Come and go with me, it’s more fun to share, we’ll both be completely at home in midair
Today I wish I was this guy: Continue reading Come and go with me, it’s more fun to share, we’ll both be completely at home in midair
Almodóvar, Argott, Butterworth, Fellowes, Scorsese
Separate Lies (Julian Fellowes, 2005). Following his Oscar win for scripting Robert Altman’s exemplary Gosford Park, Julian Fellowes made his directorial debut with an adaptation of an an old novel by Nigel Balchin. The film focuses of a busy, distracted solicitor whose marriage begins to fray, a situation compounded when the death of a local man in a hit-and-run car accident brings secrets to light and sets everyone reeling into a series of moral compromises. The stuff of high drama is certainly present in abundance in the story, and with Tom Wilkinson, Emily Watson and Rupert Everett at the head … Continue reading Almodóvar, Argott, Butterworth, Fellowes, Scorsese
Your footprints still they are in the sand, everything else washed away
Never Let Me Go is built upon some fairly commonplace themes. Unrequited love, the pains of growing up, the burden carried by the underclass all get an airing in the film. At times it feels very conventional, very plain. It … Continue reading Your footprints still they are in the sand, everything else washed away
Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Nine
#9 — The Crying Game (Neil Jordan, 1992) How long does a gag order on movie secrets last? Years before the term “spoiler alert” was coined and became part of the shared vernacular of moviegoing, Miramax was able to parlay the … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Nine
College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1989, 78 and 77
78. Ella Mental, Ella Mental A little time with an atlas is going to be useful to anyone trying to track the path of the band Ella Mental. They formed in South Africa when guitarist and chief songwriter spotted Heather … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1989, 78 and 77
Though to say we got much hope, if I am lost it’s only for a little while
Today, kind friend, I will direct you elsewhere for an example of my word putting together skills. Continue reading Though to say we got much hope, if I am lost it’s only for a little while
One for Friday: Chris Mars, “Popular Creeps”
I feel very fortunate to have landed in college radio just when I did, but I must admit that sometimes I wish I’d gotten there just a couple years earlier. There was a lot to get excited about during my tenure: the emergence of Sonic Youth as a left of the dial powerhouse, the flaring Madchester scene, the seismic impact of Nirvana, and I’ll always remember the spring of 1989 with great fondness as a time when there was an overwhelming avalanche of great records. Still, I never had the pleasure of seeing a brand new album by either Hüsker … Continue reading One for Friday: Chris Mars, “Popular Creeps”
I saw a vampire, I saw a ghost, everybody scared me but you scared me the most
In honor of the spooky holiday coming up this weekend, I could be trying to come up with a kick ass jack-o’-lantern, but I’m afraid the bar has been set too high for me. So instead, I humbly present a … Continue reading I saw a vampire, I saw a ghost, everybody scared me but you scared me the most
Altman, Clements and Musker, Gordon (and others), Kubrick, Weir
Lolita (Stanley Kubrick, 1962). Vladimir Nabokov’s novel was less than ten years old when Stanley Kubrick took a swing at it, so he was working with a best-selling sensation instead of a revered part of the canon. That–combined with the significant detail that he was Stanley Kubrick and he plainly did want he wanted–gives the director great latitude in his adaptation. Nabokov himself is the credited screenwriter, but much of that material was jettisoned by Kubrick on the way to making his own distinct, darkly comic work. James Mason is marvelous as Professor Humbert Humbert, the man who becomes smitten … Continue reading Altman, Clements and Musker, Gordon (and others), Kubrick, Weir
Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Ten
#10 — Dead Man Walking (Tim Robbins, 1995) When a filmmaker is active politically outside of their chosen profession, it can disrupt the balance of their art. That’s especially true when the work in question is itself political in nature. … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Ten
