Whatever went away, I’ll get it over now, I’ll get money, I’ll get funny again
Writer-director Judd Apatow’s new movie Funny People has a lot of dick jokes in it. A lot. If you’re an undiscerning fan of dick jokes, finding each and every one of them hysterically funny, then this movie may actually be … Continue reading Whatever went away, I’ll get it over now, I’ll get money, I’ll get funny again
Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Forty-Four
#44 — Lars and the Real Girl (Craig Gillespie, 2007) Movies are routinely celebrated for making the impossible happen. This praise is usually reserved for spectacles of special effects that send superheroes slicing across the sky or warriors facing off … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Forty-Four
Great Moments in Literature
“My inner chemistry had been hijacked by a mad scientist, who poured the fizzy, volatile contents of my heart from a test tube marked SOBER REALITY into another labeled SUNNY DELUSION, and back again, faster and faster, until the floor of my life was slick with spillage.” –Jonathan Lethem, As She Climbed Across the Table, 1997 “AFTER MINUTES THAT ARE ETERNITIES, SHE REACHES HER DESTINATION, BLINKS AT A LIGHT THAT STINGS HER EYES, AND WHEN HER VISION CLEARS, GASPS…COLORS AND BRIGHTNESS AND SOUNDS AND A SUBTLE PERFUME SUCH AS SHE HAS NEVER IMAGINED…HER HEART POUNDS AND SHE GROWS DIZZY WITH … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
One for Friday: Suzanne Vega, “Stockings”
I have, despite my best efforts, a completist’s mentality. This undoubtedly stems from my extended time in thrall to comic books, a field of fandom in which thorough, dedicated acquisition of product is the fully exploited norm. I’ve still got longboxes that testify to my dedication to owning, say, the entire run of John Byrne’s Fantastic Four. That same inclination seeped into my other media consumption. I follow movie directors to places I wouldn’t otherwise go and routinely stick with television series well after their creativity has faded because, hey, I watched every other episode so I should see it … Continue reading One for Friday: Suzanne Vega, “Stockings”
Warning sign, warning sign, I see it but I pay it no mind
So much attention and outrage has been leveled at the sorry state of the American food industry in recent years, from the meticulous reporting of Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation to Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me up through the hugely … Continue reading Warning sign, warning sign, I see it but I pay it no mind
Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Forty-Five
#45 — Vera Drake (Mike Leigh, 2004) It is practically a necessity to begin any discussion or celebration of a Mike Leigh film by detailing his unique methodology. As is well-established, Leigh begins by assembling his actors and assigning them … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Forty-Five
She’s making movies on location, she don’t know what it means
Kung Fu Panda (Mark Osborne and John Stevenson, 2008). in the realm of computer animated features, there is Pixar and then there’s everyone else. Others have reaped box office success, but there’s an broad, enduring gap when it comes to artistry. Dreamworks Animation is arguably the outfit working most diligently to cross the divide. Kung Fu Panda doesn’t accomplish that, in part because the storytelling is as by-the-numbers as it gets, but it does boast a visual sense that is smoothly well-realized, generally engaging, and, at times, very striking. In particular, the sequences involving the elaborate prison created for the … Continue reading She’s making movies on location, she don’t know what it means
Watch out! You might get what you’re after
Music To Warm a House By, Volume One 1996 The title should make it fairly clear what kind of party this tape was made for. The house in question had already been heated adequately for me; I’d been living there for around a year-and-a-half at the time of the party. However, I had new roommates, including my fellow 90FM alumnus . Since I was anticipating a more social atmosphere with the new collection of residents (marathon sessions of simultaneously smoking pot, playing Nintendo hockey and listening to Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness were the nightly default plan of the … Continue reading Watch out! You might get what you’re after
Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Forty-Six
#46 — The Savages (Tamara Jenkins, 2007) The Savages may be an ideal title for a tale of domestic dysfunction. Savage is the shared last name of the compact family unit at the heart of the film, but, of course, … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Forty-Six
I got so much trouble on my mind, I refuse to lose
Michael Mann likes to make movies about men. Men who speak tersely and intently, conveying their views and plans with a creased-brow seriousness. Men who stride purposefully through the world. Men who stare each down across diner tables or through … Continue reading I got so much trouble on my mind, I refuse to lose
