Maybe I’m the wrong person to write about superhero stuff in 2017. Guys, really: I just can’t watch superhero things without finding big philosophical flaws in their makeup and intent. I’m afraid to sit through the second season of Jessica Jones when it airs next year, even, though then again, Jessica is the best thing about The Defenders, … Continue reading
Let me tell you a story about a guy named me who just got his first piece up in The Hollywood Reporter. It was a good piece, and in fact still is, and you should go read it. I’m not sure what else I’m doing here, really. I’m too excited by my THR debut. Sue … Continue reading
By now, y’all have probably forgotten that I watch Game of Thrones. This is because I don’t write much about Game of Thrones, except for when I feel the impulse to swoop in and pour disdain on Internet hysteria over needless, manipulative plot contrivances. But I’m back, writing about Game of Thrones once more, this time for the … Continue reading
I forgot to post this, so here it is: Paste Magazine’s Criterion Collection Round-Up for July of 2017. For whatever reason, I thought I’d written about Rome, Open City in the past – and it’s possible that I have, and have merely forgotten – but revisiting it years after first watching it, I found that my appreciation … Continue reading
I’ll keep this short: I went to the Vermont Brewers Festival with my wife and brother in law in tow, and we all got pretty darn well sloshed drinking a whole lot of really good beers (plus a couple that weren’t so good, but we don’t like to talk about those). And then I wrote … Continue reading
It’s bad enough we have to learn about superheroes in movie theaters all across the world these days, but now our children have to learn about superheroes in the classroom. Someone, please: Think of the children. There’s a lot that happens in <i>Spider-Man: Homecoming</i>, most of it designed to bolster the bonds holding the Marvel … Continue reading
I don’t need to explain this one, do I? Mad Men turned 10 years old yesterday. The TV writing staff at Paste Magazine wrote about its best episodes; I specifically wrote about Pete Campbell getting knocked the fuck out by Lane Pryce, and also about the time Sterling Cooper became Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. Nothing complicated, … Continue reading
I’m not saying that Baby Driver and They Live by Night are all that closely related; I’m just saying that I saw both in close proximity to one another, and I couldn’t help thinking of their surface similarities, even though they’re ultimately from different families. Regardless, They Live by Night is a highlight from The Criterion Collection’s June … Continue reading
It’s rare that a single movie becomes the prism through which I view every other piece of popular culture I engage with in a given year; this is partly because movies capable of being that prism come along but rarely, and partly because when they do, they don’t typically appear in theaters during February, previously … Continue reading
Did you know that I really like Trey Edward Shults movies? Well, I do! So much that I have interviewed him twice, that I named his debut, Krisha, my #2 pick of 2016, and that I wrote this feature-length ditty over at Paste Magazine about the role family plays in his films (being Krisha and It Comes at … Continue reading
Picking 100 movies to represent the all-timers of their category is a thankless and impossible task; even if you hit all the major titles needed to give the list gravitas, you’re going to end up leaving out titles that one person might think are essential, or another person will take exception to the ordering, or … Continue reading
Next up in Paste Magazine’s “100 Best/Greatest” series: The 1950s! I blurbed my ass off for this list, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat (which is to say that I am literally doing it again right now, for a different list focused on a different subject. As Hexxus once said: No breaks!). Anywho … Continue reading
Good news, everybody! I write about beer now, too! And for Paste Magazine, no less, which in my estimation is one of the best outlets for journalism regarding the beer world. Color me biased. (I’m biased. But I also know that Paste’s thoughts on beer are held in pretty high esteem by people who are … Continue reading
Hey! It’s May(‘s Criterion round-up for Paste Magazine)! An Ozu movie written around fart jokes is an Ozu movie well in my wheelhouse, but I did not write about Good Morning; instead I wrote about Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelle, Chantal Akerman’s landmark arthouse film, a three hour opus about a single mom as she … Continue reading
War is hell, which is probably why people love making movies about it. (It’s hard to say whether people love watching movies about it more than they love making movies about it, but I digress.) So the gang at Paste Magazine, including me, put on their colors and watched a whole damn bunch of movies about war, … Continue reading
Well: It’s all done. It’s over. That’s all, folks, ’til next year, and so on and so forth, et cetera. Independent Film Festival Boston 2017 is in the books, and while yes, the event was terrific, I must now endure the post-fest doldrums until about June or so (as one whole month is about the … Continue reading
Oh, sure: I know what you’re thinking. “It’s May, Annnnnnndyyyyyyyyy! Why are you so late sharing the April Criterion round-up, huuuuuuuh?” Well, I mean, hush. Calm down. It’s okay. You can still read the Paste Magazine Criterion piece for April even though it is no longer April. You should, too, not only because I spend more time … Continue reading
