Colin Wessman

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

Criterion Month Day 6: I Am Cuba

I Am Cuba (1964)

When we’re making our way through Criterion Month, there’s always the chance that some of the films we watch will feel a little like homework. So far, none of the movies I’ve reviewed have felt that way, since they’ve been to at least some extent, pretty entertaining. I Am Cuba, a joint production between Cuba and the Soviet Union, falls a bit into that category, since it’s a movie that really makes you use your brain while watching it, forcing you to grapple with the ideas behind it as well as the challenging style in which it chooses to express those ideas. Though at the same time, that style is pretty electric and innovative, so there is something inherently exciting about the way it forces you to do a little homework. Continue reading →

Criterion Month Day 5: Il Sorpasso

Il Sorpasso (1962)

An uptight person and a free spirit get in a car together, set off on the open road, and hijinks ensue. There are lots of types of road movies, but this formula feels like the most pure to me. I’m not sure how many movies tried this approach before Il Sorpasso, but I have to assume it wasn’t the first to attempt this dynamic, even if there’s still something so fresh about this movie that it feels like it might as well have invented the modern road dramedy. Which is a little odd to say, since it also embodies a very specific time in Italian history and filmmaking, where the neorealism of the country’s post-World War II morphed into something lighter and more carefree, as the country’s economic boom saw its citizens livin’ la dolce vita. Continue reading →

Criterion Month Day 3: Invention For Destruction

Invention For Destruction (1958)

In Criterion Months past, I reviewed two films in the box set, Three Fantastic Journeys by Karel Zeman. The first film I reviewed was Zeman’s 1962 adaptation of the folk tale The Fabulous Baron Munchausen, while a couple years later I reviewed Zeman’s recreation of prehistoric times in Journey To The Beginning of Time. With this entry, Invention For Destruction, I complete the trilogy of films in this box set as well as all of Zeman’s films in the Criterion Collection, and in the process have found what may be my favorite of the three. If nothing else, it’s the one that I find the most visually striking, as it sticks to a very specific visual milieu. And though it’s occasionally lacking in the storytelling department, it quite simply has some of the most stunning special effects in movies I’ve ever seen. Continue reading →

Criterion Month Day 2: The Incredible Shrinking Man

The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)

My first entry this Criterion Month is very steeped in the sci-fi of a very particular era – the 1950s, which was influenced by American paranoia over nuclear destruction and saw the rise of aliens from another world, giant insects, and creatures from black lagoons. 1957’s The Incredible Shrinking Man, focuses on something not quite as spectacular: a man who, as you might guess, can’t stop shrinking. It’s a fairly straightforward premise, but in the hands of B-movie maverick Jack Arnold and writer Richard Matheson, it becomes something as unsettling (and entertaining) as anything the era produced. Continue reading →

The Eighth Annual Criterion Month Draft

It’s that time of year again! Well, sort of. This year we’re pushing our annual Criterion Month back a month due to summer travel plans, which will perhaps give us time to buy some of the blu rays on sale at Barnes & Noble’s July Criterion Sale? Who knows, but one thing we do know is that we’ve stuck to the same format of picking our movies to review each year. We each take turns selecting our films over the course of a podcast and then struggle to describe what these movies are about. But that’s ok! We haven’t seen them yet, but luckily a sense of discovery will prevail during the ensuing month as we find out why these films are deserving of being in the Collection. Continue reading →

Colin’s Favorite Albums of 2024 (So Far), Pt. 2

Now let’s take a look at some of the more recent albums that transitioned us from Winter to Spring to Summer. As you may notice, a lot of these albums are a bit more high profile or ones I had already been anticipating, but well, those are just the albums you end up listening to the week (or month) of their release. Hopefully, there will be a few more low-key albums out there from this first half of the year that I’m able to catch up with as the year progress. And who knows, maybe I’ll end up writing about them at year’s end.

For the first three albums, I don’t need to go too in-depth with them, since I already praised them on episodes of The Pick. But they’re albums so nice, they’re worth talking about twice. Continue reading →

Colin’s Favorite Albums of 2024 (So Far), Pt. 1

For the first part of this year, writing about music got away from me.

I’m not exactly sure why, but the easiest answer is probably just the general decline in us writing consistent reviews of anything on this blog. Additionally, my general mood about online music writing also hasn’t been helped by the announcement that Pitchfork, the one critical voice that was always dependable, was being folded into GQ, not to mention the other online pop culture sites that have been gutted the past few years.

But really, the more optimistic reason for why I haven’t been posting music reviews on here is that there’s been a fairly overwhelming amount of good music to listen to this year. So much so that every time I’ve found a new favorite album of the moment, a new one gets released the next week. And even when there hasn’t always been a new album out there to mesmerize me, there have also been plenty of high-profile pop albums this year that despite their varying quality, at the very least felt like necessary listening. Perhaps this doesn’t all excuse my laziness, but either way, there have been a lot of albums worth diving into, and it’s made it hard to know where to start. Well, let’s start here. Continue reading →