Colin Wessman

I love those oldies and hoagies, give me some beefcakes and cheesesteaks

Criterion Month Day 3: Night and the City

Night and the City (1950)

There are plenty of directors that are closely associated with the film noir genre, from John Huston to Billy Wilder to Edward Dmytryk. However, there was really only one great noir director who found themself completely severed from the country that produced the majority of the great noirs. Jules Dassin first made a name for himself in the genre in Hollywood with fellow Criterion Collection entries 1947’s Brute Force and 1948’s The Naked City, but was blacklisted due to being a former member of several American communist party associations in his younger years. This is how Dassin ended up directing his later films in Europe, such as heist classic Rififi. While Dassin was in the midst of being ousted from Hollywood, he made a sojourn to Britain to direct Night and the City, a film fittingly about a desperate man with more than a few walls closing in on him.

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Criterion Month Day 1: Hell’s Angels

Hell’s Angels (1930)

There is not much value in getting nostalgic for how the ultrarich used to live. Yes, they seemed to have better taste, with their ornate mansions that still stand today and often serve as museums or tourist destinations, as well as their patronage to the arts. But at the same time, a billionaire is still a billionaire. And if we’re adjusting for inflation while talking about the ultra-wealthy of the early 20th century, a millionaire is still a millionaire.

That said, there is something about the image of maverick aviation pioneer Howard Hughes risking his life against the wishes of his stunt coordinator to film one of the marvelous plane combat scenes in 1930’s Hell’s Angels. It was a stunt so dangerous that Hughes crashed his plane and had to have facial surgery, which was immortalized in the 2004 film The Aviator. It’s the type of thing you’d be hard-pressed to imagine one of today’s billionaire tech turds attempting, let alone having the attention span to craft a piece of long-form storytelling, even one that mostly aims to thrill and amaze you. So with that all said, I have to give Mr. Hughes begrudging respect for pulling off one of the more entertaining movies of the early sound era I can remember seeing.

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The Tenth Annual Criterion Month Draft (Sort of)

Hello there, ladies and gents. We’re once again on the verge of celebrating that most highbrow of seasons here at Mildly Pleased, where we spend all of July beating the heat by staying indoors and watching films belonging to the Criterion Collection. No podcast this year, but personally, it always helps to have this post that outlines what everybody has picked for this year’s Criterion Month. So here’s a little sneak peek of what films may come in the coming weeks. Happy watching. Continue reading →

Colin’s Favorite Albums of Spring 2026

Traditionally, this is around the time of year that a plentiful bounty of worthwhile albums tend to come out, just in time for summer roadtrips, barbecues, and declarations of jam status. It’s hard to tell exactly if this will be true of the next few weeks, but there are certainly some promising releases from premier pop stars and veteran rockers alike coming out, including what looks to be a pretty great one that was just released today.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Before Spring turns to Summer, I thought it would be worth looking back at the last few months, which I’m not sure saw an amazing stretch of albums that really grabbed me. However, there were a few Spring standouts I found myself coming back to, even if there were probably more mildly pleasing albums than all-out stunners to come out during Spring 2026. Here are those albums that stuck out to me, even if they ultimately leave me eagerly looking to see what the rest of the warmer months bring.

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Colin’s Favorite Albums of Winter 2026

Well, it’s a new year and I’m not getting any younger. It’s always hard to know when exactly the right time is to start digging into new albums and trying to make sense of what’s worth listening to. Especially when I often find myself listening to new albums just for the sake of turning the page on the previous year and trying to embrace the new sounds of the future. During a lot of my year-end music coverage of 2025, I talked about how it was a little harder to get as much joy out of music as I had in years past, but so far I’m not feeling quite that way about 2026, even if the world’s just as much of a mess as ever. Either way, I’ve already found plenty of albums to keep me chugging along through the frigidly cold months of this East Coast Winter. Luckily, it’s officially Spring and now we can all actually turn a new leaf, since turning a new leaf on a year doesn’t mean much when you’re stuck inside clinging to your proverbial radiator.

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Oscars Fortnight: Tender Mercies

Tender Mercies (1983)

56th Academy Awards (1984)
Nominations: 5
Wins: 2

We end our shortened week of Oscar reviews with the type of film that usually pops up here or there at the Oscars each year. I’m talking about the small film that serves as an actor’s showcase, and thus gets its star nominated for an acting Oscar, but rarely also gets nominated for Best Picture. Well, that wasn’t the case with Tender Mercies, which nabbed a Best Picture nom as well as a second Best Screenplay Oscar for Horton Foote. But when you get down to it, this is a film built around an Oscar-winning performance by Robert Duvall, an actor who was never entirely built to be a leading man, but in a low budget, unshowy film like this, gets to show all that he’s capable of. This was very satisfying to see in the wake of his recent passing, especially when I’m sure we’ll get to see this prolific actor mentioned in the “In Memoriam” section of the Oscars tonight.

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Oscars Fortnight: Gigi

Gigi (1958)

31st Academy Awards (1959)
Nominations: 9
Wins: 9

When getting into classic movies, the films that really got me hooked on the musical were the ones put out by MGM in the ’40s and ’50s, and particularly the ones produced by Arthur Freed. These encompassed films like Meet Me In St. Louis, On The Town, The Band Wagon, Singin’ In The Rain, and Best Picture Winner An American In Paris, among many others. The other Best Picture to come out of Freed’s mini-empire was 1958’s Gigi, a film I’d never felt all that compelled to see since it’s never been talked about in the same category of classic musicals the way the other films I just named are.

However, it became apparent why this was when I was talking to a friend who’d stumbled onto it in a bar and watched it in its entirety later out of curiosity for its creepy overtones and extravagant production value. Well, I can now say that the plot is indeed pretty uncomfortable to wrestle with, though its milquetoast Hayes Code-era treatment explains why it went down so easy with audiences at the time, in addition to its very accomplished pedigree behind the camera.

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