The flattery is sincere, all right. For his first two outings as a feature film director, J.J. Abrams handled established franchise properties: the unwatchable Mission: Impossible III followed by the amazingly engaging reimagining of Star Trek. For his third film, … Continue reading He piloted this song in a plane like that one
Portions of Woody Allen’s 1996 film Everyone Says I Love You take place in Paris, including the scene in the closing moments that finds Allen’s character dancing with his ex-wife, played by Goldie Hawn, along the Seine. What starts as … Continue reading The home of Piaf and Chevalier must have done something right to get passion this way
This week, I contributed to our List Inconsequential feature on badass album covers by writing about the Sonic Youth album that includes their fierce collaboration with Chuck D and, even better, helped make possible their eventual, inadvertent and unbelievably cool collaboration with Christina Aguilera. I also wrote about the latest album from the Felice Brothers, one of way too many bands with the word “Brothers” in their name that emerged at roughly the same time. The new record was pretty good, though, even if it made me think anew about (and do fresh research on) the Creepiest Place on EarthTM. … Continue reading Spectrum Check
The Hucksters (Jack Conway, 1947). Based on Frederic Wakeman’s novel from the previous year, The Hucksters burrows into the intersection between advertising and media as a sharp-witted, upstanding man returns to the former field after years away. Clark Gable plays Victor Norman, a crafty operator who views his soap company overlord largely with sardonic superiority. The portions of the film that survey the ever-shifting terrain of the radio environment are uniformly strong, thanks in no small part to the boisterously effective performance of Sydney Greenstreet as the corporate bigwig who sets everyone but Gable’s Norman aquiver. The stretches that deal … Continue reading Conway, Garbus, von Sternberg, Weir, Yates
Kelly Reichardt’s new film Meek’s Cutoff stands in direct opposition to almost every trend and tendency in American film. It is slow where most other films are fast, emotionally contained where other films are effusive and showy, deliberately serious where … Continue reading Your grass it is turning black, there’s no water in your well
This week, I finally starting working on the backlog of record reviews I need to work through by offering up an assessment of the new album by the U.K. band Let’s Wrestle. It was one of those tricky instances of having to write about something when my primary reaction to it is “Eh, it’s okay.” What’s actually harder is writing about a film that’s terrific. Invariably, I feel like my words are inadequate. Lu Chuan’s new movie is tough, uncompromising and beautifully made. I am pleased that I wrote the review without ever using the word “epic.” That was intentional. … Continue reading Spectrum Check
The mighty Marvel movie machine marches on with the one with the unveiling of Thor. Based on a comic book character that’s been around for just about as long as the Marvel imprint has, the film toggles back and forth … Continue reading I’m just looking for a faith waiting to be followed
(Though it wasn’t intended for such a purpose, I could never come up with a better image to encapsulate the thoughts I’m trying to express below. I must give due credit to the illustrator.) After all the trailers unspooled at … Continue reading I nearly didn’t recognize you, then my heart unwound
This week I took my first crack at the Revisit feature over on the music side of things, which proved to be far more difficult for me. I initially thought I’d write about R.E.M.’s Out of Time this year stands as the twentieth anniversary of its release and, despite being a major success, it seems to be one of the forgotten albums by the band. I thought it would be interesting to give it a fresh listen, separated from the saturation play it experienced at my college radio station upon release. I may still try writing that piece at some … Continue reading Spectrum Check
This week, I reviewed a new film that stars John Hawkes as artist Stan Herd. Hawkes is good as always; the movie has some issues. I also contributed an entry to this week’s List Inconsequential, which focused on the best film adaptations of William Shakespeare’s works. The super-secret, DVD commentary track backstory on this one is that it was initially intended to be the best and the worst of Shakespeare adaptations, but everyone wanted to write about their favorites. I’ve actually had a hard time thinking of a film bad enough to be singled out for the that sort of … Continue reading Spectrum Check
Coffee for Two 