Well, we should come up with something appropriate to the day, shouldn’t we? Once again, I raid my former online home, specifically traipsing through the two hundred installments of weekly exercises in crowdsourced music lists. Below is the prompt I … Continue reading From the Archive — Five for Friday, Guinness for Strength edition
As means of congratulating the highly deserving winner of this year’s Best Directing Academy Award, I will excavate one this review of an old Guillermo del Toro film, which I believe stands as the final such writerly relic that can … Continue reading From the Archive — Hellboy II: The Golden Army
In the corner of the multiverse where I preside over the Academy Awards like a benevolent despot, every one of the performers pictured above received an acting nomination for their roles in No Country for Old Men. Also, Seth MacFarlane … Continue reading From The Archive — My Ballot, 2007
Since I recently lobbed a few ill words in the direction of Joe Wright’s latest Best Picture nominee in which the evacuation of Dunkirk figures into the plot, I’ll look back to a far more admiring assessment of an earlier effort from the director. Atonement was also a Best Picture nominee in which the evacuation of Dunkirk figures in the plot. How about that? And ten years ago, because of the same film, little Saoirse Ronan was also getting ready for her first trip to the Oscars. Atonement is a terrific book, so artfully taking advantage of the storytelling opportunities unique to … Continue reading From the Archive — Atonement
Last week, I dug out the old review for Clint Eastwood’s The Flags of Our Fathers. It’s time for his follow-up. Since I initially took the occasion of revisiting these reviews of Eastwood films to call into question some of the more overt veneration of his skills as a director, I now feel obligated to add that this effort nabbed a reasonably secure place on my top ten list for the year it was released. Well it’s a damn sight better than Flags of Our Fathers, I’ll say that. The companion to director Clint Eastwood’s earlier film about the battle of Iwo Jima … Continue reading From the Archive — Letters from Iwo Jima
Clint Eastwood has a new film out. It is not being especially well-received. In general, I’ve long found the movie critic discourse around Eastwood’s directorial career to be a little perplexing. I’ve liked many of his films, including proud placement of a few on various lists of laudatory accomplishment. But to refer to Eastwood as one of the great filmmakers (I remember at least once critic, circa Mystic River, positing that Eastwood was the greatest American director then working) requires turning a blind eye to a lot of flawed material, even if one generously ignores the absolute worst efforts. I think … Continue reading From the Archive — Flags of Our Fathers
This old review should have really posted yesterday. Then again, Groundhog Day in repeat is somewhat fitting. This was written for The Pointer, the student newspaper at UW-Stevens Point. The minor reservation expressed in the last paragraph is baffling to … Continue reading From the Archive — Groundhog Day
I’m dusting off this old pile of words in commemoration on the recent announcement that the Warner brothers — and the Warner sister, of course — are on their way back. This was originally posted in my former online home. … Continue reading From the Archive — Animaniacs
The nominations for the ninetieth Academy Awards will be announced this coming Tuesday, which I will, by self-set tradition, use as impetus to begin counting down my selections for the ten best films of 2017, six weeks or so after … Continue reading From the Archive — The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
As this slightly worrisome Oscar season continues to shower precursor awards on the problematic film about mass advertising on the outskirts of a small community, spare a thought for the fleeting front-runners from earlier in the cycle. Barring a major … Continue reading From the Archive — Happy-Go-Lucky
Coffee for Two 