Archive for the ‘Movies’ category

Here’s a new post on The Great Whatsit

Hi, everybody! Nice to see you all hanging out here again. Here’s some stuff I’ve been thinking about recently: Is Homeland good, bad, offensive, or some combination of all three? I can’t help but think that if I were (a) Pakistani, (b) bipolar, or (c) CIA agent, I’d really hate this show. It’s so completely divorced from reality […]

Weekend recs

This is the End, dir. Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen (2013) There’s something delightful about actors playing themselves as complete assholes, and the guys (and a few girls, including Emma Watson) in this movie are truly over-the-top — cursing, flailing, selfish, obtuse, wildly egotistical maniacs. If you see one movie all year with Michael Cera […]

Slaughter on Tenth Avenue

I don’t know if it’s as simple as being back in New York after the better part of a year away, but for whatever reason I woke up this morning with Rodgers and Hart on the brain. I know I’ve evangelized their cinema showcase Words and Music (1948) for years, and have probably already subjected […]

What’s Happenning? A 1960s NYC video playlist

Happening from Django's Ghost on Vimeo. Antonello Branca, dir. What’s Happening (1967). Featuring Andy Warhol, Allen Ginsberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Gregory Corso, Marie Benois and Leon Kraushar. Peter Moore, dir. Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Originale: Doubletakes (1964) Filmed at the U.S. premiere of Originale by Stockhausen, Judson Hall, September 1964. Featuring: Director – Allan Kaprow; Pianist […]

In focus: Jonas Mekas

[youtube width=”560″ height=”315″]http://youtu.be/JtIQCxypAFM[/youtube] Take 20 minutes sometime this week to hang out with Jonas Mekas. Talk about it too? More here. Mekas’s My Mars Bar Movie (2011) screens at Anthology Film Archives on February 24. Encore: [vimeo width=”500″ height=”375″]http://vimeo.com/35335550[/vimeo]

Died and gone to Valhalla

Today I join with my fellow comic book fanboys and fangirls in celebrating the highly anticipated opening of The Avengers or as Flixter User Reviewer Flutie Archibald called it: “. . . THE BEST MOVIE I’VE EVER SEEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!” Six super heroes, two secret agents and one seriously cool villain (I have had a “thing” for Loki […]

What did perversity look like?

This weekend it snowed and I decided to stay inside and cook and watch old movies on Netflix. It’s become difficult for me to watch anything made since the late 60’s or so; I’m going through a grumpy old lady phase. What strikes me is how incredibly perverted the films of the 50’s and early […]

Very short movie reviews

In brief, because I’m posting this quickly on Tuesday morning: 1. War Horse. Seriously? This Disneyfied schlock is potentially a best-picture nominee? As my very wise Uncle Red Dog noted, Joey the Horse, with whom every man in the shire fell deeply in love, actually seemed like a jinx: “Everyone who came in contact with […]

Thursday playlist: Loose associations

Last time grandpa fawcett posted here, it was a bunch of gripes. This time it's a jumble of thoughts and enthusiasms, the ramblings of early dementia: 1.) This song “A Real Hero” by College (feat. Electric Youth) is from the movie Drive. I could not stop playing this song every day, ten times a day, […]

Tuesday lists

RB and I are watching a rerun of SNL as I type this. Oooo-weeee… What up with that! What up with that! Anyway. For your Tuesday pleasure, a few intriguing lists I’ve seen floating around the Internets. 1. 15 Wonderful Words with No English Equivalent (via Mentalfloss.com). These are all fantastic, but my favorite is “Iktsuarpok,” […]