ph: David Hauserman
Saturday, June 4, 2016
First Lines: Dave Eggers - A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Through the small tall bathroom window the December yard is gray and scratchy, the trees calligraphic.
Friday, June 3, 2016
The Movies I Watched in May
Beyoncé: Lemonade 2016 7
Biutiful 2010 6
Blow Out 1981 6
Cat People 1982 5
Cliffhanger 1993 6
Eve's Bayou 1997 7
Female Agents 2008 6
Gone 2012 7
Hero Wanted 2008 6
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 1984 7
Jungle Book 1942 7
Kristy 2014 6
Maid in Manhattan 2002 5
Marco the Magnificent 1965 6
Progeny 1998 4
Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981 7
Red Scorpion 1988 5
Safety Not Guaranteed 2012 6
Stalag 17 1953 7
Star Trek: The Motion Picture 1979 6
Star Wars: The Force Awakens 2015 7
The Adjustment Bureau 2011 6
The Falcon and the Snowman 1985 6
The Perfect Storm 2000 6
What Goes Around 2009 6
Biutiful 2010 6
Blow Out 1981 6
Cat People 1982 5
Cliffhanger 1993 6
Eve's Bayou 1997 7
Female Agents 2008 6
Gone 2012 7
Hero Wanted 2008 6
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 1984 7
Jungle Book 1942 7
Kristy 2014 6
Maid in Manhattan 2002 5
Marco the Magnificent 1965 6
Progeny 1998 4
Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981 7
Red Scorpion 1988 5
Safety Not Guaranteed 2012 6
Stalag 17 1953 7
Star Trek: The Motion Picture 1979 6
Star Wars: The Force Awakens 2015 7
The Adjustment Bureau 2011 6
The Falcon and the Snowman 1985 6
The Perfect Storm 2000 6
What Goes Around 2009 6
New Stuff: Björk
Vulnicura Strings is a remake of Björk's album from earlier in 2015 that uses only strings as accompaniment, jettisoning the electronic elements.
Sorte kugler (2009)
A bitter and stressed man ends up in a car crash and gets another chance for life.
Deliberately shrill comedy which entertains quite well, if you can take this kind of offbeat humor.
New Stuff: Let's Go to Hell
The Butthole Surfers remain one of the most enigmatic bands in the history of rock music - and one of my favourites. Most of their records have no information of any kind, and often with the suggestion that you play them at 69 rpm.... They lived like nomads through much of the 1980s, and built their reputation upon tours that never ended, and shows that resembled hedonistic acid tests. They left a heap of former band members in their wake, and have often alienated as many fans as they've attracted.
First Lines: Carrie Fisher - Wishful Drinking
I have to start by telling you that my entire existence could be summed up in one phrase.
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
Stalag 17 (1953)
When two escaping American World War II prisoners are killed, the German
POW camp barracks black marketeer is suspected of being
an informer.
A typical Billy Wilder mixture of humor and drama, an ensemble piece, highly entertaining, but politically a bit dubious, if not dated.
Halliwell**: "High jinks, violence and mystery in a sharply calculated mixture; an atmosphere quite different from the understated British films on the subject."
Maltin****: "The pinnacle of all WW2 POW films...Wilder brilliantly blends drama with comedy to show monotonous, anxiety-ridden life of POWs."
A typical Billy Wilder mixture of humor and drama, an ensemble piece, highly entertaining, but politically a bit dubious, if not dated.
Halliwell**: "High jinks, violence and mystery in a sharply calculated mixture; an atmosphere quite different from the understated British films on the subject."
Maltin****: "The pinnacle of all WW2 POW films...Wilder brilliantly blends drama with comedy to show monotonous, anxiety-ridden life of POWs."
New Stuff: The Birthday Party
As an album title, Hits is an intentionally ironic misnomer for one of Australia's most influential rock bands of the late '70s and early '80s; early Nick Cave band.
Blow Out (1981)
A movie sound recordist accidentally records the evidence that proves that a car accident was actually murder and consequently finds himself in danger.
Classic Brian De Palma thriller with an abundance of cinematic allusions, top-notch in all departments, but, this time around, not quite as suspenseful.
Halliwell (no star): "Showily unpleasant thriller concocted of equal parts of The Conversation, Blow Up, and Kennedy at Chappaquiddik; the work of a copycat talent operating below par."
Maltin**1/2: "Intriguing variation on Antonioni's BLOWUP...Absorbing most of the way, but weakened by show-off camerawork and logic loop-holes."
New Stuff: Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids
Brand new studio album from West coast intergalactic jazz mavericks, The Pyramids, led by their inspirational bandleader, Idris Ackamoor.
Cliffhanger (1993)
A botched mid-air heist results in suitcases full of cash being searched for by various groups throughout the Rocky Mountains.
Over-the-top actioner with some spectacular, but very unlikely mountaineering stunts; quite entertaining, if you don't take it too seriously.
Halliwell*: "Enjoyably silly action adventure, with some spectacular, edgy stunts, although it never touches reality at any point and has one of the more ludicrous lip-smacking villains this side of melodrama."
Maltin***: "Eye-popping photography.., white-knuckle stunts, a swift pace, and entertaining characters add up to what a well-made action film should be: tons of fun. Story is thin, though."
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
New Stuff: The Pop Group
Post punk provocateurs The Pop Groupunveil their latest archival release, The Boys Whose Head Exploded. Compiled from unearthed basement tapes recorded during their incendiary performances of late 1979 and 1980, the compilation also includes a bonus DVD featuring film footage shot by legendary director Don Letts. The bulk of the salvaged live recordings comprise brawling versions of songs taken from the band’s recently reissued second studio album For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder? The collection also features the previously unreleased 73 Shadow Street, and a surprise mutation of the Glaxo Babies’ Shake The Foundation. The accompanying film footage is a short feature that’s been hiding in Don Letts’ punk rock archives for the past 35 years. Filmed by Letts at Alexandra Palace on June 15th1980 at an all day festival that featured the likes of John Cooper Clarke, The Raincoats and The Slits, the rare footage encapsulates the band’s molotov cocktail of punk, funk, free jazz and radical politics at its most artistically concussive.
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