I’m pleased as can be that John Sayles still gets to make movies, and clearly make them in exactly the fashion he pleases, but it’s been all too easy to let his most recent offerings go by as inconsequential. Beyond the growing unlikelihood that he’ll ever again make a film that crosses over enough to become necessary viewing for those who want to engage in spirited debates over the current state of cinema, there’s a … Continue reading Spectrum Check
One for Friday: The Replacements, “Within Your Reach” (live)
My favorite record store had a glass case that was filled with magic. In the days before a skilled Google search could kick up just about any music a heart and ear might desire, there was all sorts of material out there which enticed with its sheer elusiveness. Some of this was old stuff that was out of print and some of it was the flotsam and jetsam that bands released on b-sides and compilations. But the hidden gems that intrigued me the most were those albums that were clearly bootleg releases. Some of this was undoubtedly because of the … Continue reading One for Friday: The Replacements, “Within Your Reach” (live)
I’ll have a warm bath, I’ll have a bottle of wine
“This is going to be with a Baby Jesus 73 pick.” I’m afraid I don’t have too much to give you tonight in terms of actual words. I’ll do better tomorrow. Continue reading I’ll have a warm bath, I’ll have a bottle of wine
Top Fifty Films of the 80s — Number Eighteen
#18 — E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg, 1982) The nineteen-eighties belonged to Steven Spielberg. Even those who react to the filmmaker’s name with an instinctual would surely concede that point. Considering he closed the seventies with 1941, a film that … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 80s — Number Eighteen
My Misspent Youth: Justice League by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire
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. As the list below the “Previously…” down there attests, I was … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: Justice League by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire
Burnett, Roach, Singer, Smith, Varda
Vagabond (Agnès Varda, 1985). Varda’s sedate, stirring drama follows a young itinerant woman, paying special attention to the variety of ways society expresses its disdain for her. To a degree, it’s because of her place on the tattered fringe of the social structure, but a remarkable amount of the pain she endures is provoked by her gender rather than her place in class culture. She’s used, dismissed and disregarded repeatedly. Sandrine Bonnaire is evocative and moving in the leading role, clearly investing deep feeling into the performance. It would be easy for the film to lapse into woeful melodrama, but … Continue reading Burnett, Roach, Singer, Smith, Varda
College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1989, 7
7. Red Hot Chili Peppers, Mother’s Milk In case there is need for any additional evidence of my general inability to discern and predict which artists that ruled over college radio had the stuff to cross over to the mainstream, … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1989, 7
Spectrum Check
I’ve been running behind on my music reviews and the studios have been running behind on getting me screeners, so I only had one piece up at Spectrum Culture this week. It was my second contribution to our Best Living Directors series, this time offering an evaluation of Pedro Almodóvar. I wasn’t part of the selection process for our list, but I’m very pleased with it. For one thing, there’s good diversity and a strong sense of history to it. These sorts of tallies are so often of the moment and crassly devoted assembled choices that are perceived as ever … Continue reading Spectrum Check
One for Friday: Michael Jeter, “Everything’s Coming Up Videos”
I saw the actor Michael Jeter in a movie the other day, and it just made me sad. It wasn’t because of the quality of the film or the performance–although the movie was certainly one that came to define what ludicrously-budgeted Hollywood junk looks like–but simply because it was a reminder that he was gone. Jeter died in 2003 at the age of fifty, no kid but still too young. Though he won both a Tony and an Emmy, his opportunities in movies were spottier, usually relegated to something a little odd over on the fringe of the plot. Jeter’s … Continue reading One for Friday: Michael Jeter, “Everything’s Coming Up Videos”
Top Fifty Films of the 80s — Number Nineteen
#19 — Midnight Run (Martin Brest, 1988) Action-comedies featuring a pair of charmingly mismatched partners weren’t invented in the nineteen-eighties, but Hollywood studios sure spent the better part of that span of years cranking them out as if they were … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 80s — Number Nineteen
