Grab my boots and a sandwich, let’s start a parade
After a long day, sometimes I just need a little Michael Kupperman. You can read more about it. (Posted simultaneously to “Jelly-Town!”) Continue reading Grab my boots and a sandwich, let’s start a parade
Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Fifty
#50 — Galaxy Quest (Dean Parisot, 1999) Galaxy Quest is easy to dismiss. It was certainly easy for me. We saw it upon its Christmas Day release, honoring a beloved household tradition of spending the biggest holiday of the year … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Fifty
Top Fifty Films of the 90s — An Introduction
And something of a post-mortem on the Top Fifty Films of the 00s. You know. While we’re here. When I embarked on that little jaunt across the past ten years of moviemaking, trying the best I could to rank the films I loved most, and identify why I loved them, it was with the hope that grappling with each of the entries would be a rewarding challenge. It was that, and then some. I’m not sure if the unexpected praise I received after typing out those last thousand words or so upon reaching the number one film on New Year’s … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — An Introduction
One for Friday: Uncle Green, “Pass It By”
I think most students who gravitate to their college radio station do so because, first and foremost, they love music. Taking their first crack at the real world, or a simulacrum of such, they’re finally able to assert that inner part that connects to certain guitar chords or electronic beats or tangles of angular lyrics. Often it’s music that their high school compatriots didn’t get, dismissing it as weird as they pondered whether to vote for Bryan Adams’ “Heaven” or REO Speedwagon’s “Can’t Fight This Feeling” for the prom theme. If commercial radio bothered to play it at all, it … Continue reading One for Friday: Uncle Green, “Pass It By”
On the black Fellini sails, tattered rags that hangs on nails reminds me
It’s hard to see Nine as anything other than a retreat of sorts for director Rob Marshall. He followed up his Oscar-feted Chicago–a film you may recall that I quite like–with an attempt to branch out into prestige fare that … Continue reading On the black Fellini sails, tattered rags that hangs on nails reminds me
Great Moments in Literature
“The women cross their ankles, their flats kicked off and carried by Sissy back to the foyer, where they are paired and lined in rows: Pappagallos in various colors, sandals with daisies chiseled in the cowhide, or bright, artificial flowers attached to the straps. Now in the soft glow of the lighted room, the women’s feet, bare and colored at the toe, caress the Corsican rug. They have had another round of drinks; they are trying to think of what to say next.” –Kate Walbert, A Short History of Women, 2009 “AND I DON’T USE GUNS–THE INSANE WEAPON OF AN … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
Ephron, Hunt, Kieslowski, Kieslowski, Tykwer
Three Colors: Blue (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1993). The first film in Kieslowski’s famed Three Colors trilogy stars Juliette Binoche as a woman dealing with the recent death of her famous husband and young daughter in a car crash. She retreats from the world, getting drawn back only reluctantly, in part due to interest and controversy over her spouse’s last, incomplete work. There’s tremendous thematic heft in the work, with the specter of mortality drawn over the entire work, enhanced by the sense of all the ways in which life itself drifts away from us. Binoche is moving and insightful in her … Continue reading Ephron, Hunt, Kieslowski, Kieslowski, Tykwer
Trying to fly away might have been your first mistake
There have already been plenty of words devoted to all the ways in which Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air is especially timely, so let’s instead consider the elements that make it timeless. Yes, the profession of the film’s main … Continue reading Trying to fly away might have been your first mistake
Now I’m very big, I’m a big important man, and the only thing that’s different is underneath my hat
Apparently, I need one more day of mental recovery before stringing words together properly again. Following one of my usually tactics in such situation, here’s a little something from Daniel Clowes: You can read more about it. Continue reading Now I’m very big, I’m a big important man, and the only thing that’s different is underneath my hat
Everything was cool, diggin’ on me, diggin’ on you
And now some breaking Hollywood news… You can read more about it. Continue reading Everything was cool, diggin’ on me, diggin’ on you
