Last week, when I was mulling over which old review should be plopped into this space, I came very close to selecting I’m Not There, as if something was nudging me to do so. Maybe the scraggly bard of Hibbing, … Continue reading From the Archive: I’m Not There
This was originally posted at my former digital home. I don’t have much to add today, save for this: Every great director deserves to have a film this strong as their final cinematic statement. It’s already become commonplace to build … Continue reading From the Archive: Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
For eight years, I was in charge of the graduation ceremony at Warren Wilson College. Today, I return to view it as a spectator, fulfilling a promise to several dear friends of mine who will be walking across the stage to claim well-earned diplomas.In celebration, I reach back to a post that is almost precisely ten years old. In my former online home, the work week regularly ended with a feature called “Five for Friday,” in which I listed a quintet of songs that suited a specific prompt, inviting folks to “please play along” and contribute their personal choices. This … Continue reading From the Archive: Five for Friday, Bettering Edward Elgar edition
While I would make perfect sense to use this weekend’s unstoppable blockbuster as inspiration to dredge up an older review of a movie featuring Marvel characters for the “From the Archive” feature, I decided to opt for something a little different, still tipping my ball cap to the latest offering that inspires moviegoers to cry, “Make Mine Marvel!” This review was written as a lark, a little act of self-mockery as I applied the rigors of critical thinking to a silly nineteen-seventies Marvel comic book (largely at the joking behest of a pal of mine who has a certain whale … Continue reading From the Archive: Marvel Team-Up #12
This was written for The Pointer, the student newspaper at the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point. Other headlines in the same issue, published in November of 1992, include “Videos produced on Point’s award winning recycling,” “Freeze tuition costs!” and … Continue reading From the Archive: Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Once again, the “From the Archive” feature brings you the wildly forgettable cinema of the early nineteen-nineties. Around the time Company Business was released, in 1991, Gene Hackman was openly speculating that retirement was imminent. This is the sort of … Continue reading From the Archive: Company Business
The intent of this feature is to post something I’ve written that hasn’t previously shown up in this digital space, but I make exceptions on rare occasions. This is one of them, just so I can put a caboose on the train of Trivia Kickoff Movie writing. After I posted about Swingers earlier this week, a different Trivia disciple mentioned he thought that was the best Kickoff Movie that ideally suited the event, but that the best overall movie to fill that role for the station over the years was The Ice Storm. Without double-checking the list of films that … Continue reading From the Archive: Being John Malkovich
A few weeks ago, I took the occasion of a melancholy anniversary to raid my digital archives for a post that resided under the heading “Flashback Friday” at my former online home. Besides the Hotel Washington entry, I’d forgotten about … Continue reading From the Archive: Flashback Friday – 1984
Shortly after the debut of the radio show The Reel Thing, the film review program I co-hosted from 1990 to 1993, it felt like we were inundated with Jean-Claude Van Damme movies. We weren’t, but there were two within our first few months on the air. That felt like punishment enough. As a general rule, even the worst movies got one star on our four-star rating scale. If I dropped below that, I was really serious about how much I hated it. Deran Sarafian, the director of this film, went on to be a prolific, respectable television director. The screenplay is … Continue reading From the Archive: Death Warrant
For those heading out to theater this weekend to “just get this over with,” helping elevate the latest Zack Snyder joint to ludicrously triumphant box office numbers, I dig into the archive to offer the gentle reminder that it didn’t have to … Continue reading From the Archive: The Dark Knight
Coffee for Two 