Sean Lemme

I started blogging as a way to lazily pass my high school senior project and somehow I've kept doing it for more than half my life

Criterion Month Day 18: Autumn Sonata

Autumn Sonata (1978)

It’s June and I’m looking through my Blu-rays for any Criterion movies I hadn’t seen yet. That’s when I’m reminded of my prize jewel, my greatest shame: Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema. A 30-disc monster containing 39 movies – arranged as a film festival – and a 248-page book, I bought this tome years ago. I was so proud at the time because I was able to take advantage of both half-off plus a pair of coupons I had earned as a Criterion Channel charter member. It carries a hefty list price of $300 and I managed to only pay $130 plus tax. But $130 is a lot of money to spend just to fill space in my IKEA bookcase.

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Criterion Month Day 14: The Way of the Dragon

The Way of the Dragon (1972)

Well, here we are about halfway through Criterion Month and Colin and I have collectively written 10 posts! But seriously, I am embarrassed that we’re two weeks in and all I’ve watched are a kaiju movie and a kung fu flick. Criterion Month, aside from reading my friends’ reviews, has been such a non-factor in my life these first two weeks of July that I actually forgot that I hadn’t written this post until 12:30 in the morning the day after it was supposed to go up. But don’t you worry, dear reader, I’ll get my comeuppance. I’ll be paying for my lackadaisical ways when I have to review six movies in the last week of the month. That’ll be a real beating. Just like the many beatings Bruce Lee handed out in The Way of the Dragon.

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Criterion Month Day 10: Mothra vs. Godzilla

Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)

I honestly didn’t think I’d be stepping into the realm of the kaiju again so soon, but everything changed the day we watched Boiler Room on The Pick. The song that ends that particular early-2000s Ben Affleck movie is Pharoahe Monch’s “Simon Says”, something I definitely haven’t thought of in 20 years (which makes the lyrics “y’all know the name” feel ironic) but absolutely love for its big, phat, nasty hook. Unfortunately for Monch, it samples the theme to Mothra vs. Godzilla without Toho’s permission, which stopped distribution of Monch’s debut album. Fortunately for me, it was enough to get me to reopen my Godzilla box set, since I got to here those bold, brassy horns plenty of times during this movie.

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Oscars Fortnight Day 10: All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)

All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)

95th Academy Awards (2023)
Nominations: 9
Wins: We’ll see…

The most striking differences between the two cinematic adaptations of All Quiet on the Western Front stem from context. The 1930 version came out a long, long time ago. Back when World War I was called The Great War because WWII hadn’t happened yet. The “war epic” genre was not well-worn territory and there weren’t familiar tropes, in fact, All Quiet on the Western Front was the first talkie to win Oscars. On the other hand, the 2022 version is dripping with dramatic irony and historical context. It could crassly be dismissed as the latest attempt to give WWI its Saving Private Ryan, along with films like 1917 and Spielberg’s own War Horse. And it’s tempting to be dismissive of the remake for choosing the very 21st Century choice of playing up gore and omitting characterization. But that’s awfully pretentious and, like I said last time, there’s a war going on in Europe right now. This is important, come and see.

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Oscars Fortnight Day 2: All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

3rd Academy Awards (1930)
Nominations: 4
Wins: 2

Like last year, I’m taking advantage of a remake of a best picture winner being nominated for best picture as an opportunity to see both films for the first time. Unlike last year, instead of doing that in one post, I’m planning on doing it in two! That is, unless I find I’ve used up most of what I’ve got to say about this subject here, in which case, don’t worry, I’ve got a backup plan. So then, let us head back in time, nearly a century ago, to the third ever Academy Awards. There, an anti-war film called All Quiet on the Western Front made history as the first ever to win both Best Picture and Best Director, which, by the way, also made its director, Lewis Milestone, the first person to win two Oscars (he also won Best Director – Comedy at the First Academy Awards for Two Arabian Knights). This triumph capped off a whirlwind of success for this story, which began as a novel published in English only a year prior. But does it hold up?

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Sean’s Top 10 Movies of 2022

John wrote about how many great movies there were last year and Colin wrote about getting back into going to the theater and I feel like I’m in the middle of them and need to pick a lane. I wish I took as much advantage of streaming as John does. I wish I went to the movies as often as Colin does. Overall I just wish I could find it within myself to care about media like I did pre-pandemic. This year I did get back into the tradition of seeing movies with my dad on Two-for-one Tuesdays, which enabled me to see the likes of Jurassic World Dominion and Black Adam, but I’ve lost the motivation to go see arthouse movies in theaters. Everything comes to streaming so fast now. And then when they do, I feel no hurry to get up and watch things, even when my friends give them glowing reviews. It’s like life has turned into one long Criterion Month.

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Sean’s Top 10 TV Shows of 2022

Now that TV is like mainly an online content farm, we had more franchise shows than ever in 2022. And of those, so goddman many of them were prequels. From Rings of Power and House of the Dragon to Obi-Wan Kenobi and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, you couldn’t give a geek a swirly without a prequel gurgling up to the surface. Makes me wanna puke. I have historically been opposed to this approach, deriding these stories as unnecessarily filling in gaps that were better left vacant. But you know what? Far and away my favorite shows from 2022 were prequels. Maybe I’m turning over a new leaf? Or maybe good stories are about the journey and not the destination? Oh, wait, I’ve got it: I’m just a hack shill. Someone’s always playing corporation games and who cares, they’re always changing corporation names.

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