Briefs
Monday, May 28th, 2018
Having just seen Sam Smith on a televised weekend concert, I was reminded of Spectre and went and found a podcast episode where they satisfyingly eviscerate his lazy theme song, “The Writing’s on the Wall”.
Revenge of the Audience. In the comments after this Variety article about Solo, people consider why this movie is a box office disaster.
Watching Carrie Fisher tell her son about his Dad in Catastrophe, s3e6, she removes her glasses and her bitter old character eccentricities and we see just her face and eyes and she is as glittering onscreen as ever. Yet in the two new movies they gave her static scenes, which I think is a significant reason for Star Wars fatigue: what they did to the original troika in these new movies is distasteful.
I know why I didn’t see Solo: because The Last Jedi.
Wednesday, May 2nd, 2018
Joss Whedon on making The Avengers: “There’s very little that I didn’t look at. It’s like, This is a Dr. Strangelove moment. This is The Abyss. This is His Girl Friday. It’s constant. You have to have all that stuff sort of in a blender in your head.”
“Jon [Favreau] said, ‘Look into his eyes. If you look into his eyes you will know. Is he being asked a question or is he asking the question?’” On the making of Iron Man’s HUD.
Sunday, March 25th, 2018
Vincent Gallo Sings by one Vincent Gallo. “I know what I look like. It’s certainly not how I would have made myself look. Don’t blame me.”
Saturday, March 17th, 2018
Check it out, How We Made, a weekly series by The Guardian interviewing two collaborators on a seminal work of art — from 2001: A Space Odyssey to the Swatch watch.
Wednesday, February 28th, 2018
Paglia on #meToo: “Treating women as more vulnerable, virtuous or credible than men is reactionary, regressive and ultimately counterproductive.”
Thursday, February 8th, 2018
Quincy Jones on Michael Jackson’s bullshit and everyone else’s too. Oh and famous friends.
Tuesday, January 2nd, 2018
Another Tim Ferriss Show link, this time a joyful 2-hour interview with Terry Crews, artist, athlete, movie actor, taboo-dispeller, celebrity, self-help book aficionado.
Sunday, December 24th, 2017
Mark Hamill on The Last Jedi: He’s not my Luke Skywalker. My prediction: this movie will be what elevates the reputations of the prequels. And Poe Dameron that of Jar Jar Binks.
Friday, November 3rd, 2017
Drew Pierce, Iron Man 3 co-screenwriter with director Shane Black, discusses the writing of the Trevor Slattery reveal in this Vulture article. There’s also a jpg of the screenplay! This is one of my favorite Marvel movie scenes. And jeez, I just discovered All Hail the King — where have I been?
Monday, October 9th, 2017
Reflections on Tarantino by Tom Shone, film critic and author of a new book about the director.
Saturday, August 26th, 2017
According to this meretriciously entitled New York Post article “Millennials don’t really care about classic movies”, the only 4 overlapping movies among the top 10 most common movies that both millennials and over-50’s have seen are: 1) Forrest Gump, 2) Back to the Future, 3) The Silence of the Lambs, and 4) The Godfather. That’s Zemeckis in 1994 and 1985, Demme in 1991, and Coppola in 1972. No Spielberg, Hitchcock, not even James Cameron. Interesting.
Thursday, August 3rd, 2017
Sunday, July 30th, 2017
Slant Magazine is once again in Jerusalem, this time for Jerusalem Film Festival 2017. By Greg Cwik.
Monday, July 17th, 2017
Now this you should see. Via Andy Serkis the motion capture king, Gollum reads a couple of Trump tweets as his own. Ah, excellence. [via motherjones.com]
Wednesday, July 5th, 2017
Just the insight I was seeking on Jim Carrey as a performer.
Thursday, June 15th, 2017
David Arnold speaks to collaborating with Chris Cornell on “You Know My Name”, the theme song for the James Bond movie Casino Royale: “We needed someone who could sing the way Daniel acted…” This has become my #3 favorite, after Carly Simon’s Marvin Hamlish number and Nancy Sinatra’s John Barry one.
Tuesday, January 31st, 2017
“Yesterday we had a fight about whether I’d been dismissive about him saying his feelings had been hurt by my dismissing his feelings during a previous fight…” From the amusing but very dark Narcissism: a reflection by Laura Kipnis in Spiked.
Monday, January 30th, 2017
It seems to be a deceptively hard song to cover, but here’s a good one with a man, a woman and a ukulele on a living-room sofa, deceptively casual, deceptively perfect. Nobody’s done it better, not even Radiohead. And for something completely different: a great ‘Nobody Does it Better’ series montage by Rik Moran.
Friday, January 13th, 2017
At Den of Geek is Max Williams’ revisit of all 24 James Bond movies.
Tuesday, January 10th, 2017
David Cripps, the London Symphony Orchestra’s horn soloist, on playing the Star Wars music, and particularly “Leia’s Theme”. Seems clear from this and an interview I read on “Rey’s Theme” that John Williams is inspired by charismatic actors.
Wednesday, August 24th, 2016
Tuesday, August 16th, 2016
Slate’s Black Film Canon. I’m going to take this in. [via Subtraction.com]
Wednesday, August 3rd, 2016
Tuesday, August 2nd, 2016
Slant Magazine attends the 2016 Jerusalem Film Festival, witnessing the audience versus Miri Regev, Minister of Culture & Sport.
Tuesday, April 19th, 2016
(All YouTube links…) You’ve heard the accordion, now hear:
- the piano: Rey’s Theme
- two oboes (sweet though sound isn’t great even to my ear)
- mocked-up full orchestra (awesome)
- two harps (not quite as sweet as I’d hoped, but still, harps)
- a nice composite of all the theme’s appearances in the movie
- the coolest (video of this one’s worth watching too)
- some conspiracy theory musical analysis
And in the LA Times, an interview with John Williams about the soundtrack.
Thursday, April 14th, 2016
So the neighbor Brian is playing his and I thought, you know what, John Williams’ “Rey’s Theme” from Star Wars: The Force Awakens kind of lends itself to the accordion. And here it is on YouTube, very nicely done by Adam Matlock in his bedroom. Commendations to you, sir.
Monday, January 18th, 2016
Oh my, the entire Star Wars symphonic suite played by one man on a Wurlitzer.
Friday, December 18th, 2015
Star Wars 7 New Yorker review: …awestruck, warmhearted, good-humored—and conspicuously prefabricated, without a jolt of spontaneity or reckless impulse anywhere….
Tuesday, December 8th, 2015
If you were troubled by the song persuading Ariel to remain under the sea, here’s why.
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2015
A romp through the current state of thespian-American affairs with fear and loathing of the English invasion, particular emphasis on Joseph Gordon-Levitt and a conclusory celebration of Jake Gyllenhaal.
Sunday, April 5th, 2015
Martin Scorsese remembers shooting Taxi Driver. Do you see the woman in the window? Someone else was supposed to do that bit.
Tuesday, March 31st, 2015
Both Hitchcock and Dickens were “fantasists who insisted upon meticulous detail in the unravelling of their plots; they were both poised between art and commerce, with a keen taste for the making of money.” An obvious yet hitherto unmade comparison of two master contemporary English storytellers.
Friday, December 26th, 2014
A little treat: David on David, Foster Wallace on Lynch.
Tuesday, December 16th, 2014
Everybody, everybody, you’re gonna love this account of the making of Boogie Nights, long enough to read like a small book. My only qualm is that they totally should have put Michael Penn’s final comment at the end.
Friday, December 12th, 2014
The New Yorker review of Zero Motivation wherein the writer, herself a deeply unimpressed Bogeret Tzahal, notes the film’s homage to The Breakfast Club.
Tuesday, August 12th, 2014
Wednesday, July 9th, 2014
A good time, as we await Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, to review the rather horrible Continuity of the Planet of the Apes.
Tuesday, June 24th, 2014
It’s official: Gary Oldman loves Charles Krauthammer.
Monday, May 26th, 2014
Steve Jobs
Walter Isaacson
Simplistic, kind of repetitive, engrossing, not too much I didn’t already know I don’t think, but necessary reading. Nice last paragraph even if redundant last chapter.
Wednesday, June 5th, 2013
Saturday, May 25th, 2013
Why, by the William Shatner School of Toupological Studies.
Wednesday, January 2nd, 2013
The visual effects of Iron Man on YouTube.
Tuesday, January 1st, 2013
Happy 2013! A look back at 2012 with WhatCulture’s Top 12 Of Everything film wise including top 20 movie posters.
Saturday, December 1st, 2012
The best piece of James Bond movie criticism I’ve read: “My favourite Bond film: You Only Live Twice” by Phelim O’Neill, at The Guardian film blog. Muscular, yet pitch-perfect, and deft with what to throw in from the film(s) to illustrate his compelling argument.
Monday, October 29th, 2012
Finally, a clear-headed review of Skyfall over at FT: “New director Sam Mendes wants to combine a Bourne-like lack of quips and frippery with Christopher Nolan-ish solemnity and gigantism.” Why eschew what you view as your own franchise’s banalities only to take others’?
Wednesday, October 24th, 2012
Andy Ihnatko, MacTech Conference attendee, on the group tour of Disney Animation, an advance screening of Wreck-It Ralph, and John Lasseter’s desk. [via TidBits]
Wednesday, October 10th, 2012
Variety is sold for $25m. Strange new world.
Monday, August 20th, 2012
The Making of The Spy Who Loved Me by the BBC for the Open University, 1977. Episode #1: Cubby Brocolli, Producer. #2: Ken Adam, Production Designer (“not indispensible”, “preferable”, “unique”, “important”). #3, Barbara Bach, Bond Girl.
