Colin Wessman

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

Criterion Month Day 2: Now, Voyager

Now, Voyager (1942)

Most years, I start my Criterion Months somewhere in the depths of the golden era of Hollywood’s studio system, and this year is no exception. Though this year I’m starting with one of that era’s genres that sometimes gets overlooked in the grand scheme of film history and serious critical analysis, most likely due to filmmaking’s old friend, sexism. This genre would be the reductively-named “women’s picture”, which were a certain type of melodrama, typically revolving around a female character’s personal journey. One of the great stars of this genre (along with her nemesis Joan Crawford) was Bette Davis, and Now, Voyager has been regarded as one of the best examples of Davis’s work in this genre, which I found to be very much a product of its time, but also felt very unique in its depiction of mental health struggles. Continue reading →

The Ninth Annual Criterion Draft

As June turns to July, we once again set our eyes on reviewing various films that have entered the Criterion Collection over the course of what we like to refer to as Criterion Month. Call it our own little corner of the Criterion Closet filled with films we’ve never seen, some potentially aligning with our tastes and some that we’ve put off seeing since they inherently might not. Once again, some of us go for themes and some of us don’t, but the one constant is that while picking which movies to review, we only have a vague sense of what we’re in for. The fun begins in just one day! Continue reading →

The Pick: 27 Dresses

It’s wedding season at Mildly Pleased, so we took a look at one of the most wedding-fetishizing romantic comedies ever made. You won’t believe how many dresses Katherine Heigl wears! Or perhaps you will, because it’s right there in the title. Either way, the boys have fun discussing the rise and fall of Miss Heigl, the affable blandness of James Marsden, the annoying New York accent of Edward Burns, and Malin Akerman’s very brief run as a Hollywood It Girl. Yes, it’s not a great cast by any means, but it screams 2008 as much as this movie’s comfort food take on pre-recession wedding woes. Continue reading →

The Pick: Barbarella

After talking about Flash Gordon two episodes ago, it seemed only fitting that we review Barbarella, producer Dino De Laurentiis’s first foray into sci-fi comic book adaptation. Of course, this one has a much dirtier mind, stemming from director Roger Vadim’s eagerness to bring campy eroticism into the far reaches of space with the help of then-wife Jane Fonda. We delve a bit into the film’s deeply ’60s vibes as well as how the charismatic Fonda salvaged such a bizarre amalgam of counter-culture influences into something watchable. We also test our knowledge by trying to guess the highest-grossing sci-fi films that were released in that wild west of sci-fidom that predated Star Wars. Continue reading →

The Pick: The Legend of Bagger Vance

Why did we choose to cover the 2000 flop, The Legend of Bagger Vance on this episode of The Pick? Well, you’ll just have to listen to find out. Mostly, we were just hoping that it was secretly a charming little magic-tinged film that transcended its problematic title character, but perhaps that was too tall of an order. Regardless, it still gave us plenty of reasons to use funny Southern accents and bask in the film’s folksiness. Also, we end up talking about the movie The Family Man far more than you’d expect. Continue reading →

The Pick: Flash Gordon

We’re not saviors of the universe, but we will save every one of us from subpar movie fandom. That’s right, The Pick is back with a look at the 1980 revival of the legendary comic book character, Flash Gordon. We get a bit into the history of this ancient franchise as well as the various attempts to bring him to the big screen, which ultimately resulted in this Dino De Laurentiis-backed production. However, we fail to get to the bottom of why Queen was involved with the film’s delicious soundtrack, but instead are content to merely appreciate this clash of theatrical rock music and over-the-top sci-fi. Continue reading →

The People’s Albums #8: No Fences

It seems the closer I get to concluding The People’s Albums — my journey through the 50 best-selling albums of all time — the farther away it feels. It’s pretty hilarious that in the intro to my last entry, the late ’90s flipside to this entry, Come On Over by Shania Twain, I expressed optimism over my then-current pace. Well, here we are a year-and-a-half later with no progress in between. But don’t worry! I’ll explain.

Album: No Fences
Artist: Garth Brooks
Release Date: August 27, 1990
Copies Sold in the U.S.: 18 million Continue reading →