January 2012
5 posts
24 tags
100 Favorite Songs: 100-91
It’s been about two years since I last made a list of my 100 favorite songs. I’m due for an update. I’ll be posting 10 songs a day, each with an embedded YouTube video. As usual, I limited myself to one song per artist. More importantly, I tried to pick songs that are actually my current favorites. I sometimes try too hard to make lists of my “ALL-TIME FAVORITES,” and...
6 tags
Looking at the 2012 Oscar Nominations →
Kayleigh and I both offered our predictions and personal favorites for the 2012 Academy Awards. Question is, how did we do? We break it down in the post linked above, category by category.
See Also: 2012 Oscar Nominations Predictions, 2011 Academy Award Nominations, 2010 Academy Award Nominations
14 tags
Predictions for Best Picture Nominations →
This year the number of nominees is a mystery, anywhere between 5 and 10 depending on the number of pics that receive the minimum threshold of votes. Below, I’ve listed my predictions for the five locks and ranked the remaining possibilities, in anticipation of there being 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10 finalists. Check out the link for Kayleigh’s predictions, along with both of our...
14 tags
2012 Oscar Nominations Predictions (Update) →
Kayleigh and I offer our predictions for 17 Oscar categories, including all four of the acting races. Below is a summary of our semi-educated guesses. Click the link for all of our picks. Best Picture still to come!
1. Hugo (10) 2. The Artist (8.5) 3. The Descendants (5) 3. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (5) 5. The Help (4.5) 5. Moneyball (4.5) 7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part...
27 tags
2012 Oscar Nominations Predictions →
With basically no good new movies coming out in January, Kayleigh and I are left with no choice but to talk about last year’s titles for awards season! The major guilds (e.g. producers, actors, directors, writers, etc.) have already announced their nominees, so everybody’s getting a better idea of the names that will be announced on January 24. Here, we make our semi-educated guesses and...
December 2011
7 posts
30 tags
Top 10 Albums of 2007
1. Spoon- Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Listen: “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb”
2. Dinosaur Jr.- Beyond
Listen: “Crumble”
3. Bon Iver- For Emma, Forever Ago
Listen: “Flume”
4. Kanye West- Graduation
Listen: “Can’t Tell Me Nothing”
5. Various Artists, I’m Not There
Listen: “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” by Antony and the...
30 tags
Top 10 Movies of 2011
I often wonder if I’ve seen enough movies to make a top 10 list at the end of the year. Even though I saw nearly 60 new releases in 2011, probably more than most people, I feel that my habit of largely seeing critical favorites results in an incredibly predictable list. But this is an honest reflection of what I saw and liked this year, and that means something (I think). And indeed, the fact that...
30 tags
Top 10 Albums of 2006
1. The Hold Steady- Boys and Girls in America
Listen: “Stuck Between Stations” [Non-Album Live Version]
2. Ghostface Killah- Fishscale
Listen: “Shakey Dog”
3. Tom Waits- Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards
Listen: “Missing My Son”
4. Belle and Sebastian- The Life Pursuit
Listen: “Another Sunny Day”
5. Sonic Youth- Rather Ripped
...
30 tags
Top 10 Albums of 2005
1. The Hold Steady- Separation Sunday
Listen: “Your Little Hoodrat Friend”
2. Kanye West- Late Registration
Listen: “Diamonds From Sierra Leone (Remix feat. Jay-Z)”
3. The White Stripes- Get Behind Me Satan
Listen: “Blue Orchid”
4. Franz Ferdinand- You Could Have It So Much Better
Listen: “Do You Want To”
5. Sufjan Stevens- Illinois
...
30 tags
Top 10 Albums of 2004
1. Arcade Fire- Funeral
Listen: “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)”
2. Kanye West- The College Dropout
Listen: “Never Let Me Down”
3. The Trash Can Sinatras- Weightlifting
Listen: “Leave Me Alone”
4. Iron & Wine- Our Endless Numbered Days
Listen: “Naked As We Come”
5. Sufjan Stevens- Seven Swans
Listen: “Abraham”
6. Nick...
30 tags
Top 10 Albums of 2003
1. Jay-Z- The Black Album
Listen: “December 4th”
2. Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Fever to Tell
Listen: “Rich”
3. Radiohead- Hail to the Thief
Listen: “There There”
4. The White Stripes- Elephant
Listen: “The Hardest Button to Button”
5. Belle and Sebastian- Dear Catastrophe Waitress
Listen: “I’m a Cuckoo”
6. Death Cab for...
30 tags
Top 10 Albums of 2002
1. Wilco- Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Listen: “Jesus, Etc.”
2. The Streets- Original Pirate Material
Listen: “Stay Positive”
3. Eminem- The Eminem Show
Listen: “White America”
4. The Flaming Lips- Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Listen: “Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell”
5. Broken Social Scene- You Forgot It In People
Listen: “KC...
November 2011
4 posts
26 tags
Top 10 Albums of 2001
1. Bob Dylan- “Love and Theft”
Listen: “Cry A While”
2. The Strokes- Is This It
Listen: “Hard to Explain”
3. Jay-Z- The Blueprint
Listen: “Renegade”
4. The White Stripes- White Blood Cells
Listen: “Fell in Love with a Girl”
5. Daft Punk- Discovery
Listen: “Something About Us”
6. System of a Down- Toxicity
...
30 tags
Top 10 Albums of 2000
1. Radiohead- Kid A
Listen: “Idioteque”
2. Ryan Adams- Heartbreaker
Listen: “Come Pick Me Up”
3. OutKast- Stankonia
Listen: “B.O.B.”
4. The Avalanches- Since I Left You
Listen: “Frontier Psychiatrist”
5. Eminem- The Marshall Mathers LP
Listen: “Kill You”
6. Ghostface Killah- Supreme Clientele
Listen: “Apollo...
23 tags
Top 10 Albums of 1999
1. Tom Waits- Mule Variations
Listen: “Big in Japan”
2. Wilco- Summerteeth
Listen: “Can’t Stand It”
3. Eminem- The Slim Shady LP
Listen: “Guilty Conscience”
4. Rage Against the Machine- The Battle of Los Angeles
Listen: “Sleep Now in the Fire”
5. The White Stripes- The White Stripes
Listen: “One More Cup of Coffee”
...
30 tags
Top 10 Albums of 1998
1. Neutral Milk Hotel- In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Listen: “Two-Headed Boy”
2. AIR- Moon Safari
Listen: “Remember”
3. Black Star- Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star
Listen: “Thieves in the Night”
4. Massive Attack- Mezzanine
Listen: “Teardrop”
5. Lucinda Williams- Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
Listen: “Metal...
October 2011
11 posts
24 tags
Top 10 Albums of 1997
1. Radiohead- OK Computer
Listen: “Let Down”
2. Spiritualized- Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
Listen: “Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space”
3. Teenage Fanclub- Songs from Northern Britain
Listen: “I Don’t Want Control of You”
4. Yo La Tengo- I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One
Listen: “My Little Corner of the...
24 tags
Top 10 Albums of 1996
1. Weezer- Pinkerton
Listen: “Tired of Sex”
2. Fugees- The Score
Listen: “Ready or Not”
3. Jay-Z- Reasonable Doubt
Listen: “Dead Presidents 2”
4. Beck- Odelay
Listen: “Devil’s Haircut”
5. Belle and Sebastian- If You’re Feeling Sinister
Listen: “Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying”
6. Rage Against the...
14 tags
Kids Can Kill Too →
“Oh yes, children often commit murders, and quite clever ones too,” explains Reggie Tasker, a writer with criminal insight in The Bad Seed. In horror films, kids are often the helpless victims of an evil villain, but there are also plenty of young boys and girls thirsty for blood. Whether the scares are frighteningly realistic or wildly supernatural, young murderers in the movies challenge us...
12 tags
Robert Sheehan: No Longer an Irish “Misfit” →
With the subdued intensity of James Franco and the cocky swagger of a Euro-rock star, Robert Sheehan is bound for stardom. The young Irish lad is only 23 years old, but he has already demonstrated his tremendous range and addictive charisma.
10 tags
Unlimited Monthly Theater Passes: Good in Theory... →
Paying a subscription fee for an unlimited monthly pass to the movies sounds like a great idea at first. MoviePass promises to deliver the sort of satisfaction we had with Netflix for so many years. But quite frankly, the unlimited monthly pass just will not work.
9 tags
Nostalgia Goes Digital: Turning Back Time in the... →
Digital cinema and nostalgia go hand in hand in David Fincher films. The director has used these powerful tools to recreate the past, but nostalgia has historically refused to surrender in his work.
23 tags
Top 10 Movies of 1986
1. Blue Velvet (David Lynch)
2. Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen)
3. The Fly (David Cronenberg)
4. Laputa: Castle in the Sky (Hayao Miyazaki)
5. Down by Law (Jim Jarmusch)
6. Aliens (James Cameron)
7. Platoon (Oliver Stone)
8. The Great Mouse Detective (Ron Clements, Burny Mattinson, David Michener and John Musker)
9. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (John Hughes)
10....
13 tags
Zombies at their Best →
With the tremendous success of The Walking Dead, zombies officially sank their teeth into pop culture. Like the AMC TV series, the best zombie movies have always balanced stomach-churning gore with insightful social commentary.
14 tags
Paranoia Attack →
When Franklin Delano Roosevelt proclaimed, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” he probably didn’t realize that he’d written a potential tagline for every paranoia-driven movie to follow that speech. The fears of paranoid characters are constructed, either by themselves or others around them, but our best filmmakers allow us to see the world from these...
8 tags
Subtitles Get Scary →
Remakes and sequels dominate the American horror movie market. If not blatantly derivative of their foreign counterpart, other movies of the genre emphasize gore and cheap shock over substance. But thank god for the filmmakers outside of the U.S. who consistently deliver psychological and philosophical horror films.
22 tags
Top 10 Movies of 1957
1. Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick)
2. Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman)
3. The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman)
4. Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander MacKendrick)
5. Funny Face (Stanley Donen)
6. 12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet)
7. Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa)
8. Aparajito (Satyajit Ray)
9. Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini)
10. The Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean)
...
September 2011
6 posts
30 tags
Top 10 Albums of 1995
1. Radiohead- The Bends
Listen: “Fake Plastic Trees”
2. Pulp- Different Class
Listen: “Common People”
3. Bjork- Post
Listen: “Hyperballad”
4. PJ Harvey- To Bring You My Love
Listen: “To Bring You My Love”
5. Raekwon- Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…
Listen: “Incarcerated Scarfaces”
6. Pavement- Wowee Zowee
Listen:...
30 tags
Top 10 Albums of 1994
1. Pavement- Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Listen: “Gold Soundz”
2. The Notorious B.I.G.- Ready to Die
Listen: “Juicy”
3. Nas- Illmatic
Listen: “The World Is Yours”
4. Portishead- Dummy
Listen: “Glory Box”
5. Nirvana- MTV Unplugged in New York
Listen: “Where Did You Sleep Last Night”
6. Guided by Voices- Bee Thousand
...
28 tags
Top 10 Albums of 1993
1. Nirvana- In Utero
Listen: “Heart Shaped Box”
2. Wu-Tang Clan- Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
Listen: “C.R.E.A.M.”
3. A Tribe Called Quest- Midnight Marauders
Listen: “Award Tour”
4. Liz Phair- Exile in Guyville
Listen: “Never Said”
5. The Smashing Pumpkins- Siamese Dream
Listen: “Disarm”
6. Snoop Dogg- Doggystyle
...
24 tags
Top 10 Albums of 1992
1. Pavement- Slanted & Enchanted
Listen: “Trigger Cut/Wounded-Kite At :17”
2. Rage Against the Machine- Rage Against the Machine
Listen: “Killing In the Name”
3. Dr. Dre- The Chronic
Listen: “Fuck Wit Dre Day (And Everybody’s Celebratin’)”
4. Beastie Boys- Check Your Head
Listen: “So What’cha Want”
5. R.E.M.-...
7 tags
One Day (Lone Scherfig, 2011) →
The premise (or gimmick) is simple enough: one man, one woman, one day, 20 years. Before anybody saw it, One Day received attention as a potential Oscar contender, largely due to director Lone Scherfig and the acclaim for her 2009 film An Education. But One Day is, at best, a mediocre romance and possibly a genuine waste of life. Read further as Kayleigh and I both detail the extent of our...
23 tags
Top 10 Albums of 1991
1. My Bloody Valentine- Loveless
Listen: “When You Sleep”
2. U2- Achtung Baby
Listen: “Acrobat”
3. Teenage Fanclub- Bandwagonesque
Listen: “The Concept”
4. Nirvana- Nevermind
Listen: “In Bloom”
5. Primus- Sailing the Seas of Cheese
Listen: “Jerry Was a Race Car Driver”
6. Pixies- Trompe le Monde
Listen:...
August 2011
14 posts
24 tags
Top 10 Albums of 1990
1. Depeche Mode- Violator
Listen: “Enjoy the Silence”
2. Ice Cube- AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted
Listen: “Endangered Species (Tales from the Darkside)”
3. Neil Young- Ragged Glory
Listen: “Country Home”
4. Public Enemy- Fear of a Black Planet
Listen: “Fight the Power”
5. Pixies- Bossanova
Listen: “Velouria”
6....
30 tags
Top 10 Albums of 1989
1. Beastie Boys- Paul’s Boutique
Listen: “Shake Your Rump”
2. Pixies- Doolittle
Listen: “Monkey Gone To Heaven”
3. De La Soul- 3 Feet High and Rising
Listen: “Me Myself and I”
4. Bob Dylan- Oh Mercy
Listen: “Everything Is Broken”
5. The Stone Roses- The Stone Roses
Listen: “She Bangs The Drum”
6. Madonna- Like a...
29 tags
Top 10 Albums of 1988
1. Sonic Youth- Daydream Nation
Listen: “Teen Age Riot”
2. Public Enemy- It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Listen: “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos”
3. Pixies- Surfer Rosa
Listen: “Gigantic” [Non-Album Live Version]
4. N.W.A- Straight Outta Compton
Listen: “Fuck Tha Police”
5. Eric B. and Rakim- Follow the Leader
Listen:...
26 tags
Top 10 Albums of 1987
1. U2- The Joshua Tree
Listen: “Where the Streets Have No Name”
2. Prince- Sign ‘O’ the Times
Listen: “If I Was Your Girlfriend”
3. Eric B. & Rakim- Paid in Full
Listen: “Eric B. is President”
4. The Smiths- Strangeways, Here We Come
Listen: “Girlfriend in a Coma”
5. The Replacements- Pleased to Meet Me
Listen:...
6 tags
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Rupert Wyatt,... →
Kayleigh Roberts and I review the box office-topping prequel. It has some things going for it – eye-catching special effects and good source material, for example. But as a revolutionary summer blockbuster experience, Apes doesn’t rise to the occasion (though it seems to think it does).
24 tags
Top 10 Movies of 1992
1. Husbands and Wives (Woody Allen)
2. The Player (Robert Altman)
3. Malcolm X (Spike Lee)
4. Lessons of Darkness (Werner Herzog)
5. Bad Lieutenant (Abel Ferrara)
6. Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood)
7. Dead Alive (Peter Jackson)
8. Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino)
9. Shadows and Fog (Woody Allen)
10. Army of Darkness (Sam Raimi)
Updated: December 29, 2011
See Also: Top...
30 tags
Top 10 Albums of 1986
1. The Smiths- The Queen is Dead
Listen: “Frankly, Mr. Shankly”
2. R.E.M.- Lifes Rich Pageant
Listen: “Begin the Begin”
3. Run-D.M.C.- Raising Hell
Listen: “Walk This Way”
4. Sonic Youth- EVOL
Listen: “Shadow of a Doubt”
5. XTC- Skylarking
Listen: “Dear God”
6. Metallica- Master of Puppets
Listen: “Master of...
29 tags
Top 10 Albums of 1985
1. The Replacements- Tim
Listen: “Left of the Dial”
2. Tom Waits- Rain Dogs
Listen: “Hang Down Your Head”
3. The Jesus and Mary Chain- Psychocandy
Listen: “Just Like Honey”
4. Husker Du- New Day Rising
Listen: “Celebrated Summer”
5. Camper Van Beethoven- Telephone Free Landslide Victory
Listen: “Take the Skinheads...
30 tags
Top 10 Albums of 1984
1. The Replacements- Let It Be
Listen: “Unsatisfied”
2. Bruce Springsteen- Born in the U.S.A.
Listen: “No Surrender”
3. Minutemen- Double Nickels On the Dime
Listen: “Viet Nam”
4. Prince- Purple Rain
Listen: “Let’s Go Crazy”
5. Husker Du- Zen Arcade
Listen: “Turn on the News”
6. R.E.M.- Reckoning
Listen:...
20 tags
Rise of the Exposition: Top Five Prequels →
Just about everyone has declared 2011 to be the year of the sequel. With this weekend’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes, prequels are also joining in on the franchise fun. The James Franco-starring movie has been doing fairly well at the box office so far, a bit surprising considering that target audience members for summer blockbusters have not likely seen the originally films. Memorable ...
30 tags
Top 10 Albums of 1983
1. R.E.M.- Murmur
Listen: “Talk About the Passion”
2. Tom Waits- Swordfishtrombones
Listen: “16 Shells from a Thirty-Ought Six”
3. Violent Femmes- Violent Femmes
Listen: “Add It Up”
4. U2- War
Listen: “Sunday Bloody Sunday”
5. The Police- Synchronicity
Listen: “Wrapped Around Your Finger”
6. Minor Threat- Out of Step
...
25 tags
Top 10 Albums of 1982
1. Bruce Springsteen- Nebraska
Listen: “Highway Patrolman” [Non-Album Live Version]
2. Richard & Linda Thompson- Shoot Out the Lights
Listen: “Walking On a Wire”
3. Michael Jackson- Thriller
Listen: “Beat It”
4. Roxy Music- Avalon
Listen: “More Than This”
5. Mission of Burma- Vs.
Listen: “That’s How I Escaped My...
4 tags
The Fly (David Cronenberg, 1986) →
On the surface, the movie combines science fiction paranoia, gross-out body horror and even an unexpected romance for a genre-bending experience. But the film exploits its most extreme elements for a result that is both a profoundly moving tragedy and an incredibly thought-provoking study of the flesh.
8 tags
Optometry and dentistry: Thoughts on a Steve... →
The Aero Theatre in Santa Monica recently had a double feature celebrating the work of legendary comic Steve Martin. Relentlessly idiotic, The Jerk follows the rise and fall of a naïve fool who walks the earth after discovering he was adopted by his black parents. And in Little Shop of Horrors, Martin guest stars as an Elvis-inspired sadist of a dentist. Kayleigh and I both attended the double...
July 2011
23 posts
24 tags
Top 10 Albums of 1981
1. Elvis Costello- Trust
Listen: “Clubland”
2. Brian Eno & David Byrne- My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
Listen: “America is Waiting”
3. The Replacements- Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash
Listen: “I Hate Music”
4. X- Wild Gift
Listen: “Adult Books”
5. Black Flag- Damaged
Listen: “Rise Above” [Non-Album Live...
25 tags
Top 10 Movies of 1953
1. Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu)
2. Pickup on South Street (Samuel Fuller)
3. The Earrings of Madame De… (Max Ophuls)
4. Ugetsu (Kenji Mizoguchi)
5. M. Hulot’s Holiday (Jacques Tati)
6. Roman Holiday (William Wyler)
7. Stalag 17 (Billy Wilder)
8. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawks)
9. Peter Pan (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson and Hamilton Luske)
10. I...
24 tags
Top 10 Movies of 1962
1. An Autumn Afternoon (Yasujiro Ozu)
2. The Exterminating Angel (Luis Bunuel)
3. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford)
4. Vivre sa vie (Jean-Luc Godard)
5. Sanjuro (Akira Kurosawa)
6. Jules and Jim (Francois Truffaut)
7. L’Eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni)
8. Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean)
9. The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer)
10. To Kill a...