Criterion Month Day 3: Dos monjes

Dos monjes (1934)

“Dos monjes” (Two Monks)
(Sung to the tune of “Two Princes” by the Spin Doctors)

One, Two Monks is a movie
from Juan Bustillo Oro
Two Monks, who really hate each other
In a drama from Mexico now
One thinks the other stole his lady
Many years before now
The other said I think you’re crazy
But he got beat with a cross, now

This film has German Expressionism
That’s what I said now
Dutch angles and lots of symbolism
How ’bout that now
Two Monks is a split narrative movie
How ’bout that now
In flashbacks, we see both sides the story
Like Rashomon, now

Who is wrong? Who is right?
The woman they loved got shot one night
She was just trying to break up their fight
But I know what a Monk and lover ought to be
I know what a Monk and lover ought to be

(Scat Interlude)

3 1/2 Stars.

Criterion Month Day 2: The Docks of New York

The Docks of New York (1928)

Much like John, I always feel a little out of my element talking about silent film, but then again, who doesn’t? Not only is this the oldest, most archaic era of film history, it’s also the one that’s been most lost to history. Just looking at director Josef Von Sternberg’s filmography, this film is sandwiched in between two “lost films” (The Dragnet and The Case of Lena Smith), the latter of which was hailed as one of Von Sternberg’s best films. You’d think there would be some sort of apparatus in place for keeping great films from being lost, but alas, human beings make mistakes and even physical media can be just as fleeting as that on the internet. Still, you have to be thankful a film like The Docks of New York is able to survive and that a company like Criterion is willing to keep its availability alive. Continue reading →

Criterion Month Day 1: The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog

The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927)

Hey everybody it’s Criterion Month! For those who don’t know, this an entire month we devote to watching and reviewing films in the Criterion Collection. The reasoning is it’s the time of year that Barnes & Noble (which I think still exists) has their 50% off sale on Criterions. It also means I get to watch 90-year-old silent movies in 90+ degree weather in an attempt to provide some kind of insight. Ha, yeah, we’ll see about that.

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2021 Albums I’ve Liked So Far, Pt. 3

Here goes the third part of my look back at some of the music from 2021 as we (terrifyingly) have almost reached the halfway point of the year. These are the albums that came out in the past month or two, so I probably don’t have fully formed opinions on all of them. But at the very least, I’ve given them enough spins to know that I like them. Continue reading →

2021 Albums I’ve Liked So Far, Pt. 2

So here we are with another installment of me looking back at some of the music I’ve enjoyed from the first half of this year. I guess that means this’ll mostly be music from March or April. I don’t know if you remember much from that period, since I was mostly just sitting around waiting to get vaxxed. But hey, at least I remember some of these albums. Continue reading →

Sean’s Sad Superhero Sundays: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

We gave up a lot of things in 2020 and that sucked. One thing that maybe actually needed a break was the superhero genre, which has dominated cinemas for more than a decade now. Last year, only DC managed to release anything (Birds of Prey and WW84) unless you count the final season of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, which was probably only watched by me. Well, now it’s 2021 and we’re coming back and we’re all super depressed. Over the next few… however long this takes me, I’m going to review all the sad new superhero shows and movies of 2021 leading up to Black Widow‘s release in July. Come wallow with me!

What does it mean to be “Captain America” after World War II? Outside of war propaganda, it’s pretty weird to cover yourself in the stars and stripes. The comics have been wrestling with this issue since the character was revived during the Vietnam era, sometimes with embarrassing results. In the MCU, Steve Rogers ultimately gave up his alter ego, sidestepping the issue until he made the surprising choice to pass the mantle on to Sam Wilson. Then he disappeared into another timeline(?) and left his two sidekicks to pick up the pieces. Sounds like a funny buddy flick right? But it’s 2021, so let’s make sure to have some real bummer stuff in there too.

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2021 Albums I’ve Liked So Far, Pt. 1

My prediction for 2021 was that it would be an off-year for music, not unlike 2020 was for movies. While music is a medium that (especially now) can be produced by one person at home, it typically thrives on collaboration, which we didn’t have much room for in 2020 or early 2021. So it was hard for me to imagine that a lot of artists would be able to go into the studio and record new music while also abiding by covid protocols. While this does seem to somewhat be the case, considering there haven’t been nearly as many hotly anticipated albums as there were last year, 2021’s still been no slouch.

Some of this has been due to the fact that a few high-profile albums that were already gestating for a while got released this year after delays. But also, music is just such a vast, universal art form that there’s always going to be good stuff to discover. I would say this has been the theme for my 2021 listening, as I’ve definitely ended up listening more to artists that I either hadn’t heard of or had somewhat ignored for a while. I’ll admit that Spring/early Summer is usually the time when there seems to be a new great album from an artist I love coming out every week, and that isn’t quite the case this year. But again, there’s still been some good stuff coming out recently in addition to the other discoveries that have made this year worthwhile so far.

Also, since streaming has made it rare that I end up spending much time with albums I don’t like these days, I’ll forgo using star ratings for these albums in exchange for arbitrary “like”-ness ratings. Continue reading →