The Good Book in the Internet Age
David Plotz of Slate is undertaking a fascinating project with a terrible name: “Blogging the Bible.” It starts here and is a mix of snarky commentary and a close reading rooted in genuine curiosity.
Culture Snob
An Early Contender for Sentence of the Year
Nominated for its brevity, its simplicity, its expressiveness, and its sonic shape: “They’d boo free pie.”
Tagged: Language
Keeping Your (Emotional) Distance
Filmbrain raises an essential issue: “I have noticed a trend in the film blogosphere of critics who, while talented writers, are so damn clinical in their criticism that I find myself wondering if they actually enjoy film.”
Tagged: Critics, Ways of Watching
Movie Critics Suck: Exhibit A
In the magazine Cinema Scope, David Bordwell demonstrates how a lack of specific examples undermines a potentially intriguing argument.
Tagged: Critics, David Bordwell, Language
On the Mundanity of Spooge
Although obviously Andersonian (Rushmore-ic?), The Squid and the Whale is not a movie that Wes Anderson could have pulled off. Noah Baumbach’s semi-autobiographical film is too raw, naked, painful, and real. It fuses The Royal Tenenbaums and Ordinary People at a genetic level that Seth Brundle would appreciate. Although it acts like a comedy, the movie’s familiarity and truth will be as funny to many people as a slap in the face.
Tagged: Noah Baumbach, Reviews, The Squid and the Whale, Wes Anderson
Drunken Commentary Track: I ♥ Huckabees
After choosing I ♥ Huckabees for the second in the Culture Snob “Drunken Commentary Track” series, I can confirm that my thoughts on the movie are less than cogent. You, dear reader/listener, can now hear long, awkward silences and extended digressions as Culture Snob, Bride of Culture Snob, Bad Dog Ginger, and River Cities’ Reader film critic Mike Schulz try to say something of value about the movie. Click to download the audio file (mp3 format, roughly 24 megabytes, 107 minutes), which is intended to be listened to while watching the movie.
Inflammatory Acclamatories*
Jim Emerson twice recently has addressed our cultural tendency to be lazy with language, particularly in marketing movies.
Tagged: Jim Emerson, Language
The Accidental Band
It’s not quite miraculous that The M’s are touring in support of a new record, but given the group’s origins, it’s a surprise that the band is making public appearances at all.
Tagged: Interviews, Josh Chicoine, The M's
Films in 17 Syllables
In response to a call for movie-related haiku, I submitted the following on Robert Altman’s The Player: “The pitch, in 10 words:
Griffin Mill kills the writer,
and he steals his girl.”
Tagged: Haiku, Language, Poetry, Robert Altman, Self-Involvement
Good Night, and Good Riddance.
The handsome Good Night, and Good Luck is a joy to behold but short on ideas, drama, and humanity. It ends up being a dull film documenting the dull work of dull television journalists, when it really wants to be a sober but nostalgic reminder of heroic muckrakers bringing down the big bad bigot of the Red Scare. Perhaps most crucially, as a lesson for our times it’s a deeply flawed comparison.