Aaron's 25 Of 2020

Mouth Dreams

   When Soderbergh won the Oscar for Traffic  (in whatever category he won; I don't remember because it's not important) he said "this world would be unlivable without art" and that's been especially true in 2020. Neil Cicierega reminded me of that with this surprise follow-up to his Mouth Trilogy. It makes the world around me less miserable but it's not an important or profound album - quite the opposite. It's just extremely well-made absurdist mash-ups that split the atom of pop-culture into a glorious explosion.

Solar Opposites

  At some point I felt like I'd outgrown Rick & Morty, or it just fell off for me and I've been neglectful (most likely the case). Solar Opposites is nowhere near as 'smart' as R&M but that's kinda refreshing; it's just a harsh, raunchy, screamingly funny scifi comedy that I can't get enough of. Hitting play on the next episode as I type this.

Conner O'Malley's
Hudson Yards Video Game

    I've always loved Conner O'Malley for keeping YouTube wild, weird, wet, and disturbing. He's like a combination of Eric Andre, Tom Green, Andy Kaufman, as well as his own unique brand of abrasive satirical comedy (unfortunately The Eric Andre Show took a giant shit this year [and not in that good way]). More than once Conner's videos have made me laugh so hard I've nearly thrown up and I think it might happen someday, too. It was hard to pick just one, because he had great content this year, but this video is probably the best on his channel. It's one of the most bizarre, striking things he's ever done. It's not his funniest but it's the most inspired and conceptual. It's also fucking brilliant.
PRESS 'B' TO CONTINUE HEARING ABOUT THE OFFICE.

The Kendrick Lamar Leaks

  I should have probably avoided these--I usually avoid these--but we haven't gotten new Kendrick music in almost 4 years and curiosity got the best of me (not to mention my suspicion that K-Dot himself leaked them, but this isn't about my theorizing). As an unofficial EP it feels like a sequel to Untitled Unmastered. As usual, Kung-Fu Kenny is bringing the most forward-thinking lyricism and song concepts to the entire rap game; one song in particular, The Prayer, is an epic treatise on cancel culture and art vs. artist. More than just that, the song is from the perspective of Art itself; fucking mindblowing. And if these are just a few rough cuts?? SHIIIT, my excitement has no depth for the full album.

Ty Segall's Cover Of
JUMP INTO THE FIRE

  As a covers album this is pretty cool but Fire specifically is so goddamn thrilling. The original is obviously great but this electric take sounds like a gigantic oil tanker speeding toward an inferno during a tornado. It's BIGGER, NOISIER, AND MORE ABRASIVE. Listen to it, run 200 laps around the block, and then die. You'll come back to listen to it again.
And again [...]

EUPHORIA
Special Episode, Part 1: Rue
Trouble Don't Last Always

I didn't want to do any kinda ranking list or countdown so here's my favorite thing of 2020 - movies, music, and TV combined. It's easily my favorite thing, too, because it's all my favorite shit; an hour long dialog-driven bottle episode where two people clash philosophical in a diner and the dialogue is so excitingly, enviably, annoyingly good. It contains some of the sagest, challenging wisdom about cancel culture, moralism, addiction, the utility of religion, the bullshit of corporate allyship, and dating. It feels less like Sam Levinson, a former addict, trying to be profound and more like wanting to get something off of his chest and his catharsis is our enlightenment.
Nothing else from 2020 can top this.

Better Call Saul
Season 5

   Until Euphoria dethroned it, this was my favorite thing of the year.
Episode after episode this season was on a glorious winning streak and a good number of them were some of the best media in the entire Breaking Bad canon. It's solidified as one of the most reliable shows on TV but, specifically: the MVP this season is Rhea Seehorn. Praises need to be sung in the highest register for her; she's the best part of the show, and that's saying a lot because it's a fucking GREAT show. She should be a household name like Bryan Cranston because the work she puts in is some of the best acting I've ever seen. If you haven't started Saul yet: do it today, if only for Kim Wexler and the outstanding actor who brings her to full fucking life.

The Joe Rogan Experience
#1419: Daryl Davis

  I'm a part-time listener of JRE, it usually depends on the guest, but this interview with Daryl Davis is his absolute best. It's 2 hours, 40 minutes long and not for a second is it ever even close to boring. There are plenty of Davis interviews on the internet but Rogan's interview, specifically, is great because it's such a relaxed-fit atmosphere. Listening to him talk about the minutiae of the KKK and how he convinced over 200 Klansmen, including a Grand Dragon, to hang up their robes, is truly compelling stuff. Davis has lived a fascinating, storied life and he knows exactly how to tell those stories because he's a loquacious dude and that gift for gabbing is exactly how he does what he does. One might feel like Davis' efforts are futile, that he's not dismantling racism as the system of oppression that it is - doing it one person at a time. But he not only risked his life to do it, he's devoted his life to it - that's truly radical.

The Dixie Chicks
Gaslighter

  I never got around to listening to the full album but this comeback single from The Chicks is undeniably one of the catchiest songs of the year. Despite what some old heads claim, Country music is on the upswing.

The Vast Of Night

  My favorite movie of 2020:
 Super 8 and the Twilight Zone reboot completely failed to be everything this is, which is a breathless, endearing 89 minutes of oh-so-boss moviemaking about two kids, one a DJ and the other a switchboard operator, investigating an alien transmission and strange phonecalls. Shot like a lost Spielberg movie it's all engrossing dialogue that wanes from funny to creepy to cathartic. For all I care, Elliott and Fay could bicker for 8 more hours and I'd watch it - their chemistry is off the charts. Don't look up the trailer or anything else about it, just let it woo you like it did me.

Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made

  I already wrote about this but not enough can be said about it. It's easily the best kids' movie this year (and I sat through a lot of them since I was quarantined with my family and Disney+) but it's also my favorite comedy of the year and I don't say that lightly. If you like your humor dry and silly, this is for you.

Danny Elfman's
HAPPY

    What starts like a typical Burton collaboration gradually deforms into a glitchy, thrashy, creepy pandemic anthem; a fun and freaky alternative to Gal Gadot's even creepier Imagine singalong (haha...YIKES).

Kevin James' YouTube Channel

  No matter how bad the Blart movies are, or Here Comes The Boom, The Zookeeper, Grown-Ups, Grown-Ups 2, etc. I've always liked Kevin James (I'll admit I find him charming as Blart). I grew up on, and grew out of, The King Of Queens but he's still had something there that's never quite been tapped into. Apparentlyy in short bursts, with great production, he can be really funny. Sometimes the editing is downright seamless and sometimes, not every time, when it's not, it's funny because he's just going with it completely straight faced. There's even a P.T. Anderson cameo in one of them!

Sound Of Metal

A stellar performance from Riz Ahmed, an even better supporting performance from left-field actor Paul Raci, immersive sound design, and potent drama makes this one of the best movies in a year without many best movies (it'd stand out in a good year). Watch it with subtitles and headphones on if you can; it's a movie about going deaf so the sound is the most important part of the experience, especially when it's absent.

i'm thinking of ending things

  I already wrote a gigantic fucking post about this and I'm still exhausted from it so I'll keep it brief:
Good movie, thinky movie, horror movie, funny movie, sharp edits, Zemeckis, performance from redhead good, brain hurty.

Dave Chappelle's SNL Monologue

Four years after his triumphant return to the spotlight, Chappelle comes back to deliver 16 more minutes of bold, insightful, and funny wisdom that breaks up the monotony of SNL. He touches on all the typical topicals of 2020 but in a way that only he could, bypassing the censors and taking full advantage of his clout blanche: not only does he go on for 16 minutes, and it's some of his best material, but he doesn't even bother to cap it off with the customary "we've got a good show for you tonight..." He ends it like a stand-up set. I needed it and I'm thankful for it.

MOONBASE 8

   A workplace comedy lying somewhere between the purely wholesome and surreal comedy of Joe Pera Talks With You and the boneheaded silliness of '90s sitcoms, MOONBASE 8 is a great antidote to the year of the virus. It's dumb, fun, and surprisingly sincere. And with a cast this good, who even needs to praise them? They're them and if you love 'em, then...

The Devil All The Time

  With time this might climb as my favorite of this year, I love it for a lotta reasons, but in a year that's as bleak as this one was, I can't quite stomach it as much as the goosebump-inducing whimsy of Vast Of Night nor the innocent comedy of Timmy Failure. Devil isn't misery porn, though, it's quite funny and hopeful, but like a Jennifer Kent movie: you suffer as you enjoy it. In its defense, I haven't seen it since it came out but from what I remember it's an ambitious southern gothic ensemble piece. At the center of the mosaic is a a coming-of-age story that gives Tom Holland a chance to reveal his range and for Robert Pattinson to give, in my opinion, his most complex performance to date. And if you're a slut for a good narrator, Donald Ray Pollock brings so much personality and insight to your ears.

The Safdie Brothers & Ari Aster On Scorsese

  If you're down to listen to three accomplished, highly talented, intimidating filmmakers turn into pretentious, lame, goofy nerds gushing about Scorsese, then this video is Heaven. Josh Safdie won't shut up, Benny keeps hitting his mic and upsetting the sound girl, Ari is always inserting himself to be heard, it's all shouting -I love every single fucking second of it. It's so relatable because it feels like every conversation I've had with fellow media hounds, especially a bit where one of the Safdies talk about watching The Big Shave on YouTube and then having to search for it every time it was taken down. If that's not relatable on this site then I don't know what is.

The Trailer for THE BATMAN
   This had to be on here. I thought maybe it didn't really 'fit' the theme but whatever. I spent enough time watching it (over and over and over) that it's probably added up to a movie's length. It's a perfect trailer because I know nothing about it yet everything about it grabs my curiosity by the throat. It feels like Matt Reeves gets Gotham. It finally looks like I've always pictured it when reading the comics and watching The Animated Series: like a gothic noir. The fact that he says "I'm vengeance," not "I'm Batman," is the most comics-accurate thing I've seen in any of the movies. What makes this trailer ecen more special is it came out the night of my birthday and it felt like a beautiful gift-wrapped tease. In a year where every fucking movie was put on hold for another year, this trailer dropped and then we were told it's delayed for TWO years. It's exciting but it's also fucking maddening, in the best way possible, because it looks fucking good but also like it could be the definitive Batman movie made by a truly passionate fan. I believe in Matt Reeves.

The Outsider

  This joins The Shining (1980) and Carrie (1976) as one of my favorite Stephen King adaptations ever. It's what It Chapter 2 failed to be: a mature, character-driven story about an ancient interdimensional monster, but with a procedural twist to ground it. True Detective season 1 danced on the edge of the metaphysical, to great end, but The Outsider heaves into the abyss - think HBO's answer to The X-Files.

DEVS

Someone told Alex Garland that he couldn't write sci-fi, so he wrote Sunshine to spite them and continued by adapting Never Let Me Go, Annihilation, and writing both Ex Machina and DEVS. Always indulge in rubbing someone's nose in your talent if they don't believe in you because DEVS is Garland's successor to Twin Peaks: The Return. There have been plenty of those who've been influenced by it, just like Peaks' original run, but DEVS is the first one to truly capture the spirit of it without being outright derivative. This isn't Garland doing David Lynch but him artfully tearing down Silicon Valley's hipster facade for 8 hours. He plays with structure, pacing, and subverts expectations in wildly unexpected ways. For example, toward the end of the season, he thrusts us into a great episode that halts plot momentum for a game of frisbee while everyone discusses matters of life and death... and relationships. It's funny, tense, and all-around fantastic. DEVS might have a few problems with its writing on a small scale but its large scale ideas are so heady, ingenious, and existentially haunting. Saul might be the best TV I saw last year but DEVS was the most ambitious (with some truly inspired casting of Nick Offerman).

Joe Pera Talks With You
Season 2

  The most wholesome, gentle, folksy ASMR therapy that [adult swim] could ever produce. It's like Twin Peaks if there was no Black Lodge, Roadhouse, or One-Eyed Jack's but, instead, Andy and Lucy breaking the fourth wall to give us innocent musings on the mundane. I wouldn't call it 'pure,' though, there's a great streak of odd, surreal humor throughout, especially episodes written by Conner O'Malley. The reason season 2 is so significant is because it has more of an ongoing frame narrative as well as a better sense of everyone else around Joe, like his girlfriend Sarah, his best friend Gene, and Gene's wife Lulu. I don't just see it as a calming ASMR novelty show anymore, I'm invested.

The Gretel & Hansel Score

  I thought I loved this movie but on rewatch it's mostly just a good mood piece with great photography. It's not bad but Oz Perkins is definitely punching under his weight. Honestly, it should have been a miniseries because it feels, in a bad way, like a pilot episode with its brief but intriguing world-building and scant character development. That said, this score is fucking incredible. Instead of the typical string sections and woodwinds, it's a soundscape of synth and electric guitar that I've been addicted to since February. It's like Tangerine Dream's score for Legend but less soapy and crystalline, more nocturnal and grand.

clipping
Chapter 319

  I barely kept up with music this year but this is the one that stuck with me the most; featuring samples from George Floyd himself and sounding like that cover art looks, this is the protest anthem of the summer of protests. Catchy, topical, harsh, thoughtful, and unforgettable.

Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made: Review

  Quarantine has been a time of me catching up on stuff I've missed, which means chipping away at my mountainous Procrastination List of stuff I said I'd 'get around to' and never did (Euphoria, Sharp Objects, The Knick) as well as stuff I'd been carrying curiosity for (Lodge 49). Somewhere along the way I quit keeping up with new movies. Most of what I was anticipating got wrapped up like leftovers for 2021 (Judas And The Black Messiah, Halloween Kills, The Green Knight and Deep Water, to name a few). I haven't felt like watching the big 'event movies' like TENET, Wonder Woman 1984, etc. and the movies I did manage to watch, like Soul, Mank, and I'm Your Woman, pretty much sucked (I'm Your Woman is just plain boring and Mank was actively annoying [more about Soul later]). I tried watching She Dies Tomorrow as well as An American Pickle and I just...didn't...care. I'm sure they're fine, from what I saw, and plan to get back to them, but I just kinda lost the joy that I got from movies, as dramatic as that sounds.

...until I saw Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made.

 
  Throughout December I was on a steady diet of whatever my Niece picked on Disney+ and every movie she watched, save for classic Pixar or Holes, has been sedating. Like, Noelle and Godmothered are both unfunny Elf rip-offs and Magic Camp is a watered-down School Of Rock, then there's the truly benign shit I don't even remember. But Timmy Failure, which I picked with complete stoicism after my Niece said she couldn't find anything, ended up blowing me away. And as much as that sounds like a dehydrated man being thankful for whatever fluid he can find in the desert, even if it's piss, I watched it a second time to make absolutely sure I wasn't just bored. Thankfully, it held up.

 

  This is the rare kids movie, especially with Disney, that isn't a cloyingly saccharine schmaltz-fest. I know I already made the 'desert' analogy and this kinda cancels it out, but lemme have it: it's such a refreshingly dry kids movie. In the spirit of Napoleon Dynamite it's very matter-of-fact and wry, but it has a Calvin & Hobbes cuteness to it, too. The kid (Mr. Failure) thinks he's a detective and it echoes Hawk Jones at times without being cheaply made and kinda creepy. His first 'case' is an investigation of a missing backpack, then the possible 'homicide' of a hamster, and collecting intel on a student that might be a Russian spy (they're 10).

  Tom McCarthy (who also directed Spotlight) is why it works as well as it does with his small world world-building of Portland, Oregon, as the base of Gumshoe Timmy's junior noir. Rife with tattoos, hair dye, piercings, and kitschy hipster restaurants, the citizens and artwork of Portland bring a truly unique tableau for a Disney production without feeling like gentrification. This includes Timmy's Mom, Patty Failure. Timmy's relationship with her is so genuine and there's a constant reminder that his fantasies are downright harmful and inconsiderate, especially toward her, who's struggling with letting him have the comfort of imagination without it turning into consequence-free delusion. When the drama hits, particularly between them, it ACTUALLY hits, in a way I wasn't sure was even allowed in a Disney movie. Of course it's rated PG so it's not, like, unflinching melodrama, but it does exactly what it needs to do (sometimes in subtle ways, which is also few-and-far-between in these types of movies). Their rapport is so natural without it ever hitting you over the head. McCarthy is great at handling the humor, too; the frequent cutaways, including a hilariously DUMB fencing joke, hit their mark every time. Even Timmy's one-liners had me rolling, both times I watched it, like when his friend comments on how nice the houses are in the neighborhood they're 'surveilling,' Timmy responds "crime pays" without a smirk. He's blunt and super self-serious, even when he's constantly living up to his namesake.

  I think I love it so much, beyond every bit of praise I just croaked out about it, because it's not condescending in any way. Most movies tend to over-explain themselves, ESPECIALLY kids movies. I get that kids aren't exactly receptive to subtlety but they're not entirely blithe either. Timmy Failure trusts its main audience and that kind of maturity toward immaturity is in short supply.

  This movie deserves your attention and I know that's a weird thing to say about something under the colossal Disney label but it should have been saved for a theatrical release in 2021. Buried by the useless pageantry for shit like Artemis Fowl and Mulan, Timmy Failure is like Disney+'s own version of an 'indie,' dumped on streaming with no fanfare - much like A24 did to their own neo noir, Under The Silver Lake, on Amazon Prime. That's two detective yarns being swept under the rug (or lake).

  There's a conspiracy here. I mean, after all: what is Disney hiding...? Surely something evil...

  Rest assured, Timmy is on the case.

20 things from 2020

I couldn't make a top 10 films, a top 10 books, or a top 10 music. Not because there was too much but because there was too little. Of these twenty items, the first three were the beating heart of the year for me. 

1. Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor

The elemental sound and fury of 2666 and A Brief History of Seven Killings run through this story about The Witch. Her corpse is found by children playing in the irrigation canals in a small town in Mexico. As the novel unfolds, each chapter is told from a different perspective in prose that harks back to Thomas Bernhard's endless paragraphs. Melchor refuses to look away at the pain inflicted upon women, nor does she indulge in fantasy or levity. Wherever you are afraid to go, Melchor goes. As readable as King and as smart as Bolano. 

Interview with Melchor on what inspired Hurricane Season: https://www.dw.com/en/nightmarish-realism-fernanda-melchor-on-the-haunting-voices-of-hurricane-season/a-49252372

2. Perry Mason

We haven't got a proper LA noir fix since the double barrel blast of scandal and betrayal that was LA Confidential. This shot of hard whiskey is followed by a chaser of dark humor.

3. Euphoria Chrismas Special: Rue

Comparisons to Magnolia when Season 1 debuted were fully warranted. The show wore it's heart on its sleeve. The most logical step from that was to see it all stripped down to just two people talking. It's Christmas Eve. We're in a cafe at night. And Rue and her sponsor Ali throw it out all on the table. 

Revolutions are no longer radical.

4. The Devil All the Time

Check another one off for "I can't believe they adapted something this dark". Pollock's world revolves around the backwoods of Ohio in a place called Knockemstiff. As much as  I love the movie, the writer is the true star here, even offering up his services as narrator. 

5. Better Call Saul Season 5

Bagman is the highlight here in a season that continues consistent, quality writing. 

6. I Know This Much Is True (HBO Miniseries)

Derek Cianfrance's obsession is family. The 8 episode miniseries allows him to fully explore the obsession with one of Ruffalo's career performances. 

7. Sound of Metal

A journey of self-destruction and self-acceptance that resonates long after the final frame. Immaculate sound design. 

8. Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets

Loose, free form documentary that zeroes in on a particular place and a particular time. In this case, 20's, a bar located in Canada. It's the eve of the 2016 presidential election and the last day the bar is open before closing shop. The human experiment is alive and well. At least until the lights go out.

9. i'm thinking of ending things

I don't care about your interpretations. Just let me enjoy the thing. 

10. David Byrne's American Utopia concert film/Alex Winter's Zappa doc/The Beastie Boys Story

This year was generous to music docs and the concert film. American Utopia showed Lee stepping up to the plate in making a spiritual Stop Making Sense follow up. Winter's Zappa should be considered the primer for people just starting out with the musician. Spike Jonze's Beastie Boys Story captures an aura you can slip into as the survining members of the band tell their story. 

11. Devs (Hulu Miniseries)

Garland has had a firm grip on cerebral science fiction since Ex Machina. Television once again expands a director's playground to tell more ambitious stories. 

12. The Vast of Night

Using the framing device of a lost Twilight Zone episode, Vast of Night has a campfire tale vibe that I gelled with immediately. 

13. HAIM- Woman In Music Part III

The soundtrack of the summer. 

14. The Outsider (HBO Miniseries) 

The series never reaches the heights of the first two episodes, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't entertained by it all the way until the end. 

15. Time

A compression of years of a life into 81 minutes. An impressive feat of editing.

16. The Lolita Podcast

Jamie Loftus digs into Vladimir Nabokov's 1955 classic. Breaking it down and looking at it from every angle: the Kubrick adaptation, the musical (yes, a musical), how victims of child abuse respond to it, etc. The biggest triumph in the podcast is Jamie's articulation of how the culture has taken the book, stripped it of its true horrifying nature, and peddled it as entertainment via multiple mediums of media. She gets down to why the culture at large knows Dolores Hayes not by her name but by Lolita, the name given to her by Humbert Humbert. 

17. The Hole by Hiroko Oyamada

Lewis Carroll by way of David Lynch. An immersive story told in a highly mercurial manner with a dreadful cumulative effect. 

18. Bacurau

The less you know going into this film, the better. 

19. Charlie XCX- how i'm feeling now

20. Scream, Queen! My Nightmare On Elm Street

Been waiting for this doc for some time. Happy to say the wait was worth it. Mark Patton and Elm Street 2 is finally receiving its due. 

2020 Discoveries

2020 started off with me finding a haven of cult cinema in one of the last video stores in Chicago: Odd Obsession Movies. Every trip I would bring back four movies and everytime there would be at least one or two gems in the pile. 

Then the unthinkable happened: COVID-19. On April 28, Odd Obsession announced it would be closing its doors. Small businesses have been devastated by the coronavirus, but this hurt on a personal level. A video store I had just come to love had to close. Streaming sites took out Blockbuster and Hollywood but those video stores didn't really carve out any niche in their communities. You're not gonna find Combat Shock at a Blockbuster. The one caveat they added to their announcement was that they were to go into hibernation while the world gradually settles into the new normal and possibly have a not-too-distant-future life with more profitable entities. 

Then came the quarantine. 

Lockdown caused a lot of films on my "to watch" list to be watched through various means. Streaming sites like Criterion Channel proved helpful. Probably most common were discoveries through boutique blu ray distributors. Criterion, Arrow, Vinegar Syndrome, Severin, AGFA all contributed. Films like Jeanne Dielman blew me away in how cinema can stretch time to its limits and still be hypnotizing. Blonde Death blew me away in how a shot on video film can be just as unpredictably entertaining as anything John Waters made. 

I tried narrowing it down to a top 20 and it was virtually impossible. Best I could do was a Top 25. I made too many discoveries this year. Hopefully this list will help you discover a few hidden gems. 

FILMS

JANUARY

Leviathan (2014)

Fireworks (1997)

FEBRUARY

The Train (1964)

Freebie and the Bean (1974)

The Devil (1972)

Poetry (2010)

Poor Pretty Eddie (1975)

Reflections of Evil (2002)

A Place In the Sun (1951)

The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

MARCH

Streets of Fire (1984)

The Silent Partner (1978)

The Fifth Cord (1971)

Targets (1968)

Tenement (1985)

Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (1972)

A Bittersweet Life (2005)

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)

Elevator to the Gallows (1958)

Miracle Mile (1988)

Unstoppable (2010)

The Telephone Book (1971)

Class of 1984 (1982)

News From Home (1976)

That Obscure Object of Desire (1977)

Canoa: A Shameful Memory (1976)

The Big Gundown (1966)

APRIL

The Fan (1982)

Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979)

California Split (1974)

Kings of the Road (1976)

Dolemite (1975)

The Big Bird Cage (1972)

Sudden Fury (1975)

Pixote (1981)

Ashes and Diamonds (1958)

Kanal (1957)

Live Like A Cop, Die Like A Man (1976)

The Corruption of Chris Miller (1973)

Taipei Story (1985)

Harlan County USA (1976)

The Human Tornado (1976)

Odd Man Out (1947)

Fat City (1972)

Polyester (1981)

Out of the Past (1947)

Short Eyes (1977)

Destroyer (2019)

MAY

Massacre Mafia Style (1974)

Dark of the Sun (1968)

Parents (1989)

The Cremator (1969)

Hard Ticket to Hawaii (1987)

There's Nothing Out There (1991)

Husbands (1970)

JUNE

Emma Mae (1976)

The Big Racket (1976)

The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (1971)

LA 92 (2017)

The Watermelon Woman (1996)

Boys In the Sand (1970)

Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles (1975)

Blonde Death (1984)

Sole Survivor (1984)

JULY

The Candy Tangerine Man (1975)

Angel (1984)

Mildred Pierce (1945)

Blood Games (1990)

Matewan (1987)

The Opening of Misty Beethoven (1977)

SEPTEMBER

Unmasked Part 25 (1989)

Vampyres (1974)

The Day of the Beast (1995)

OCTOBER

Baby Blood (1990)

A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973)

Grave Robbers (1988)

Blood On Satan's Claw (1971)

Sledgehammer (1983)

Things (1989)

Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972)

Pulse (2001)

The Living Dead Girl (1982)

The Grapes of Death (1978)

Twins of Evil (1970)

The Midnight Hour (1985)

WNUF Halloween Special (2013)

Ghostwatch (1992)

NOVEMBER

The Passing (1984) 

Night and the City (1950) 

Through A Glass Darkly (1961) 

The Tenant (1976) 

Four Lions (2010) 

DECEMBER

Nocturama (2016) 

Dial Code Santa Claus (1989) 

Field Niggas (2015) 

A Touch of Sin (2013)

Bad Black (2016) 

Tongues Untied (1989) 

Wanda Whips Wall Street (1982)

Decoder (1984)

TOP 25 DISCOVERIES

The Devil (1972)

Reflections of Evil (2002)

The Silent Partner (1978)

Targets (1968)

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)

The Telephone Book (1971)

News From Home (1976)

The Big Gundown (1966)

The Fan (1982)

Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979)

Kings of the Road (1976)

The Rudy Ray Moore films (Dolemite, Human Tornado)

Out of the Past (1947)

Hard Ticket to Hawaii (1987)

Emma Mae (1976)

Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles (1975)

Blonde Death (1984)

Sole Survivor (1984)

The Opening of Misty Beethoven (1977)

Blood On Satan's Claw (1971)

Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972)

The Grapes of Death (1978)

Ghostwatch (1992)

A Touch of Sin (2013)

Bad Black (2016)

Tongues Untied (1989)

BOOKS

FICTION

1. The Peregrine by J.A. Baker (1967)

2. The Stranger by Albert Camus (1948)

3. Blackwater by Michael McDowell (1983)

4. A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James (2014)

5. Clockers by Richard Price (1992)

6. Last Evenings On Earth by Robert Bolano (1997)

7. Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock (2009)

8. Last Days by Brian Evenson (2009)

9. Misery by Stephen King (1987)

10. The Wide Carniverous Sky by John Langan (2013)

NON FICTION

1. And the Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDs Epidemic by Randy Shilts (1987)

2. Confessions of A Mask by Yukio Mishima

3. Tune In: All These Years, The Beatles Volume One by Mark Lewisohn (2013)

4. In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado (2019)

5. Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party by Joshua Bloom (2013)

10 Noirs for Noirvember

"In Greek tragedy, they fall from great heights. In noir, they fall from the curb."

                                                                        - Dennis Lehane 

Films from the 40s and 50s are not so much a blind spot for me as a period of intense selectivity that is gradually loosened up. Frank Capra released his best work in It's A Wonderful Life. A 26 year old Orson Welles released a box office bomb called Citizen Kane. Val Lewton brought subtelty and shadow to the horror genre. Hitchcock was going strong, cranking out Rebecca, Shadow of A Doubt, Notorious, and Rope. Billy Wilder had probably the strongest streak of quality films of anyone in that period, starting in 1944 with Double Indemnity and ending in 1960 with The Apartment. Kubrick was just getting started- releasing back to back classics in The Killing and Paths of Glory. 

Yet if there was a film movement that began and ended in that period, it's the film noir. Neo-noirs like Chinatown, Blood Simple and LA Confidential picked up the baton and ran with it in later periods. But for now we are going to discuss the classics. 

It's not so much a genre than a style that is an anti myth to what came before. During the Depression, Hollywood sold the idea of eternal optimism. Things will be alright. After World War II had passed, it exploded the myth and showed us just how bad it could really get. The world is a nasty, ugly place. 

Stretching back to borrow elements from German expressionism, the style of film noir is steeped in shadow. It's a movement about the diagonal line. The weird angle that the camera is framing a subject. Nothing is quite what it seems. Robert Krasker's duth camera angles in Third Man suggest something off.  

The protagonist is often a private eye but we also see them as screenwriters, hitmen or convicts. Dubbed by pulp novelist Raymond Chandler as "The Knight In Dirty Armor", they are forced from one bad situation to the next, bumping into colorful characters along the way to their eventual downfall. 

Or to sum it up as James Ellroy would: 

"Here's what film noir is to me: it's a righteous generically American film movement that went from 1945 to 1958 and exposited one great theme and that is- you're fucked. You have just met a woman and are inches away from the greatest sex of your life but within six weeks of meeting the woman you will be framed for a crime you did not commit and you will end up in the gas chamber. And as they strap you in and you're about to breathe the cyanide fumes, you'll be grateful for a few weeks you had with her and grateful for your own death."

We are now in the month of November. The purgatory between October and December. The ghoulish goblins are behind you and the jolly jingles are ahead. So hang up your trenchcoat and fedora. Put your gun on the desk next to the freshly poured glass of whiskey. And tune in to these ten noirs from the seedy underbelly of America. 

10. The Killing (1956)

Sterling Hayden is an actor who I always love when he shows up on screen. Lucky for us, he is the lead here. The Killing can be considered Kubrick's first great film. Being an avid chess player, he knew where everything needed to be and what everyone needed to do. Like a chess player's mind, the plot unfolds in a "If he does this, I do that" type fashion. 

9. Detour (1945)

Everything is stipped down to its bare essentials here. It's filled with B- actors and shot by a B- director. Ebert sums it up nicely: "Detour is a movie so filled with imperfections that it would not earn the director a passing grade in film school. This movie from Hollywood's poverty row, shot in six days, filled with technical errors and ham-fisted narrative should have faded from memory soon after its release in 1945. And yet it lives on, haunting and creepy, an embodiment of the guilty soul of film noir."

It's the kind of movie that, if it were a book, would be hiding amongst the other 50 cent pulp paperbacks of its day. Waiting to be found. 

8. Nightmare Alley (1947)

Based on the William Lindsey Gresham book of the same name, Nightmare Alley is a movie that ventures into a cynicism that would even give the most hardened noir a run for its money. Tyrone Power is an amoral carnival huckster using everyone he meets as he cuts a path to the top. 

7. Pickup On South Street (1953)

Sam Fuller's films are punches to the mouth. He doesn't know how to tell a story another way. Fuller brings the element of social realism to the noir. Richard Widmark's performance here is bested only by his turn in Night and the City. 

6. Out of the Past (1947)

Jacques Tourneur honed his chops with Val Lewon on films like Cat People and I Walked With A Zombie. Thus, the looming terror here is the past that continues to haunt Robert Mitchum's devil-may-care protagonist. Fate is the star of all of these pictures and it is here in all of its doom-laden glory. 

5. Double Indemnity (1944)

Proof that Wilder is the best screenwriter to emerge from the classic Hollywood system. If I wanted to show a film noir to someone who has never seen once, I'd show them Double Indemnity. All the visual motifs and thematic concerns come together in one film. The man (Fred MacMurray) and the woman (Barbara Stanwyck) take turns tempting each other; neither would act alone. Both are attracted not so much by the crime as by the thrill of committing it with the other person. 

4. In A Lonely Place (1950)

Released in the same year as Sunset Boulevard, both films bring Hollywood's post-war darkness to its logical conclusion. Only in this film, Ray films Hollywood not from its rotten core, but from its dessicated, metaphorical outskirts. 

3. The Third Man (1949)

When I think of Welles, I don't think of Kane. I don't think of the 1938 broadcast of War of the Worlds. I think of Harry Lime coming out of the shadows. Harry Lime in the underground tunnels is one of those scenes that run through my head when people bring up classic movies of this era. Not to mention Robert Krasker's camerawork and that score. 

2. Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

"I love this dirty town."

The one central plot point to film noir is the investigation of a crime. Keeping this in mind, McKendrick's film can hardly be considered one. A crime isn't introduced until the last 25 minutes of the picture. By doing this, it is able to redefine what a film noir is. Crime doesn't necessarily have to be murder. The daily acts of cruelty that have become a way of life for the two main characters is the crime Sweet Smell consists of. It added even more shade of grey. 

The film itself is an example of everything coming together: Alexander McKendrick's direction, Clifford Odet's script, James Wong Howe's cinematography and career best performances from Lancaster and Curtis. 

1. Sunset Boulevard (1950)

An interesting piece of screenwriting advice I once heard is that you want to tell a story that going forward seems continually surprising and going backward seems pretty inevitable you ended up there.

Sunset Boulevard is a nightmare narrated by a dead man. A washed up silent film star desperate clings to the fatal delusion of holding onto the way things were. It isn't until we confront reality with honesty are we ever truly rewarded. 

Like the best movies, anytime I watch it, it takes me over completely. I'm in that house with Joe Gillis. The mood of this film drips from every frame that by the time you've finished it, you'd think vines were wrapping around your house. 

Honorable mention

Laura (1944), Mildred Pierce (1945), The Asphalt Jungle (1950), Gun Crazy (1950), Night and the City (1950), The Big Heat (1953), Kiss Me Deadly (1955), Touch of Evil (1958)

My Top 30 Horror Scores

This list was in the making since last Halloween. So now is as good time as any to put it out there. 

Music has the ability to add a whole new dimension to a film. All the greats know this. Kubrick in particular. I adore Wendy Carlos' synth take of Penderecki and Kubrick uses Bartok and Ligeti. Can you imagine anything else soundtracking that gliding camera over the water for the opening? Since this list is dealing with original scores, The Shining isn't included. Same goes for Mike Oldfied's Tubular Bells. 

One of the lessons I have learned when delving into horror soundtracks is the Italians do it best. Sure, you have your Goldsmiths, Shores, and Hermanns. The Italians just have a cornucopia of giallo, westerns, poliziotteschi films out there for the picking. It's why I continue to come back to their specific brand of horror. It's not just the copious amounts of sex and blood. Well it is that. But there's the score to that scene of Ian McCulloch and company barricading themselves from a horde of zombies in the ominous fog outside. It's the opening to Suspiria with Goblin's score pounding. 

It was too hard to restrict myself to just a top ten. So here's 30. 

30. William Loose- Night of the Living Dead

The sound of social decay. One of the first movies I saw was Night of the Living Dead. That opening with the car coming up to the cemetery is imprinted in my mind. This is how you open horror movie. 

29. Paul Giovanni- The Wicker Man
There's a deceptive gentleness to this one that matches the hospitality on the island. Yet there are faint tremblings of something darker. It's like constantly putting on new coats of paint on a wall that continues to rot from within.

28. Jerry Goldsmith- Poltergeist

Goldsmith works his magic to suggest calm, serene suburbia on one track to supernatural spookiness on the next. 

27. Wojciech Kilar- Bram Stoker's Dracula

It's what you want a score about the gothic, seductive side of Dracula to be.

26. Coil- unreleased Hellraiser themes/ Christopher Young's score (tie)

A tie because if you were to replace Young's score with what was originally planned you have a different movie. Christopher Young's score brings a gothic horror vibe to it. Coil's score on the other is dirty, grimy, industrial. Barker described the Coil score as 'bowel churning'. 

25. Charles Bernstein- The Entity
There's a reason Quentin picked Bath Attack to score the scene in Inglourious Basterds where Shoshanna Dreyfuss comes face to face with Hans Landa, the man who ordered the massacre of her family. It's a savage industrial attack. And it fits the subject matter of the film. 

24. Jay Chattaway- Maniac
The 80's saw the dominance of synth scores. Many of them owing a debt to Carpenter. Chattaway went minimal and decided to mix in the audio movie into the score. The result is a genuinely creepy listening experience as terrifying as the movie itself.

23. Jerry Goldsmith- Alien

A score whose cadence rises from its tranquil slumber to chest bursting intensity. 

22. Claudio Simonetti, Fabio Pignatelli and Massimo Morante- Tenebrae

A soundtrack meant to be listened to while watching a fire kindling. 

21. Fred Myrow and Malcolm Seagrave- Phantasm

The score runs the gamut from moody rock, church organ, drone and noisy atmosphere. 

20. John Harrison- Day of the Dead
Night, Dawn and Day all have great soundtracks. But if I had to pick one that had the biggest impact on me, it would be John Harrison's work on Day of the Dead. The film is the nastiest of the bunch and the soundtrack matches that darkness fittingly. 

19. Fabio Frizzi- The Beyond

A toss up between this and Zombi 2. I went with this but it changes on a dime. It's the kind of prog orchestral ominousness you want to hear when seeing dogs rip throats out and acid melt faces away. 

18. Andrzej Korzynsky- Possession

Everything about this movie is an experience. The score is no different. 

17. Goblin- Profondo Rosso

The giallo is rife with hauntingly beautiful scores. This one has the ability to rock and send chills down the spine. 

16. Tobe Hooper and Wayne Bell- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Tobe Hooper and Wayne Bell's score lasts a mere 14 minutes on soundtrack. Yet it's some of the most disturbing 14 minutes of music for a film. This is why it's so effective. A perfect marriage of music, atmosphere and tone.

We're patiently waiting, Mondo and Waxwork.

15. John Carpenter- Halloween

Carpenter came up with the main theme in an hour. Simplicity can work. Laurie's Theme is made for walking home alone as the leaves fall. 

14. Pino Donaggio- Carrie

A movie that is as soaked in tragedy as Carrie White was soaked in pigs blood. Pino did the score for Don't Look Now three years earlier and DePalma couldn't have made a better choice tapping him for this movie.

13. John Carpenter- The Fog
With the exception of his work with Alan Howarth on Halloween III, The Fog stands out as his best work as a composer.

12. Howard Shore- The Silence of the Lambs

The emotional swells here are outstanding. Shore has yet to top himself here. Favorite track: Lecter Escapes

11. Krzysztof Komeda- Rosemary's Baby

There's a delicateness to the sinister sounds here. Like a mother coddling her baby after finding out it is the spawn of Satan. 

10. Bernard Hermann- Psycho

The strings are a knife to the heart. 

9. John Carpenter and Alan Howarth- Halloween: Season of the Witch
Not a Halloween season goes by where I'm not listening to a track from this. 

8. Angelo Badalamenti- Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
As close to a horror movie that David Lynch has gotten. Is it traditional horror? No. Is it scarier that most other traditional horror? Absolutely. 

7. John Harrison- Creepshow
Essential Autumnal/Halloween listening. I would listen to this constantly on cassette tape as a kid. 

6. Ennio Morricone- The Thing
My favorite film composer. 90% of his scores are for westerns. Many of which I have sought out for that fact alone. Morricone is the only composer I do that for. So when I find a score for a horror film he has done it makes me twice as happy.

5. Philip Glass- Candyman

What does gothic horror sound like? Philip Glass gave the answer in his soundtrack to Bernard Rose's Candyman. 

Favorite track: It Was Always You Helen

4. Riz Ortolani- Cannibal Holocaust
The first images you see are a helicopter shot of the jungle and the river. The first sounds you hear is Ortolani's soothing score.  As much as I adore the main theme, the one that wrecks me is 'Crucified Woman'.

3. Fabio Frizzi- City of the Living Dead

Spielberg has Williams. Burton has Elfman. Nolan has Zimmer. Fulci has Frizzi.

70's/early 80's Italian horror goes hand in hand with the work Frizzi did with the Godfather of Gore.
If I were to single out the most effective film to music blend it would have to be City of the Living Dead. While it can be said to have the mutated DNA of Zombi 2's score, this twist is even more menacing and foreboding.

As far as individual tracks go, the 7 Notes In Black from The Psychic is his crowning achievement. Tarantino fans will recognize it instantly for it being in the infamous achilles tendon slashing scene from Kill Bill Vol. 1.

2. Popol Vuh- Nosferatu the Vampyre
Nothing like it. Captures a worldly rhythm I have yet to hear in anything horror based. I would imagine, this is best listened to in the wet, dark catacombs of a crypt. But I have yet to be at one so my room will suffice.

1. Goblin- Suspiria

It's hard to add any more praise to a piece of music that has received so much. For the score, Argento told Claudio Simonetti of Goblin "I need the audience to feel that the witches are still there, even if they're not on the screen." Season of the Witch, indeed. 

Honorable mentions: 

Classics:

John Carpenter and Alan Howarth- Christine

John Carpenter- Prince of Darkness
John Williams- Jaws

Tangerine Dream- Near Dark
Goblin- Dawn of the Dead
Manfred Hubler and Siegfried Schwab- Vampyros Lesbos
Toru Takemitsu- Kwaidan
Richard Band- The House On Sorority Row
Nora Orlandi- The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh
Ennio Morricone- The Bird With the Crystal Plumage
Guilani Sorgini- The Living Dead At Manchester Morgue
Libra- Shock

Ennio Morricone- Spasmo

Nicola Piovani- The Perfume of the Lady In Black

Stelvio Cipriani- Nightmare City
Walter Rizzatti- The House By the Cemetery
Berto Pisano and Elsio Mancuso- Burial Ground

Tim Krog- The Boogey Man
Nico Fidenco- Zombie Holocaust/ Dr. Butcher
Alesandro Blonksteiner- Cannibal Apocalypse
Riccardo Biseo and Manuel De Sica- Cemetery Man
Robert McNaughton- Henry: Portrait of A Serial Killer
Herman Kopp- Nekromantik
Karl Schulze- Next of Kin
Karl Schulze- Angst
Joe Renzetti- Child's Play
Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn- Ravenous
Harry Manfredini- House

Recent:
Disasterpiece- It Follows
Thom Yorke- Suspiria
Jonathan Snipes and William Hutson- Room 237
Jeff Grace- House of the Devil
Broadcast- Berberian Sound Studio
Bobby Krlic- Midsommar