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Articles in Culture and Criticism

Antichrist: Darkness Risible
December 17, 2009 – 3:22 PM | 18 Comments
<I>Antichrist</I>: Darkness Risible

But when a dead animal lying in the brush looks straight into the camera and pompously spits out the words, “CHAOS REIGNS!,” you have to decide whether you’re with the movie or against it.
— Jeremiah …

21 Jump Street: “My Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades”
December 15, 2009 – 11:46 PM | 20 Comments
<I>21 Jump Street</I>: “My Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades”

(Note: Today’s episode of Shut Up, Penhall has been rescheduled for a later date.Please enjoy this airing of Shut Up, Hanson instead.)
Drink for that episode title. What ever happened to Timbuk3, anyway?
The door of a …

Control
December 14, 2009 – 1:06 PM | 8 Comments
<I>Control</I>

Don’t let the big names fool you: Control is a B movie. Accepted on B-movie terms, it’s quite good, in the sense that it is often bad, but has the internal wisdom to keep things …

21 Jump Street: “Don’t Pet The Teacher”
December 11, 2009 – 8:00 PM | 8 Comments
<I>21 Jump Street</I>: “Don’t Pet The Teacher”

“Shut Up, Penhall” Count: 1 0! It’s a Christmas miracle!
Nighttime at a high school whose physical plant is modeled after the Taj Mahal. A synthesizer plinks disapprovingly as a mysterious hand pink-spray-paints the phrase “Weintraub …

Posters and vampires
December 8, 2009 – 9:16 PM | 9 Comments
Posters and vampires

From Andy Ihnatko’s Celestial Waste of Bandwidth:
Morrison was immortalized first by death at 27 and then by three generations of college kids who needed a poster to cover up a creepy-looking stain in their dorm …

The Seventh Seal
December 8, 2009 – 11:56 AM | 8 Comments
<I>The Seventh Seal</I>

The Seventh Seal broke ground in its own time, no doubt, but to a present-day viewer it’s pretty obvious stuff.Watching it, I kept thinking of Eddie’s dismissive line in Diner: “I went to Atlantic City …

21 Jump Street: “America, What A Town”
December 1, 2009 – 1:51 PM | 10 Comments
<I>21 Jump Street</I>: “America, What A Town”

“Shut Up, Penhall” Count: 5
Accompanied by a David Coverdale-oid wailing, “YOU stole my WOOOORRRRLD,” a guy takes about four days to steal a Mercury Sable under cover of night.Well, sort of.He’s directly under a streetlight.Heaven …

Colors
November 29, 2009 – 12:24 PM | 29 Comments
<I>Colors</I>

Another one for the “I added it to my Netflix queue years ago and have no memory of why” file, I sat down to Colors expecting to have to endure it. For one thing, Sean …

Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town
November 12, 2009 – 1:39 PM | 12 Comments
<I>Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town</I>

Reporters and writers of non-fiction run into trouble when, as their story begins to take shape, they decide that that story speaks a larger truth about Us As [Adjective] Americans.Us As 21st-Century Americans, Us As …

Adventures In Random DVR-Pausing: Taking! It! Personally!
November 10, 2009 – 1:20 PM | 8 Comments
Adventures In Random DVR-Pausing: Taking! It! Personally!

In Hargitay’s defense, I think the guy taking her hostage had just gotten shot by Vincent Spano; I’d make that face too.   On the other hand, she could have just read yet another script …