Born To Bruce

I can’t remember the last time we did a concert review on Mildly Pleased. However, I wrote a bunch of words about seeing Bruce Springsteen at Citizen’s Bank Park in Philadelphia on August 21, in the midst of Criterion Month. Since I felt like publishing them somewhere, here are those words…

Bruce Springsteen is an artist that I’ve loved since probably my sophomore year of high school. A few years prior, I first became aware of him watching early ’00s VH1 specials that chronicled his Born In The U.S.A. era and how it at that time tapped into a certain type of ‘80s nostalgia. What these first impressions of Bruce didn’t convey was the amount of artistry, passion, and fervor for rock and roll mythology that were inherent in his records that came before Born In The U.S.A.

But then I remember listening to every track on Born To Run for the first time in sequential order on Limewire, because despite my boomer-leaning musical tastes at the time, I was still at heart a millennial. Born To Run is one of those few albums that aims to sound like a masterpiece and against all odds, succeeds. It started me on my Bruce fandom journey that led me to Darkness On The Edge of Town, The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, Nebraska, and on and on. In fact, as has been chronicled on this blog, I’ve listened to every single Bruce Springsteen album, which is not a habit I have for most artists who keep recording into middle age. Continue reading →

Criterion Month Day 30: Perfect Days

Perfect Days (2003)

Do you know what your perfect day would be? I’m not talking about like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off or the best Christmas ever or getting invited to the ultra-hot-people-only orgy. I mean what would your perfect, random, workday, Wednesday be like? I imagine for most of us it would be pretty simple, something like: wake up rested, have a nice breakfast, nothing weird happens at work, maybe lunch in the park or some shit, and have a little time to relax before going to bed and starting it all over again the next day. For better or for worse, days like that *should* make up the majority of our lives. And yet, if I’m speaking for myself, I don’t give myself the gift of perfect days nearly often enough. Far too often I wake up exhausted or spend too much time about stressing going to the gym or put off doing work and chores and preparing food. It keeps me hanging on. I should change that, yeah?

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Criterion Month Day 29: All of Us Strangers

All of Us Strangers (2023)

“You simply can’t go home again” is a quote from Thomas Wolfe’s 1940 novel of the same name that is just as poignant now as when it was written. I was reminded of this quote by a 1963 interview Rod Serling did with Binny Lum for Australian Radio.

In the interview, Serling discusses how The Twilight Zone can use imaginative storytelling to explore the idea of going back to another time, but how returning always brings with it a great sense of loss. I can think of no better word to describe Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers than “loss.”

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Criterion Month Day 28: Anatomy of a Fall

Anatomy of a Fall (2023)

Justine Triet’s Oscar-winning Anatomy of a Fall beguiled audiences last winter with one of cinema’s most unforgettable performances. I’m of course talking about Messi, the Border Collie whose believable overdose scene has been called “the greatest acting performance of my life” by Ayo Edebiri. It’s a thrilling debut by an assured rising star who spent the whole award season laughing it up with Hollywood’s biggest names. He even returned to Cannes this year as a reporter, talk about flipping the script. Yes, his future is almost as bright as those blue eyes but, aside from Messi, does Anatomy of a Fall having anything going for it?

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Criterion Month Day 27: Saint Omer

Saint Omer (2022)

We in no way planned it, but it is pretty fun that we’ll be reviewing Saint Omer and Anatomy of a Fall back-to-back today and tomorrow. For whatever reason, these two legal dramas were also two of the biggest arthouse exports from France these last couple years, and having already seen Anatomy, it was hard not to think of it while watching Saint Omer. There are plenty of differences between the two movies, but they also more or less explore the same overall idea that as cold and exacting as the criminal justice system can be, it becomes a lot more complicated when things like love and relationships and motherhood are involved. Continue reading →

Criterion Month Day 26: Drive My Car

Drive My Car (2021)

I take solace in knowing that even among cinephiles, my aversion to three hour movies is not unique. Whatever mental barrier there is that stops me from just watching Criterion movies every night all year long is 10 times stronger when it comes to these big boys. And that’s in spite of the fact that some of my all-time favorite movies being super long! I’m sure right around the time Drive My Car got a limited release I was busy finding ways to justify not watching The Beatles: Get Back every night. So long movies are hard to approach. What I need to remind myself is that, once you’re in there, long movies can suck you into them and you don’t even feel the time anymore. And Ryusuke Hamaguchi is one of the best directors to prove that point.

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Criterion Month Day 25: Clouds of Sils Maria

Clouds of Sils Maria (2014)

If there was ever a film that felt genetically engineered to play exclusively at European film festivals, it’s Olivier Assayas’ Clouds of Sils Maria. Like, I’m passionate about complex characters in fiction, but not like Juliette Binoche’s Maria. That’s the distance I feel with Maria, an acclaimed film and stage actress, grappling with the defining work of her career and how it relates to her age. I’m not an actor, but I can never imagine becoming so entwined with my art that it feels like torture. That must be why they call them “tortured artists.”

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