2010: Time To Die (Part One: January-June)
Sean Murphy2010: In pace requiescat! We almost made it through January without a major loss, but then, during the darkest and coldest evenings we got word that the reclusive and curmudgeonly…
“Only Let Be No War”: The Films of Nikita Mikhalkov, Volume 1
The release of this box set is a welcome development. This is not necessarily to suggest anyone is likely to shell out $80 for five films, but the fact that they…
Appreciating Leslie Nielsen: He Could Hold His Breath For A Long Time
Real Leslie Nielsen fans will immediately understand the title of this tribute. It is as good as any of his iconic quotes, but it resonates for the way it applied…
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead: The Play’s The Thing
Spoiler alert: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern die. They are, in fact, already dead. And they always have been. But you knew that already, right? Another spoiler: You, too, shall die one…
A Dose Of Dennis Miller With An Ian Curtis Chaser
I saw something the other night that really depressed me. It concerns a genius who, for a variety of reasons, could not maintain control. His implosion can be attributed to many of the usual ailments:…
Laugh While You Weep with ‘Bill Hicks: The Essential Collection’
It’s a crying shame that Bill Hicks is no longer with us; we sure could use him right about now. It’s a laughing shame (the sort where you laugh until…
Goodfellas: The Most Definitive American Movie of the Last Two Decades
First, a confession. I did not love Goodfellas the first time I saw it (in the theater, shortly after it opened, in October, 1990). Then again, this seems to happen…
Akira Kurosawa’s ‘Dreams’: A Late Masterpiece from The Master
Understanding that Dreams was among the last films Akira Kurosawa made inexorably adds a regal and elegiac air to the proceedings. The fact that the work is semi-autobiographical (based on…
The Tomorrow Show: John, Paul, Tom and Ringo (Revisited)
Before Conan O’Brien in the ‘90s and David Letterman in the ‘80s, there was another—even ‘whiter’—dude who regularly hosted many of the hippest artists and promoted some of the best…
Coppola’s ‘The Conversation’: A Love Letter to the Process of Making Art
In Dostoeyevsky’s Notes From Underground the self-loathing narrator proposes that every man has secrets he will only reveal to friends and secrets he must keep to himself. And then there…