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Movie Curiosities: The Lost Daughter
January 10, 2022 in Blogs, Curiosity Inc.
I don’t know what I was expecting from the writing/producing/directing debut of Maggie Gyllenhaal, but it sure wasn’t whatever the hell this is. Read the rest of this entry →
Movie Curiosities: The Wild Rides of 2021
January 5, 2022 in Blogs, Curiosity Inc.
We come at last to my favorite films of 2021. They may not get any awards, but god damn if they weren’t a good time to sit through. These are the Wild Rides. Read the rest of this entry →
Movie Curiosities: The Disappointments of 2021
January 4, 2022 in Blogs, Curiosity Inc.
For those just tuning in, this is absolutely not to be construed as a “worst-of” list. I don’t do “worst-of” lists, because I make it a point not to intentionally review bad movies. I try as hard as I can not to go into a movie unless I know there’s some chance it will turn out to be good and I’ll find something to like about it. These are the films that didn’t live up to that potential. Read the rest of this entry →
Movie Curiosities: The Masterpieces of 2021
January 3, 2022 in Blogs, Curiosity Inc.
I’ve long established that there is a difference between “the greatest” and “my favorite”. What’s the difference? It’s like this: Schindler’s List is a great film by any metric, but NOBODY is putting it on to wind down after a hard day. Read the rest of this entry →
Movie Curiosities: 2021 in review (preface)
January 2, 2022 in Blogs, Curiosity Inc.
I need to ask a favor. Read the rest of this entry →
Movie Curiosities: The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)
January 1, 2022 in Blogs, Curiosity Inc.
Among the many reasons why Shakespeare is probably the greatest playwright who’s ever written in the English language, the best of his works renew themselves with every telling. Every time I see “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, it’s as funny as the first time. Every time I see “Romeo and Juliet”, it’s like watching a new generation of teenagers fall victim to the same old shit because we’re all too stubborn to learn any better. Read the rest of this entry →
Movie Curiosities: Licorice Pizza
December 31, 2021 in Blogs, Curiosity Inc.
In 1960, the folk music duo of Bud & Travis recorded a concert album live at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. At some point, the both of them start making fun of their own unsuccessful record, stating that it had “sesame seeds on the other side” and could be played on a Waring blender. Just before going into their cover of “La Bamba”, they mention that the sesame seed LP was being sold at feed stores as a “licorice pizza.” Read the rest of this entry →
Movie Curiosities: Don’t Look Up
December 30, 2021 in Blogs, Curiosity Inc.
“A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it.”
-Kay, Men in Black
Movie Curiosities: The Matrix Resurrections
December 27, 2021 in Blogs, Curiosity Inc.
The Matrix was the very first R-rated movie I ever saw in a theater. So naturally, it was a hugely formative film in my life to an extent that can hardly be overstated. I saw the film multiple times on DVD and read the screenplay multiple times, and that was all long before I had studied the film even further in my college years (alongside Dark City, a tragically underappreciated movie that dealt with many of the same themes and motifs). Read the rest of this entry →
Movie Curiosities: A Boy Called Christmas
December 25, 2021 in Blogs, Curiosity Inc.
A Boy Called Christmas comes to us from Gil Kenan, who previously directed Poltergeist (2015) and helped with the screenplay for Ghostbusters: Afterlife. So basically, Kenan is still more or less the “It Boy” for revitalizing retro properties in a way that’s kid-friendly with a darker edge, even though he’s yet to even remotely deliver any of the potential he showed with Monster House fifteen years ago. Yet here he is, directing and co-writing a whimsical origin story for Father Christmas (aka Nikolas, played as a boy by Henry Lawfull). Read the rest of this entry →
Movie Curiosities: Nightmare Alley
December 24, 2021 in Blogs, Curiosity Inc.
If you’re in the know, you’ve likely known for years that Guillermo del Toro is a genius. A brilliant auteur with a taste for the macabre and fantastic like nobody else in the industry. The unfortunate downside is that del Toro’s unique brand of cinema hasn’t always caught on with audiences or studio execs. His career is flooded with projects that never got off the ground (his fabled “At the Mountains of Madness” passion project, his adaptation of Disneyland’s “Haunted Mansion”, etc.) and other movies that got made, but never really got the love they deserved (Crimson Peak comes to mind, ditto the Hellboy movies). And of course that’s not even getting started on del Toro’s stillborn adaptation of “The Hobbit” (stalled for years by MGM’s corporate shenanigans) and whatever the hell happened with Pacific Rim: Uprising. Read the rest of this entry →
Movie Curiosities: West Side Story (2021)
December 20, 2021 in Blogs, Curiosity Inc.
Not even a month prior to this writing, Stephen Sondheim passed away at the age of 91. This prompted an international outpouring of grief, as fans and artists of every medium paid homage to the grandmaster who almost singlehandedly redefined what musical storytelling could do. At a time when musical theatre was still caught up in the airy affairs of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Sondheim burst onto the scene with his debut show in 1957, daring to reimagine “Romeo and Juliet” from the ground up as a tragic fable about race and immigration in New York City. Case in point: Sondheim gave us the “America” musical number, a darkly comical debate about the American dream and systemic racism set to an instantly catchy upbeat tune. Read the rest of this entry →
