March 2nd “Truly,” Sherif Ali says to Lawrence, “for some men nothing is written unless they write it.” It’s one of the most profound, haunting, and countermanded lines in cinematic history, and in a film which does not include any female characters, it’s noteworthy that the line refers only to “men.” Ala Kachuu adds “and… Read More Movie Diary 2023 (3/2-3/6): Benediction
Riz Ahmed looked really comfy while he was presenting these nominations. Allison Williams also looked comfy, for sure, but I’m so jealous of how cozy his fit was. I wish I could watch these from bed like all you Californians. 1) Oscars nominations and the College Football Playoff are getting more and more like each… Read More 95th Academy Awards Nominations: Hastily Scribbled Thoughts
For each movie in the top 100, I’ve written a question to answer. (It would get very, very boring for me to have to write some variation on “boy howdy, you’ll never believe how good this movie is” one hundred more times.) There’s no exact sentence or word count I’m holding myself to here, but… Read More Top 250 American Movies: 61-70
Steven Hyden introduced his five-albums test more than a decade ago as a third way to judge a band, short of its popularity or its critical acclaim. While this one is not meant to stand on its own—for example, he’s not sure that either Bob Dylan nor the Rolling Stones had made five great albums… Read More The Five-Movies Test or: Which Director Has Had the Best Stretch of Consecutive Feature-Length Films in English?
With the Oscars around the corner, I’m doing blurbs for each of this year’s Best Picture nominees in lieu of full reviews. (I don’t plan anything I do, so I’ve linked to ones with reviews already published…) I’ve ranked the films from best to worst below as a method of organization. Occasionally I’ll reference my… Read More 94th Academy Awards Best Picture Nominees, Ranked
Dir. Steven Spielberg. Starring Ansel Elgort, Rachel Zegler, Ariana DeBose Somewhere, J.J. Abrams left a movie theater, blinking a little bit behind those signature glasses of his, and he murmured to himself, “Gosh…the new West Side Story has a lot of lens flare, doesn’t it?” I suppose I should feel some gratitude to Steven Spielberg,… Read More West Side Story (2021)
You can find the full list of the top 100 blockbusters since 1972 here, as well as an index for other posts in this series. One of the first questions I had as I was working through my rubrics and compilations was a pretty simple one: Spielberg or Cameron? I’m a little alarmed by how conventional… Read More Top 100 Blockbusters of the Multiplex Era: Trends
You can find the full list of the top 100 blockbusters since 1972 here, as well as an index for other posts in this series. I could understand why, if you were adapting Jurassic Park, you might decide to drop “Mr. DNA.” There are other ways to do this plot exposition, maybe by giving B.D. Wong… Read More Top 100 Blockbusters of the Multiplex Era: Tech Messiah
You can find the full list of the top 100 blockbusters since 1972 here, as well as an index for other posts in this series. After there was Raiders of the Lost Ark, there was Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation. Made by three guys from Mississippi over the course of the 1980s, the… Read More Top 100 Blockbusters of the Multiplex Era: Nostalgia
You can find the full list of the top 100 blockbusters since 1972 here, as well as an index for other posts in this series. The Godfather was the first modern blockbuster, but once can be forgiven for believing Jaws actually holds that title. For one thing, Jaws obliterated the records of historically huge performers… Read More Top 100 Blockbusters of the Multiplex Era: Unchained Metaphor
Seeing Things Secondhand 