In 1986, Pixar Animation Studios opened; Halley’s Comet made its second visit to our solar system in the twentieth century; The The Legend of Zelda was released; A mishandled safety test at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant killed over 4000 people; The Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds after launch; Len Bias died of a cocaine overdose 48 hours after being… Continue reading America entered its twenty second decade: A look back at 1986
Tag: Martin Scorsese
Everything that follows is older than Hit Girl: A look back at 1996
In 1996, The murder of nine-year-old Amber Hagerman inspired the creation of the AMBER Alert system; Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov; Major League Soccer began its inaugural season; The Unabomber was arrested; The Nintendo 64 was released in Japan and the United States; Alanis Morisette’s Jagged Little Pill won the Grammy for Album of the Year; Dolly the sheep, the first cloned… Continue reading Everything that follows is older than Hit Girl: A look back at 1996
I’ll see you in the montage of my anonymous dreams
Cobain: Montage of Heck (2015) With unprecedented access to Kurt Cobain’s personal letters, home videos, and surviving family members, Brett Morgen creates a searing portrait of the rock icon. While the film wisely avoids portraying Cobain as a stereotypical tortured artist, it’s clear his unstable home life contributed to the angst and rage in his… Continue reading I’ll see you in the montage of my anonymous dreams
Everything that follows is older than Tom Holland: A look back at 1995
In 1995: O.J. Simpson was acquitted for the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ron Goldman; Mississippi ratified the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution; Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols bombed bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City; The first DVD was made available; eBay went online; Calvin and Hobbes ended its ten-year run in… Continue reading Everything that follows is older than Tom Holland: A look back at 1995
The shadow man fell to Earth
Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows (2007) Tasked with producing profitable low-budget films for RKO studios in the early 1940s, Val Lewton delivered such well-regarded films as Cat People (1942), I Walked with a Zombie (1943), The Seventh Victim (1943), and The Curse of the Cat People (1944). Relying on innuendo and intimation, his… Continue reading The shadow man fell to Earth
Three kings with fantastic hair
The King of Comedy (1983) Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro) is an aspiring comedian looking for his big break. He idolizes talk show host Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis) and dreams of one day performing on his program. When he meets his idol, Pupkin think he’s finally made it, but Langford is dismissive of his talent,… Continue reading Three kings with fantastic hair
The priest of Wall Street
Leon Morin, Priest (1961) A communist rabble-rouser (Emmanuelle Riva) goes to confession to pick a fight with a priest (Jean-Paul Belmondo); they develop a friendship and meet regularly to discuss issues of faith. Like the philosophical movies of Carl Th. Dreyer or Louis Malle’s My Dinner with Andre (1981), this film by Jean-Pierre Melville is basically a two-hour… Continue reading The priest of Wall Street