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Thursday - March 28, 2024

Articles Written By TimBrennan

 

The Wall of Life and Death

January 15th, 2024

It would have been easier if the Nazis were monsters. If we consider the atrocities committed in service of the Final Solution, if we peel back each layer of cruelty to expose another layer even worse, the enormity of it all is nearly too much to bear.  Monsters would do those things. Would human beings do those things to other human beings? The question is staggering, and it makes it easier for us to call them monsters. To be sure, there were psychopaths and sadists in the ranks of the Reich. Dehumanizing language from authoritarian leaders has always attracted those types. But the majority of... Read More

Tim’s Top 10 Films of 2023

January 8th, 2024

Well, that didn’t suck! I’m a big believer that, one way or another, every year is a good year for movies. The studios might crank out a bunch of crap, the indies might produce the kind of thing that only the most annoying cineastes appreciate, yet there are always diamonds in the rough. Every year that movies are released we will get good movies, we might just have to look a little harder for them. Some years, there is an embarrassment of riches. 1939. 1982. 1999. I feel comfortable adding 2023 to that list, because holy hell did we get some good stuff! Yes, the DC Extended Universe ended... Read More

American Life

January 1st, 2024

There are an awful lot of thankless jobs in Hollywood. The vast majority of movie watchers understand (and hopefully appreciate!) that the movie they love is made by more than the very pretty actors who appear on-screen. There are far more people involved than simply the very overworked director, and the utterly ignored screenwriter.  To me, one of the more fascinating heads of the cinematic hydra is the marketing department. In an extremely brief window of time, these folks need to explain what the general premise of the movie is, what the emotional tone of the movie is, and why you should see... Read More

Christmas Goosed

December 25th, 2023

Let’s get a few things out of the way first. First, I do not hate Christmas. Take away the rampant commercialization and repugnant consumerism, and you still have a time of year to be thankful, to be hopeful, and to push yourself to be just a little more decent. Yes, even in 2020. It’s Christmas movies I don’t like. Specifically, the Hallmark Christmas movie sub-genre. If you don’t know these kinds of films, trust me when I tell you, you know them. A person from the bustling big city is sent to a charming and almost completely white small town. They meet a person of the opposite sex* who... Read More

Notes on Christmas Movies

December 25th, 2023

When I mentioned to my wife that I was thinking about reviewing the apocalyptic thriller and committed bummer Leave the World Behind, she was not entirely on board. “Really? You want people to read a review of that? On Christmas?” My son concurred. The idea of my tens of readers enjoying the bounty of December 25, then reading a review of a movie about the collapse of civilization was a yuletide bridge too far.  They suggested, nearly insisted, that I review a Christmas movie. I pushed back, it must be noted, for no good reason. But did I really want to bum everyone out on Christmas Day? Nah,... Read More

The Curse of the Von Erichs

December 18th, 2023

An interesting article* informs me of something that’s both surprising and unsurprising. If you’re a parent of a school-aged athlete, the odds of them being good enough to compete in the college level, much less the professional level, are vanishingly small. Impossible? No. Highly, highly unlikely? Absolutely. Those odds don’t stop parents from pushing, though. When my son was in elementary school, he spent a couple of years playing soccer. There were two things I could always count on when watching a game. The first was my son zipping up and down the field like an enthusiastic puppy and... Read More

The Lizard King

December 11th, 2023

I’m a Godzilla casual. An awful lot of movies take up mental real estate in my head, and it must be said, movies featuring Japan’s large reptilian son aren’t really among them. Nothing against the Big G! The first appearance of the iconic kaiju in 1954 is absolutely a classic. 2016’s Shin Godzilla is beloved by me since it merges giant monster action with a clever satire of inefficient bureaucracies. As for the rest? For the most part, my belief was that Godzilla movies were disposable fluff. In the old days, you’d stick people in uncomfortable rubber suits, have them stumble through... Read More

The Movies That Made Me

December 4th, 2023

We’re doing something a little different around these parts this week.  One of my mutuals on the social media site formerly/still known as Twitter mentioned recently that she was sad so few people discussed older films with her. Folks would chime in with hot takes over the latest MCU installment or indie darling, but by and large, they seemed to memory hole any movie made more than two years ago. I get that. Philosopher George Satayana famously wrote, “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it,” and we Americans famously respond to that with, “Hold our beer.” We’re dumb... Read More

The Tall Short Man

November 27th, 2023

Not long ago, legendary filmmaker Ridley Scott told historians to shut the f–k up. It’s been my experience that one does not tell others to shut the f–k up in a vacuum, not usually. In this case, there was a pretty compelling reason. While promoting his new film Napoleon, Scott was asked in an interview* to respond to criticisms of historical inaccuracy in his work. Scott responded, “When I have issues with historians, I ask: ‘Excuse me, mate, were you there? No? Well, shut the f— up then.'” Does Scott have a point? I think he does, but we need to be clear... Read More

The Joy of Sex

November 20th, 2023

Is sex necessary in movies? UCLA’s Center for Scholars and Storytellers surveyed young people (God, it kills me to say that) aged 10-24 regarding the kinds of stories told through screens.* Respondents aged 13-24 were asked about sexual depiction in movies and television. Over half of them wanted stories with a stronger focus on friendships, and forty percent felt there needed to be greater depictions of asexual and non-romantic relationships. If we look at those numbers, they tell us that a chunk of younger viewers aren’t particularly interested in the fictional depiction of the beast with... Read More