I Watched All Four Hours of ABC's The Langoliers (1995)

In 1995 the network TV mini-series had already eclipsed its zenith. Six years earlier, CBS aired the 8 hour Lonesome Dove series starring Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Duvall (in perhaps his single greatest performance). Because in the 90s, and, honestly, even in the best of times, ABC has never been the most innovative broadcast network, they were desperate to try to catch lightning in a bottle with a mini-series of their own based on a story by America's most popular writer, Stephen King. The problem with a series like Lonesome Dove, and what ultimately resulted in the production of The Langoliers, is that you need to own the option on the source material, and the production rights to all of King's major works were already owned by film studios. That meant that if you wanted to make a mini-series based on King's work, you would need something...less well known. What ABC ultimately settled on "The Langoliers" a novella from King's abysmal collection Four Past Midnight.

Movie Review: The Intern

Let's imagine, together, the attributes that would make someone a wildly successful high school chemistry teacher. It probably isn't getting kids to learn how to calculate moles by deploying Avogadro's constant, nor does it have anything to do with them figuring out how to plot electron orbits, nor does it likely involve their ability to successfully recreate reactions precisely (all any high school chemistry lab can hope for is not to have a student, like me, who creates huge fireballs--I was a poor practical chemist). None of those pieces of knowledge are particularly important because most people, the vast majority, don't live lives where these factors come up very often. I suppose you could make an argument that a good high school chemistry teacher gets a lot of students to pass the A.P. Exam, but that is cynical and if you think that way you're probably not the kind of person I hope I am talking to anyway. Rather, a good high school chemistry teacher is probably someone who imparts a sense of astonishment at the way that delicate and universal interplay between matter and energy, wonder at the way that transition can be as gradual as the creep of rust or as violent as a supernova, and amazement at the unseen currents of reality that flow like magic beneath the surface of the seen.

Which Actor on The West Wing Gives the Best Performance?

So, I've spent a lot of time recently re-watching episodes of The West Wing and debating with myself about the relative strengths and weaknesses of the various actors and actresses who populated the show. So I decided to talk it out in blog post form. Below is my best effort to rank the quality of the performances of the main cast of The West Wing.

When Left to My Own Devices, I Watch Moulin Rouge!

If you know me very well at all, you know that my wife travels a good bit for work and that when she does I tend to descend into a directionless heap of quasi-bachelor decrepitude. On the rare occasions that I go into work while she's gone my friends will say things like "do you feel alright? you look terrible..." It's because I don't sleep, either barely eat or eat total trash, and generally exist in a semi-perpetual fugue state. My wife is traveling right now, and as a way of passing the time I decided to put on a movie that never ceases to captivate my attention: Baz Luhrmann's musical pastiche Moulin Rouge! 

Album Review: The Best of Art Tatum

It is, perhaps, silly to call this a review. This album came out in 1991. We are a little late to be issuing reviews. Instead, I suppose, one might be well served to think of this as thoughts as precursor to an unqualified recommendation, and my encouragement to you to seek out this album (and really any recording featuring Tatum) on your own time.

Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine

There is something wrong with Alex Gibney's new documentary Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine. It is an vague and almost inexpressible quality that sneaks up on you over the course of the film's runtime, gathering form and substance as it goes until that movie is over and you think to yourself "wait...what?"

Superman Returns was a Better Movie than You Remember

Bryan Singer's Superman Returns was not critically savaged when it came out in 2006. In fact, 78% of critics, according to Rotten Tomatoes, reviewed the film favorably. Nor was it a box office failure. It made nearly $400 million dollars on a $200 million. And yet, because Warner Brothers decided against making a sequel, rebooted the Superman franchise with new actors, a new story, and all the humorless gravity that only Zack Snyder can bring to bear, Superman Returns is now almost universally regarded as a failure.

Dave's Top Ten Music Movies of All Time!

Hello, Friends.

It has been awhile since we've run down a top ten list together. This morning I was having a discussion with a friend about That Thing You Do! the 1996 classic starring Tom Hanks, Liv Tyler, and Tom Everett Scott. But that got me to thinking, where does That Thing You Do! rank amongst other music movies? Consequently, I formulated the following top ten list.

As usual, before we get to the list, let's run through the basic definitions and rules:

For the purposes of this post, I am going to assume a differentiation between music movies and musicals. That Thing You Do! is about an up and coming band from Erie, PA who makes it big with a signature hit and then implodes during the production of their second album. It is about music. Moulin Rouge! is about the love story between a courtesan and a struggling writer, which utilizes singing and dancing the way that an opera would utilize recitative and aria. 

I will be grading each movie on three criteria:

1. The Quality of the Music: Two weekends ago We Are Your Friends set a new record for box office futility. The music that Zac Efron's character, Cole Carter, creates is some of the dumbest EDM that you can imagine. On a very basic level the idea that people would voluntarily dance to this music is insulting to the very concept of kinetics. By contrast, Walk the Line features the music of Johnny Cash, ably performed by Joaquin Phoenix. On this scale We Are Your Friends would get a 2/10, and Walk the Line would get an 8.5/10.

2. Degree of Difficulty: While Walk the Line has great music, it is aided by the fact that a musical legend wrote and performed all of the music decades before the movie was even conceived. By contrast, Tom Hanks sat down and wrote all of the music for That Thing You Do!, which is, when you think about it a titanic accomplishment. Walk the Line therefore, would get a lower score, 6/10, than TTYD, 9.5/10.

3. Openness to Other Sounds: Crazyheart is a moving movie with fantastic music, all of it country-western. While impressive, it does not measure up to the scope of something like Pitch Perfect which, though acapella is the common thread, weaves together a variety of musical genres and sounds. Crazyheart would get a 4/10, while Pitch Perfect would get a 7/10. 

The result is that each movie will receive a score out of 30. So, without further ado, the list:

10. Crazyheart

The story of Bad Blake, a washed up country-western singer/songwriter, and his attempt to claw his way back up from the bottom by writing new music for a younger performer played (impeccably) by Colin Farrell. With music and songs by T. Bone Burnett, one of the most prolific composer of original music for television and films currently in the business, Crazyheart gave the world a number of original songs that would be perfectly at home on any classic country station, including: "The Weary Kind," "Fallin and Flyin," and "Gone, Gone, Gone," though only "The Weary Kind" approached becoming a hit single.

Quality of Music: 7/10

Degree of Difficulty: 7/10

Openness to Other Sounds: 4/10

Total Score: 18/30

9. 8 Mile

One of the first hip-hop blockbusters, 8 Mile  features a strong performance by Eminem in his first major motion picture role and gave the world "Lose Yourself" a track that was paradigmatic for a five year period in the genre of stunted white male rage. The film sets itself apart, however, with some of the best rap battle scenes ever put down on film.

Quality of Music: 7.5

Degree of Difficulty: 7.5

Openness to Other Sounds: 4/10

Total Score: 19/30

8. Shine

Based on the life of Australian pianist David Helfgott, this movie is functionally A Beautiful Mind but with Rachmaninoff's 3rd Piano Concerto in place of the Nash Equilibrium. The music is lovely. The only real problem with this film is that David Helfgott was not, in real life, the generational piano talent that the film makes him out to be, nor did his recordings of the significant piano pieces reveal an interpreter of any particular depth. The film, therefore, builds its hagiography around the idea that his descent into and escape from madness makes Helfgott some sort of holy fool. Which is a shame.

Quality of Music: 8/10

Degree of Difficulty: 8/10

Openness to Other Sounds: 3.5/10

Total Score: 19.5/30 

7. Walk the Line

Joaquin Phoenix kills it as Cash in this movie. There isn't a ton else to say.

Quality of Music: 8/10

Degree of Difficulty: 6/10

Openness to Other Sounds: 7/10

Total Score: 21/30

6. Hustle and Flow

Hustle and Flow was the film that brought the world Three 6 Mafia's "It's Hard out Here for a Pimp." I'm not sure that I agree with VH1's claim that this is the 80th greatest hip hop song of all time, but it was a fixture of radio play that year.

Quality of Music: 8/10
Degree of Difficulty: 7/10
Openness to Other Sounds: 6.5/10

Total Score: 21.5/30

4b. Dreamgirls

A fictionalized account of the rise of Motown with Jamie Foxx in a role inspired by Berry Gordy, and Beyonce as a stand-in for Diana Ross. What else do I really need to say? Oh...right, also Jennifer Hudson.

Quality of Music: 8.5/10
Degree of Difficulty: 8.5/10
Openness to Other Sounds: 5/10

Total Score: 22/30

4a. Tender Mercies

This film is the Ur-text for Crazyheart, accomplishing all of the same things, but subbing Robert Duvall for Jeff Bridges.

Quality of Music: 9/10
Degree of Difficulty: 7/10
Openness to Other Sounds: 6/10

Total Score: 22/30

3. Whiplash

The best movie of 2014 is also one of the best movies ever made about music and greatness. Director Damien Chazelle lets J.K. Simmons off the chain, and the film's intense concentration on virtuosity means that the music tends to be impeccable.

Quality of Music: 9.5/10
Degree of Difficulty: 9.5
Openness to Other Sounds: 7

Total Score: 26/30


2. Inside Llewyn Davis

It is unquestionably the best film on this list for cinematic considerations. The Coen brothers produced, in Llewyn Davis another masterpiece in the general qualitative camp of Fargo and No Country for Old Men. Again, the music here is by T Bone Burnett, and is impeccable, though too folksy for the taste of some.

Quality of Music: 9.5/10
Degree of Difficulty: 9.5/10
Openness to Other Sounds: 7.5/10

Total Score: 36.5/30

1. That Thing You Do!

It is hard to say that any film is the best film of Tom Hanks' career. There have been too many different moments and flavors of greatness spread across more than 30 years to ever make that claim. But I do think it is fair to say that this is the most *fun* that Tom Hanks has ever had. Written a directed by Hanks, who reveals himself to be an almost absurdly competent filmmaker, Hanks also wrote most of the music. This film is a masterpiece.

Quality of Music: 10/10
Degree of Difficulty: 9/10
Openness to Other Sounds: 9/10

Total Score: 28/30

Ronda Rousey's Roadhouse

Let's start with an observation right off the bat: Ronda Rousey is the world's greatest fighter, and is building a career that is beginning to rival Serena Williams' for sheer dominance over the landscape of her sport. I am 100% confident that she is correct when she says that she would destroy Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a no holds barred fight. I'm not sure I've ever seen anything like her. Plus she is hilarious, charming, beautiful, and generally astounding. All of this goes to say that I was more than a little intrigued today by the announcement in Variety that she will be starring in a remake of Roadhouse. The cult classic built around the idea that Patrick Swayze had an advanced degree in philosophy, but chose to instill order in rowdy saloons with his feet, knees, elbows, and fists.

Dr. Dre, Carly Rae Jepsen, The Weeknd, and Others: An August Album Rundown

Yesterday I ran down the books that I read for pleasure during the month of August. Today I went to look at four albums that I listened to this month. Now, I listened to a lot of music this month besides these four albums, but it is my practice of longstanding not to discuss individual tracks on this blog. To make it onto this list, therefore, I have to have listened to every track on the album--which really trims down the amount of music I write about (by design). So, without further ado, here are my thoughts on the following four albums:

A Reading Roundup

During the last few weeks of August, when the movies are inevitably of poor quality (No Escape and American Ultra I am looking in your direction) and TV hasn't yet come into the full glory of its autumnal bloom (I feel like I have been waiting forever for new episodes of You're the Worst) the life of a pop culture blogger gets a little dull. Given that, I spent that last several weeks reading books and listening to new albums. Tomorrow, I'll be doing an album rundown, but for today it's books. The following represents the stuff that I have read (for pleasure, work books, as always, don't count) during the month of August: