Movies

Star Trek: TOS Season 1

I’ve never watched Star Trek. Sorry, that’s already a lie. I had never watched a Star Trek television show. My entire experience with Star Trek is limited to the Chris Pine movies and the first six Shatner films. I’ve always had a tickling feeling that I should be into Star Trek, that I’m somehow supposed […]

Awards Season

96th Oscars Nominations Reaction

This year’s Academy Award nominees were just announced on Tuesday and I’m not used to watching them sneakily at work instead of setting an alarm to get up early. Rather than run down all the categories, I’m just going to call out the storylines I’m watching for as the show approaches. I’ve decided from now […]

Movies

Charlot #10: The Star Boarder

Release Date:April 4, 1914 Studio:Keystone Director:George Nichols Also Starring:Minta DurfeeEdgar KennedyGordon Griffith Tramp:Yes Worth Watching?Maybe not Whenever we went to new rooms, Charlie would ask the landlady, “Have you got a dark room, ma?” Edith Scales, theatre costume mistress and Chaplin’s touring guardian in youth, quoted in Empire News, 1903

Movies

My Top 10 Films of 2023 of 2023

No more schlock. That’s the promise I made myself. I had a lot of growing up to do this year, and one way I had to get that done was going to the movies less. So I made the decision that franchise schlock was not worth going to the theaters. Guardians of the Galaxy 3? […]

Music

My Top 30 Music Videos of 2023

Kenneth Anger passed away in May this year. The director is probably most well-known for the 1963 experimental short Scorpio Rising, a film about neo-Nazi bikers set entirely to a soundtrack of contemporary pop music. I discovered it in a film class over 50 years later, and I can tell you it’s still a hit […]

Music

My Favorite Albums of 2023

This list is mostly a side effect of next week’s. I’m usually pretty bad at keeping up with new music releases, and when I do I’m (1) not at all adventurous and (2) more interested in singles than albums. Maybe I’m part of the problem. I think the way I engage with music is closer […]

Video Games

My Games of 2023

I didn’t play Tears of the Kingdom and I’m tired of starting these posts this way.The new Zelda is by all accounts a masterpiece, an enhancement of everything great about the previous one with new sandbox mechanics seemingly made to be shared on social media. I don’t doubt my friends when they rave about it. […]

Movies

Charlot #9: Cruel, Cruel Love

Release Date:March 26, 1914 Studio:Keystone Director:George Nichols Also Starring:Minta DurfeeChester ConklinEva Nelson Tramp:No Worth Watching?Not really I showed [A Woman of the Sea] exactly once at one theater … and that was the end of that. The film was promptly returned to Mr Chaplin’s vaults and no one has ever seen it again. Josef von […]

Movies

Charlot #8: His Favorite Pastime

Release Date:March 16, 1914 Studio:Keystone Director:George Nichols Also Starring:Roscoe ArbucklePeggy Pearce Tramp:Yes Worth Watching?No The moment we met we ignited; it was mutual, and my heart sang. How romantic were those morning’s turning up fro work with the anticipation of seeing her each day. Chaplin, My Autobiography

Movies

Charlot #7: Tango Tangles

Release Date:March 9, 1914 Studio:Keystone Director:Mack Sennett Also Starring:Roscoe ArbuckleFord SterlingMinta Durfee Tramp:I don’t think so Worth Watching?Nope Keystone comedies directed by Sennett are perhaps the best examples of the studio’s true vision. Tango Tangles is particularly boorish and violent, while the characters are merely one-dimensional caricatures. Oddly enough, this is precisely the brilliance behind […]