1941. Starring Henry Fonda, Barbara Stanwyck. Directed by Preston Sturges. There’s no better cure for a dark, rainy, depressing day than a Preston Sturges film. The Lady Eve is one of his best. Henry Fonda stars as snake expert Charles Pike, who, although heir to the Pike’s Pale fortune (“Pike’s Pale – The Ale That Won For Yale!”), doesn’t know much about ale or beer, and even less about women. As he states many times, he “just spent a year up the Amazon” and is returning with a newly discovered type of snake. But Charles is about to meet a …
Movie Review: Gonzo, The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
2008. Directed by Alex Gibney. It was impossible, eventually, to tell Hunter S. Thompson, the journalist, from Hunter S. Thompson, the legend, and that was problematic. “Not only was I not necessary, I was in the way,” he explains in his familiar monotone mumble. The drinking had become expected, the drugs required, the guns were fired randomly, providing the dangerous edge, now that his writing wasn’t supplying it. The rebel celebrity had outlived the rebel insight, but, after years of drug use and alcohol abuse, he still controlled the narrative. He knew how to wrap up his story. This remarkable …
Happy Six Months
Today marks six months since I quit my job. I’m happy to be able to say that I haven’t felt a bit of regret. Sure, when I go to pay rent every month, I wish I still had a paycheck I could turn over. But I don’t miss spending my days with bitter and unfriendly people. In a weird way, I miss the routine, but I’m working on a more-positive one, thinking of ways I can make and save money, applying for jobs, writing and communicating with creative and encouraging friends I’d neglected. Quitting at the start of a recession …
Passings: Lux Interior
Back in the ’80s, music was pathetic. There are very few exceptions — the world was obsessed with MTV, and artists like Michael Jackson and Madonna dominated radio, and if you didn’t like it, there was always yacht-rock captains like Christopher Cross. There was also new wave, which to some was an attempt to make punk more acceptable, more popular. I bought many records that had guys wearing makeup on the cover and playing weak-sounding keyboards on the record. Then one glorious day, I bought a strange record with a slightly ominous-looking cover photo. Songs the Lord Taught Us was …
Elsewhere Online: Desperate Man Blues
Set aside an hour-and-a-half sometime in the next week and take a look at Desperate Man Blues, director Edward Gillian’s 2003 film about Joe Bussard, known in record-collecting circles for his love for and devotion to 78s. Bussard seems like a curmudgeonly old fella who lights up once he drops the needle on one of his many rare discs. He chain-smokes his cigars, stomps his feet to the old blues and bluegrass and old-timey jazz that he collects, and rails against rock-and-roll as “the cancer that killed music.” The part of the film I loved was traveling with him as …
Movie Review: White Dog
1982. Starring Kristy McNichol, Paul Winfield, Burl Ives. Sam Fuller wanted to take on the world, and I love him for it. Just how I loved the advice he gave fellow director Jim Jarmusch — “If the opening scene doesn’t give you a hard-on, throw the goddamn thing out!” In White Dog, he takes on racism — and not overt racism, but the kind of racism that is bred into us, deep down into our instincts, that keeps us from all getting along. Kristy McNichol stars as a Hollywood Hills actress who — in the opening scene — runs over …
Movie Review: Man On Wire
2008. Starring Philippe Petit. Directed by James Marsh. Philippe Petit is trying to explain how he took the first steps onto the wire. He has been drawing it out over the course of the movie, talking about the planning, about procuring the supplies and sneaking them into one of the Twin Towers, about hiding under a tarp on the top floor as a security guard stood just feet away. One false step — even before walking out onto the roof — and his “fantasy” would be over before it was begun. The dream of walking on a wire between the …
Movie Review: The Visitor
2007. Starring Richard Jenkins, Haaz Sleiman, Danai Jekesai Gurira. Directed by Thomas McCarthy. It’s valuable for Americans to be reminded of how lucky it is to be free. Richard Jenkins, previously a well-traveled character actor, takes the lead as Walter Vale, a Connecticut professor who admits that he hasn’t worked in years, despite “co-authoring” a paper on international economic development and having to present the paper’s findings at a New York conference. Dropping into his NYC apartment for the first time in months, he finds a couple staying there, having been misled into renting the apartment from a mysterious “Ivan.” …
Movie Review: Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry
1974. Starring Peter Fonda, Susan George, Adam Rourke. Directed by John Hough. Two-Lane Blacktop is more contemplative and Vanishing Point is more elegiac, but Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry isn’t concerned with much of a story, allowing it to focus on some really great chase scenes. Larry (Peter Fonda) and Deke (Adam Rourke) are small-time crooks who have planned a grocery store robbery, holding the owner’s (Roddy McDowell, uncredited) wife and daughter hostage until they can make a clean getaway. That getaway is complicated by Larry’s girl from the night before, the trampy Crazy Mary (Susan George), who refuses to be …
Country Music Reclamation Project: Hello Walls
Willie Nelson was fairly new to Nashville when he wrote Hello Walls and pitched it to Faron Young, who was on a hot-streak at that time. Still, the song bears the songwriter’s trademark cadence — almost as if Faron is impersonating him. It was a great performance of an odd little idea, and became a huge hit. Hello Walls (performed by Faron Young) Written by Willie Nelson Hello walls How’d things go for you today Don’t you miss her Since she up and walked away And I’ll bet you dread to spend Another lonely night with me Lonely walls I’ll …