On My Radar: 9/23/11
All Songs Considered - Fall Music Preview (@allsongs) Our friends at NPR Music have composed their list of new releases to look out for this fall. You can to the very tight 60 minute preview show with hosts Bob Boilen…
‘The Walking Dead’ Returns
As a critical fan of the horror genre, including the zombie sub-genre spawned by George Romero with Night of The Living Dead in 1968, I was thrilled with the first season of "The Walking Dead" on AMC. Great story, great…
On My Radar: 9/16/11
David Byrne blows up the world (under the High Line) (@NYMag) My favorite New York eclecticist, David Byrne, has created a temporary installation under the High Line at 25th Street: a blown-up globe, like a giant beach ball version of…
Movies We Love: Goodfellas (1990)
New York Times film critic A. O. Scott reminds us why Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas (1990) is a modern masterpiece. Based on Nicholas Pileggi’s true crime book Wiseguys and starring Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Lorraine Bracco, Goodfellas follows the true story of Henry Hill and his life as a member of the Lucchese crime family.
Revisiting Ponyboy, Sodapop and The Rest of “The Outsiders”
I first saw “The Outsiders” in its initial theatrical release in the spring of 1983. At the time, I was a twelve year old kid in junior high like Ponyboy Curtis. Though I definitely had more in common with a Soc than a Greaser, I honed in on Ponyboy’s adolescent rumblings of confusion, anger and disconnection, as well as his desire to belong, to fit-in and to simply get along.
10 Songs I Can’t Live Without, Vol. 1
An ongoing selection of songs from various artists and genres that I simply can’t live without. This first volume features music from Frank Sinatra, Madeleine Peyroux, Roberta Flack, The Pretenders, The Dave Brubeck Quartet, Romeo Void, Ennio Morricone, The Clientele, Led Zeppelin and Alice Smith.
NYTimes Critics’ Picks: ‘In A Lonely Place’
New York Times film critic A.O. Scott looks back at Nicholas Ray‘s 1950 film “In A Lonely Place,” a dark and terrific noir starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame.
Blow Out (1981)
In this superlative paranoia thriller from Brian De Palma, John Travolta plays a B-movie sound man who accidentally records a political assassination when he's out recording sound effects. The assassination has a survivor: Nancy Allen, who should not have been…
Steve McQueen in ‘Bullitt’ (1968)
I’m still not sure what this movie is about, but it is wonderful to watch. Steve McQueen is the essence of cool in this 1968 caper directed by Peter Yates. Apparently, his character was modeled after San Francisco Police Department inspector Dave Toschi (portrayed by Mark Ruffalo in David Fincher’s 2007 film Zodiac), but minus the bow tie. In addition to McQueen and his inimitable style, as well as a beautiful young Jacqueline Bisset, Bullitt features one of the most exciting car chases ever put on film, with McQueen doing much of his own driving in a Ford Mustang GT 390 fastback.
Antonioni’s ‘Blow Up’ (1966)
One of the greatest English language films of the 1960s... A successful high-fashion London photographer believes that he has photographed a murder. Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, and starring David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave and the inimitable Veruschka. An absolute must-see.