It should be abundantly clear I don’t participate much in the cultural conversation, at least not in any meaningful, modern way. The Editor has gone so far as to say I’m too much a recluse to qualify as an internet troll. Yet, rumblings and fragments of messages still filter through the roof of my bunker […]
Minor Theatre
Posted inArts + Scene
Beau is Afraid and a Little Funny
BEAU IS AFRAID. I’ve long harbored pet theory (borne of petty resentment) about only sons of single mothers. Having observed them at varying distances for the better part of a life, albeit with inescapable preconceptions, I would say this theory is something more than anecdotal; it is still very much the product of an addled […]
Posted inArts + Scene
The B List
Because this is an era defined in part by unearned nostalgia, we still frequently refer to a certain type of cinema as “B movies” or, if our geekiness tends to anachronism, “programmers.” This calls back to a time when the movie industry was more siloed but also more disparate, when studios diverted resources and talent […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Humboldt International Film Festival Opens Tonight
Calling all film buffs and cinephiles: The Humboldt International Film Festival gets rolling for its 56th year, April 20-23, with nightly showings at the Minor Theatre ($12 general, free for Cal Poly Humboldt students). The four-night event is the culmination of CPH film students’ call for entries for filmmakers to submit their short films to […]
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Fresh Blood
THE POPE’S EXORCIST. Most — nearly all — exorcism movies come off as nasty, pale hokum, and for good reason. The Exorcist (1973) towers over all of them, the alpha and the omega, a procedural examination that presents itself without cynicism and without any seeming agenda. It does the essential work of believing its own […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Sneaker Game
AIR. I went on at some length recently about the work of Ben Affleck (Director Affleck), particularly Argo (2012), both as pertains to Tetris and to the shifting focus of culture in the context of mainstream cinema. The logic therein was most likely fallacious and founded on false premises, but I can at least say […]
Posted inArts + Scene
The True-ish Story of Tetris
TETRIS. When, after a trying workday, my wife set about retiring to another room with a book and a cat, as is her wont, I did not intend to deter her. But when I suggested I might watch a movie based on Tetris, she stopped abruptly. When I continued that it starred Taron Egerton, she […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Long Live Wick
JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4. Having revealed that I had been to see this at one of the earliest available showings — with the Editor and an intermediary, but that’s another story — I was asked by a friend where I would rank it in the Wick canon. I replied without hesitation, that it is No. […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Indie Style Over Substance
As the only thing going on at the multiplex appears to be Shazam! Fury of the Gods, a sequel based on a property that I at first assumed was some kind of joke, I did not turn up. Based on DC’s general disregard for the movie and its widely reported dismal box office, I guess […]
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Thrown Back
SCREAM VI. The world’s infatuation with Scream (1996) kicked off just as I was entering a protracted contrarian period in my own cinema education. I hadn’t yet come to appreciate the craft and silliness of horror and teen movies were too easily enjoyable to possibly be of merit; I was insufferable. Because I live in […]
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Creed III’s Decision Victory
CREED III. With his directorial debut, Michael B. Jordan has made the subtly momentous decision to render this (presumably last) chapter in the Rocky saga as a statement: This is decidedly not a Rocky movie. Sure, Balboa’s shadow flits at the edges of things, he being the somewhat unwitting progenitor of the whole works. And, […]
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Magic Mike’s Last Dance Ponies Up
MAGIC MIKE’S LAST DANCE. It’s been a long, unexpected journey, for our hard-hustling, unworldly and undulating hero Mike Lane (Channing Tatum) and for all of us. We’ve been together for more than a decade now, tiling a roof in a Tampa swelter, swilling GHB while Richie fluffs, falling in and out of love and touring […]