If there’s a fundamental theme in The Venture Bros., it’s failure. If there’s a fundamental dynamic that dramatizes the element of failure, it’s self-involvement: All of the major characters in the series tend to cause their own problems, and this is as true of the first two episodes of Season 7 as any other episode in … Continue reading
It’s been so long since I put together my big blurb contribution for Paste Magazine‘s list of the 50 best slasher movies of all time (of all time!) that I actually…forgot we hadn’t yet published it. But we hadn’t! And now we have! I wrote about Tenebrae, the Dario Argento meta classic, and you’ll also see re-ups … Continue reading
I don’t think it’s over the line to cite BlacKkKlansman as one of Spike Lee’s best films, and I’m the guy who usually seethes at claims of “masterpiece” directed at movies that haven’t been out in theaters for even a day. Is BlacKkKlansman that? Is it a masterpiece? I’m not sure. Time will tell. But it does stand out … Continue reading
I know what you’re gonna ask: “How does he do it? How does Crump make it to, and make it through, as many beer festivals as he does?” Well my friends, it’s quite simple: I run, I bike, I take evening walks around my neighborhood, I lift, and I try to eat healthy*, and somewhere in … Continue reading
This month via The Criterion Collection: Dragon Inn. That’s pretty much all you need to know. I went nuts over A Touch of Zen, King Hu’s other grand wuxia film, back in July of 2016, when Criterion added that one to their library and I wrote about the release, though apparently my writing on the matter never published … Continue reading
Welp, A24 isn’t really doing much to promote Augustine Frizzell’s excellent Never Goin’ Back, so I guess it’s up to me, a critic, to champion this gross, tender, raunchy, outrageous, sweet-hearted, and absolutely hilarious film. (It’s one of my favorites of the year. And one of the best I saw at this year’s Independent Film Festival … Continue reading
Well, that’s another Vermont Brewers Festival under the belt right there. Writing about beer is a challenge, I’m telling you. Writing about beer when part of the job means talking to people who make beer about beer while you’re drinking beer. Movie festivals, music festivals; they’re a cinch. You drink as part of the festivities. Drinking itself … Continue reading
Today’s Daily Dose for Paste Magazine, brought to you by: Me! Okay, strictly speaking it’s brought to you by Amo Amo, a new band from Los Angeles enjoying the producorial talents of one Jim James, but I wrote a couple hundred words about the song. That ain’t nothing. It’s a good song, too, else I wouldn’t … Continue reading
I’m betting you don’t need me to explain what this one’s all about, but all the same: I ranked every movie starring or featuring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Boom. That happened. What’s especially cool about this list, apart from the fact that it is 100% scientifically factual and if you disagree with me you are wrong*, is that … Continue reading
July has been a wasteland of a month for films by women. Not that there aren’t films by women out there in theaters for you to watch, or at home, and it’s not that those movies are bad or anything; it’s just that compared to other months, finding those movies has proven a Herculean task, and that’s … Continue reading
I never thought Unfriended would work as a concept. You can base an episode of Modern Family around a Skype call; you can’t make a horror movie using the same aesthetic. Except you can! Turns out that what you actually can’t do is make a sequel to that movie, at least not if you’re going to do that … Continue reading
Last April (the last day of last April, in fact), I sat down with Lauren Greenfield, documentarian, to talk about her new movie, Generation Wealth, which ran at this year’s run of Independent Film Festival Boston. If you’ve seen her previous film, The Queen of Versailles, you have a decent idea of what Generation Wealth is about; it’s not … Continue reading
Friends! I forgot to share this…forever ago, when I went on the Spoilerpiece Theater podcast with my good buddies David Riedel and Kristofer Jenson, and by “forever ago” I mean like two weeks ago (which is forever in Internet time). Anyways: We talked, hucking spoilers all over the place of course, about Nancy (which I wrote about … Continue reading
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it, uh, right here for a second time: I’m probably going to keep going back to Sorry to Bother You for the rest of the year and revisiting my feelings and interpretations of it. Having seen it but once, and having followed up that viewing by re-watching Repo Man and Tank Girl, … Continue reading
Summer’s a time to brighten up, warm up, and feel good, so if you’re in the mood to feel bad, your options are limited. You could watch The Handmaid’s Tale, which will force you to feel bad and also just naturally make you feel bad with its badness; you could also skip that and watch the … Continue reading
About me: I’ll happily wring two pieces out of one thing if I can, and you can’t make me feel ashamed about it, no sirree. That’s my little way of introducing my piece, for The ARTery, about Putting On Airs, the solo debut album from the great Erin Rae, who you may recall I interviewed for Paste Magazine … Continue reading
This piece hit the web so long ago that I forgot to share it (“so long ago,” of course, means “sometime in early June”). But hey! I remembered! So here it is, my musings on “In Between,” a live EP from local singer-songwriter Maxwell Bailey, which he recorded in an Airbnb all in one shot. … Continue reading
…huh! Seems we missed out on our Criterion piece last May! How ’bout that. (Hey, don’t look at me. I just assemble the doc. And also write my blurbs. Such is life.) Good news is, the June slate rocked, as it usually does, and we managed to get the piece on Paste Magazine just under the wire; … Continue reading
