Amos Moses - Jerry Reed

The Bone Temple does what Disclosure Day couldn't

 "Listen."

  The Fabelmans gave us an explanation, of sorts, as to why Spielberg is such a sentimentalist. He really, really can't help himself. So watching Disclosure Day, his first movie since Fabelmans, it felt like a social blank check in the economy of tact. Since we understand him now...we should just let him get away with it. Right? I mean, he has an excuse; No judgment, cash the check.

  He really outdoes himself here.

  This is gluttony akin to a Las Vegas bender. The ending is so naïve and out of touch that it breaks through to outright delusion. And of course I don't bristle at these ideas but the execution of them; Empathy Good. I'm a fan. Communication also great. But this is so focused on being shameless Wholesome-core Amblin Entertainment that even the villains feel ineffectual. Every time Colin Firth was on screen I was either smiling or chuckling. And not because he's delightfully wicked or pants-pissingly evil, but because he's just...limp. It's an almost comedically pathetic performance. So it makes the action feel benign and inert.

  The only time I really felt anything was when Margaret has a panic attack on the train and Daniel helps her come down from it by placing her hand on piano strings. It's moving because, for the first time in this movie, Spielberg is actually confronting something head-on. But even that's undercut by the story making their trauma...useful? Thank God they have PTSD from being abducted as children, it's so beautiful now that it serves a purpose.

  He doesn't even confront the parallels therein: this information about aliens has been hidden from us, we've been deceived, they've lied to us for 80 years. Yet the aliens do the same thing: use deception to experiment on beings unknown, particularly children who grow up scarred from the experience. But don't think about that! The aliens mean well and they're not scary. Their experiments grant magical powers that, once you work through your trauma, you can tap into.

  All of this would be much more interesting if it was given complexity and nuance, if it was allowed the freedom to be jagged and messy. The idea of these videos making people stop in their tracks and a news anchor simply telling people to 'Listen' to one another is pure fucking lip service, a shortcut. I can clearly see the vision of a more challenging movie that wasn't so antiseptic but Spielberg commits the very sin his villains do: he hides the truth.

  The Bone Temple actually does all of this right, almost word-for-word.

  In 28 Years Later we're given an 'Other' that's not handled with kid gloves. The infected, particularly the Alphas, are fucking scary, but they're never dehumanized. In fact, Samson's arc in Bone Temple is about him getting back to his normal self and the grander implications therein. So we sympathize with the infected because we're shown that they're not zombies or monsters but just sick people. It's about the importance of grace, empathy, and patience. Though we're also never deluded into thinking they're not dangerous in this state.

  Garland gives the movie a hopeful ending but one that comes with a healthy dose of skepticism. Despite Spike and Kellie being complete strangers to Jim and his daughter, watching them from on high through binoculars, they still decide to help them. The last exchange of the movie being 

"Do we help them?" 

"[...] Of course we do."

  Jim has a pregnant pause but he nonetheless decides to do the selfless thing despite his limited perspective. This isn't just a set-up for a third movie or a fan-service cameo but it ties up the thematic follow-through of the entire movie.

  In conversation with the bit in 28YL where Jamie tells Spike about how scared he was of Kelson as he waved him over, there are so many instances in this movie of people watching others from afar and making up their minds about them:

  • Kellie sees Kelson and Samson from a hilltop and thinks they're the Devil and his demon in a Castle Of Bones, even convincing Jimmy and the gang of this

  • The man in the barn, forced to take part in a duel with a Jimmy, picks Jemima because he perceives her as the weakest

  • Conversely, Kelson recognizes Spike through his mask because he has clear vision

  • The infected turn on Samson as he changes back just as the Jimmies turn on Jimmy as they're shown his true self

  • Jimmy's entire perspective is literally turned upside-down and he's killed by a horned red-skinned Samson as he sees him in a hallucinogenic haze

• Most interestingly, we're finally given the infected POV which reveals that they see non-infected as snarling monsters that need to be killed. This isn't dissimilar from how people like Jamie, Erik, and the Jimmies see the infected as monsters that need to be killed

  Jimmy had mentioned early on how each of the Teletubbies "have televisions in their tums" and that they'll "watch each other's televisions ad infinitum." This recalls the opening of the original 28 Days Later where the virus originated because of a bite by a chimp being forced to watch televisions showing barbarity; infected and non-infected alike, both sides killing each other ad infinitum because of what they perceive.

  " 'cause in my mind it's always there, the evil face that twists my mind and brings me to despair."

  When Kellie, finally disillusioned, asks Kelson if he's Old Nick, he says "No. Nothing is. No one is. It's just us." It encapsulates everything that Disclosure Day wanted to achieve but fell short of.

  Kelson puts on the Iron Maiden show for Jimmy out of fear, of course, but Jimmy only opened up to him because Kelson was patient and empathetic enough to listen. Jimmy even says "I like talking to you" because, for the first time, he's actually feeling heard. The same applies to Kelson accidentally finding a cure: he decided to sedate Samson instead of simply killing him. Change is brought about because of grace and empathy.

  Peace and respite are possible.

Wake Rock - Wrong Organ

 

Mixtape: The Wild West

See them tumbling down. Pledging their love to the ground. 

Coming July 2026

In the meanwhile, some tunes for the dusty trail. 

Now you may get the sheriff. 

PLAYLIST

The Ecstasy of Gold by Ennio Morricone from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

C'era Una Volta Il West by Ennio Morricone

Osage Oil Boom by Robbie Robertson from Killers of the Flower Moon

My Rifle, My Pony and Me by Dean Martin from Rio Bravo

Lonesome Town by Ricky Nelson from Rio Bravo

I Got A Name by Jim Croce from Django Unchained

The Stranger Song by Leonard Cohen from McCabe and Mrs. Miller 

Knockin' On Heaven's Door by Bob Dylan from Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid

Johnny Guitar by Peggy Lee

The Big Country Theme

Blue Shadows on the Trail by Roy Rogers

Roy Rogers by Elton John

Wild West Hero by ELO

Ghost Rider in the Sky by Johnny Cash

El Paso by Marty Robbins

The Ballad of Jeremiah Johnson

The Big Gundown (The Haunting) by Ennio Morricone

Soundtrack of The Grand Duel by Luis Baclov

Navajo Joe by Ennio Morricone

L'Arena (The Mercenary) by Ennio Morricone

Tumbling Tumbleweeds by Sons of the Pioneers

Cool Water by Sons of the Pioneers

When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings by Willie Watson and Tim Blake Nelson

Cowboy Song by Thin Lizzy

There Won't Be Many Coming Home by Roy Orbison from The Hateful Eight

Hog of the Forsaken by Michael Hurley from Deadwood

A Prayer by Madeline Peyroux from Deadwood

Waltzing Matilda from Deadwood: The Movie

Claudia's Theme from Unforgiven

Ride to Death by Carter Burwell from True Grit

Leaning On the Everlasting Arms from True Grit

Song for Bob by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis from The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Wazhazhe (A Song For My People) from Killers of the Flower Moon

Sundown At Between the Reels

Big things are coming, I assure you. Just because I'm not posting as much as I used to doesn't mean I'm not working on anything. 

As a Constant Reader, the Dark Tower was hanging over my head since I embarked on reading Stephen King. I'd kept it at bay because it is fantasy. And the fantasy genre is anathema to me. Especially when it comes to books. I don't have time to take on an 8 to 10 book series when my to-be-read- pile is hundreds of books long. I prioritize the classics. Carrie, Salem's Lot, The Shining, The Stand, Different Seasons, Pet Semetary, It, Misery and some of his later works like 11/22/63 and Revival. 

The Dark Tower is such an overwhelming undertaking because not only is it an 8 book series but several books outside of it serve as important books to have the 'full experience' of reading the series. The Stand, Black House, Salem's Lot, Insomnia and Eyes of the Dragon are just some of the required readings you have to do in order for full immersion. I don't want to half ass this journey, so I am prepared to take on the books I have already read as well as ones I have avoided (I'm looking at you Insomnia). 

Music has become a major blind spot for me. Maybe it's because my time has been occupied by other art. A couple of artists have come onto my radar like Yo La Tengo, thanks to their score to Kelly Reichardt's Old Joy. Yet the longing in my pop art heart has yearned for some catchy tuneage. I've listened to Olivia Rodrigo's Guts album front to back for the past couple years and count myself as a fan. Her new album, you seem so sad for a girl so in love, is to be released June 12 and I for one am hyping it as an event. You remember those, right? 

Sure we have movies and shows we associate with summer. But what about characters? Tom Ripley fits that description. The Talented Mr. Ripley was my first exposure to the character, and I quickly succumbed to his devilish charms. Patricia Highsmith created this murderous sociopath in 1951. Highsmith's magic trick was creating a villain who not only gets away with murder but becomes the person they murdered. He is a terrible person but Highsmith writes him in a way where you want him to get away with it. 

Watching Tom Ripley stroll through Italian villas and beaches wishing for the life of playboy Dickie Greenleaf. Like some dark, twisted flipside of a coin to the suave James Bond, I've seen this story and character play out through the eyes of Alain Delon in Purple Noon, Dennis Hopper in The American Friend, Matt Damon in The Talented Mr. Ripley, John Malkovich in Ripley's Game and, in the latest incarnation, Andrew Scott. 

Steve Zaillian is responsible for the latest version of the story. Having been obsessed with The Night Of and a fan of Searching For Bobby Fischer and A Civil Action, I'm kind of disappointed I haven't already watched this. 

FILLING IN THE GAPS

Steven Spielberg has a new film coming out. A science fiction one at that- Disclosure Day. 

Three films of his have eluded me: The Adventures of Tintin, The BFG, and Ready Player One. In the same way Zemeckis' animated films have eluded me, they don't nearly interest me as much as those director's live action features. I have nothing against animation. I love Pixar and several other non- Pixar works. It's just that when ranking their filmographies in terms of what interests me, the animated works are toward the bottom. 

There are around two dozen Hitchcock flicks I haven't seen. Movies that are more him mastering his craft and ironing out all the kinks. The movies he made before he was known as the 'Master of Suspense'.

There are also works from Mike Nichols, Coppola, Ford, Friedkin, Wilder, Leigh, Tony Scott and many others I plan on seeking out. 

Wither - Fat Dog

  

  

  

  

  

Cover to Cover: My favorite cover songs

What makes a good cover? You might as well be asking, what makes a good remake. It has to take the source material and render it near unrecognizable. A new coat of flesh on the skeleton. Some of these songs I find the original to be as good as the cover, and some I find the cover to be superior. 

Bridge Over Troubled Water by Roberta Flack (Simon and Garfunkel)

The whole album has a Sunday driving feel to it. This song in particular has gospel music shining through like light through a stained-glass window. When I first heard the Roberta Flack cover, it wasn't a single window, it was an entire cathedral of them. What Simon and Garfunkel helped start, Flack embellishes with her backing choir, piano melody and soulful voice to bring it all on home. 

Avalanche by Aimee Mann (Leonard Cohen)

The theme song to a riveting true crime doc I'll Be Gone In the Dark. The opening chords remind me of spiders crawling across a wooden floor in the dark. Leonard's song is a goosebump raiser and this cover is somehow more eerie. 

One by Aimee Mann (Three Dog Night)

Another beautifully rendered cover from Aimee. This time for the film Magnolia. This version feels more wistful than the original. Inseparable from the feeling the introduction of our cast of characters gives you. 

(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction by Devo (The Rolling Stones)

A complete deconstruction of the Stones song and building back up with Devo DNA. This is what a cover should sound like. Devo manages to change the aesthetic sensibilities of a 60's pop song into those of the 80's. 

Across the Universe by Fiona Apple (The Beatles)

One of the very first Beatles songs I was addicted to. Fiona's smile as the chaos abounds around her as if to say "If we can achieve inner peace, nothing around us can hurt us". 

Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon by Urge Overkill (Neil Diamond)

To be played right after you win a trophy for dancing at Jack Rabbit Slims and before you find a baggie of cocaine in your dance partner's coat pocket. Like many on this list, I first heard it in a movie. Urge Overkill updates the Diamond classic with 90's attitude. 

People Are Strange by Echo and the Bunnymen (The Doors)

I have to thank The Lost Boys for introducing me to this cover. I can't listen to it without thinking of amusement parks. And mohawks. 

White Wedding by Roland S. Howard (Billy Idol) 

Producer: Hey could you make this sound like Billy Idol's song was found in an alley next to a dumpster? You know, that bedraggled, weary look after you were kicked out of a bar for starting a fight. 

Roland: I'm your guy! 

Immigrant Song by Karen O, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (Led Zeppelin)

First teased with one of the sharply edited trailers, Reznor gives the Zeppelin song an industrial makeover. Complete with Karen O's Plant-like vocals. When we finally heard the whole thing, it played alongside what I consider Fincher's best opening credit sequence since Se7en. 

Where Did You Sleep At Night by Nirvana (Leadbelly)

Of the 90's grunge bands, Alice In Chains was the one that always had my heart. Maybe because they weren't entirely grunge. But what is? Nirvana was a band with a fresh sound for teenagers waiting for a new idol after they became sick of their parent's big hair and jean jacket wardrobe. Record labels took advantage. I don't count myself as a fan insomuch as throwing them on regularly. But if I'm going be honest, the vocal performance here from Kurt is the best he's done and proof he was the real deal. 

Dear Prudence by Siouxsie and the Banshees (The Beatles)

My favorite cover of a Beatles song and I love the original dearly. While it doesn't quite surpass the original, Siouxsie gives it a new life entrenched in 80's goth pop. 

Sinnerman by 16 Horsepower (Nina Simone)

16 Horsepower are one of those hidden treasures of the 90s. A band who feel like they crawled out of a Flannery O'Conner or Harry Crews Southern Gothic novel.