Top Ten Movies of 2008 — Number Six
So there’s this guy, right? He dresses up in a costume like a bat–well, it’s more inspired by a bat, I guess–and dives around in these supercool cars and motorcycles and stuff and he beats up criminals. Or perhaps you’re … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2008 — Number Six
Top Ten Movies of 2008 — Number Seven
#7 I highly doubt that Hollywood power brokers are aggressively examining the oeuvre of Mike Leigh in search of remake fodder. Lucky for all of us, since it’s easy to imagine the cheery monstrosity that would result if Happy-Go-Lucky fell … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2008 — Number Seven
Top Ten Movies of 2008 — Number Eight
#8 Something that works on the page won’t automatically work on the screen, especially when the original prose tends towards the ruminative. That may explain why the likes of John Updike and Philip Roth are relatively underrepresented on the big … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2008 — Number Eight
She said, “Hang the rich.”
Some days, I’ll confess, I just try to fill the space. (Posted simultaneously (though why bother, really?) to “Jelly-Town!”) Continue reading She said, “Hang the rich.”
Top Ten Movies of 2008 — Number Nine
#9 Gus Van Sant’s Milk pulls off the gratifying trick of making the fact that its title character is gay simultaneously vitally central and utterly beside the point. Harvey Milk’s mid-seventies rise from San Francisco small businessman to influential political … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2008 — Number Nine
I could have strangled him, I’m English, though, so I made him coffee and I made him toast
There’s more where this came from. (Posted simultaneously to “Jelly-Town!”) Continue reading I could have strangled him, I’m English, though, so I made him coffee and I made him toast
One For Friday: Material Issue, “Don’t You Think I Know”
Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged in New York was released on CD after Kurt Cobain’s death. I remember someone writing at the time that after the unexpected shotgun blast proved the extent of Cobain’s depression, every song now sounded like a suicide note. Around two years after Cobain ended it all, another musician from my college radio days killed himself. He was far less prominent–no cottage industry of mournful t-shirts sprung up around his loss–but to me he was even more important. Jim Ellison was the lead singer and chief songwriter for the band Material Issue. Their albums were like gifts from … Continue reading One For Friday: Material Issue, “Don’t You Think I Know”
Top Ten Movies of 2008 — Number Ten
#10 Set deep in a Scandinavian winter, Let the Right One In is a dark movie. Dark material, dark sensibilities and a dark, dark sky that crushes down on the characters with an enveloping, bleak power. The Swedish film focuses on a lonely boy who discovers a strange new friend in his apartment complex. It is a girl who appears to be about his age, but is actually ageless. She’s initially curious but standoffish, declaring the impossibility of friendship between the two. In a way, she’s right. What emerges feels like more than friendship, certainly more than the sort of … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2008 — Number Ten
I’m telling you I caught the sun creeping up behind my shoulder
When you’re devoted to evaluating film from a geographic locale that’s well-distant from any established centers of cinema, the timing of a year-end top ten list and corresponding ruminations is fairly detached from the actual calendar. It’s more like calling time of death in the back of the ambulance. You work and work, but eventually you just know it’s time. It’s time. To be completely accurate, my decision-making is impacted by the timing of Hollywood’s annual company picnic and trophy ceremony. As has been the case the past three years, I’d like to have the countdown wrapped up before the … Continue reading I’m telling you I caught the sun creeping up behind my shoulder
They’ll never rehabilitate that mother, no way
For many, the announcement that Ron Howard would be directing the film version of Peter Morgan’s acclaimed play Frost/Nixon caused dismay. It was another example of a Hollywood hack being handed a prestige project with ruination of the work a … Continue reading They’ll never rehabilitate that mother, no way
