Great Moments in Literature
“There is no way to describe the way she walked except as a kind of brave sensual trudging: as if she were nose-deep in snowdrifts, and yet on route to meet a lover. She came up the dead center of the mall, her gray coat fluttering a little in a breeze off the Jersey coast. Her high heels hit precise and neat each time on the X’s of the grating in the middle of the mall. Half a year in the city and at least she had learned to do that. Had lost heels, and once in a while composure, … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Seventeen
#17 — Gosford Park (Robert Altman, 2001) Of course, there’s no shortage of admirable traits in Robert Altman’s finest films, but one of the clearest is the way they are rooted in the eras in which they were made. M*A*S*H … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Seventeen
Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Eighteen
#18 — You Can Count on Me (Kenneth Lonergan, 2000) I feel like I owe Laura Linney an apology. If you reattach ten years of torn-off calendar pages to the wall and find me back in the fall of 1999, … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Eighteen
One for Friday: The Soup Dragons, “Lovegod”
I was the Program Director at WWSP-90FM throughout the 1990-91 academic year, a span I shared a house with five other station “executive staff” members, a house we incongruously dubbed “The Terrordome.” I remember a lot of things about that house–including several messy, messy parties–but one of the clearest memories involves my bedroom being filled with records. At this time, the Program Director also held significant responsibility for the music that went into rotation at the radio station, and we were getting so much material that it was often a practical impossibility to review every new album at the station. … Continue reading One for Friday: The Soup Dragons, “Lovegod”
I have ever so much money, I’m gorgeous and I can fly
It’s been a while since we’ve ventured out the theater for a new film, a dry spell that will end this weekend. Here’s a hint as to which movie isn’t inspiring our forthcoming ticket purchases. I miss Buffy. (Posted simultaneously to “Jelly-Town!”) Continue reading I have ever so much money, I’m gorgeous and I can fly
Stop right where you are, already you’ve gone too far
Last week, I responded to a post at the In Contention blog celebrating the best picks the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences made at their annual awards ceremony with my own version of the exercise. Certainly, we all knew that a follow up was inevitable, especially since, as much fun as it is to recall moment when the Oscar ceremony made you beam with satisfaction, it’s even more fun to rail against the misbegotten moments. So here’s the opposite of what we did last week: the worst selections made by the Academy during the 00s. Worst Best Picture: … Continue reading Stop right where you are, already you’ve gone too far
Howard and Williams, Kazan, Mamet, Penn, Weber
The Missouri Breaks (Arthur Penn, 1976). The film has Marlon Brando at the very beginning of his anything goes, deliberate insanity phase, and Jack Nicholson still wrapped in the energy of his wild genius phase (this film arrived in theaters almost exactly six months after One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and just a couple months after he won his first Oscar). It’s a revisionist western, a style and genre that Arthur Penn had done quite well with a few years earlier. All this makes it equal parts surprising and sad to report that the resulting film is drab. The … Continue reading Howard and Williams, Kazan, Mamet, Penn, Weber
Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Nineteen
#19 — Born Into Brothels (Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman, 2004) When evaluating documentaries, it’s easy to the conflate the worthiness of the subject with the quality of the filmmaking, which is why, for many years, Oscar pools could be … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Nineteen
Ever Vigilant
We have a well guarded household. (Posted simultaneously to “Jelly-Town!”) Continue reading Ever Vigilant
Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Twenty
#20 — Cache (Michael Haneke, 2005) Michael Haneke pulls no punches. The German-born and Austrian-raised director believe that films should have missions, usually to challenge and provoke. Watching his films gives the strong sense that he’d much rather leave an … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Twenty
