This Valentine’s Day Mixtape is dedicated to all my secret crushes. HIT THIS Spotify link AND TRY NOT TO LET ANYONE SEE YOU gushING over all these love notes. tHE mAGNETIC fIELDS, “sTRANGE pOWERS” The […]
“READ MY LIPS – NOT X RATED!” 1995’S EVIL ED TACKLES CENSORSHIP, PUNK, AND POLITICS
PUMP UP THE COLUMN EXPLORES THE MANY INTERPRETATIONS OF PUNK AESTHETIC USED IN CINEMA Genre film – in particular, horror – and punk rock have enjoyed a long and comfortable kinship. For bands like The Misfits and The Cramps, […]
HAL NEEDHAM’S “BALLET WITH BMX BIKES” RESURFACING AT SXSW THIS YEAR
BARGAIN BINNED DIGS DEEP INTO THE RANDOM AND FASCINATING TITLES FOUND IN THE CLEARANCE AISLE Director Hal Needham knew stunts. He was a stuntman himself, having worked in innumerable Westerns during the ’60s begore turning […]
DANGER SLATER DOESN’T LIKE THE DARK KNIGHT
Grumpire 6, The Dark Knight 0 Joining us on this episode is author Danger Slater, who brings us one of his more disliked films: Christopher Nolan’s much beloved and seriously gritty take on the Batman […]
MIXTAPE: SCHMALENTINE’S DAY
This week’s mix is all about the dark side of Valentine’s Day: the heartaches, the break-ups, the unrequited loves, the sitting alone in your room crying into a pint of Ben And Jerry’s because your […]
WHO DARES TO PROGRAM A PENILE IMPLANT DOUBLE FEATURE?
WEIRD BONERS IS DEDICATED TO ALL THE WEIRD WAYS FILMS AFFECT US SPIRITUALLY, INTELLECTUALLY, AND OF COURSE, PSYCHO-SEXUALLY Biopics are a strong contender for the worst sub-genre. They’re where bad filmmaking is not only allowed, […]
AMO KAJ ALIAJ DEMONOJ: THE CURSE OF ‘INCUBUS’ (1966)
Many English-speaking cinephiles will watch films from all over the world; only the most ethnocentric cinephile will sneer at foreign-language films, ignoring richly-told stories from around the world (subtitles are not your enemy!). But what […]
BRADLEY KORNISH AND DAN PULLEN DON’T LIKE FIGHT CLUB
Grumpire 5, Fight Club 0 Joining us on Episode 5 are esteemed guests Bradley Kornish and Dan Pullen, who are here to tell us all about how neither of them particularly care for David Fincher’s […]
HUMBUG: PLEASE LEAVE ME (HOME) ALONE
If you go back and read the reviews from Home Alone’s release in 1990, you’ll find a portion of major critics and publications weren’t too kind to it. Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times said […]
MIXTAPE: GEN-XMAS, VOL. 1
Fun Fact about my work history: as a teen in the late 1990s, I took a job at a local independent radio station. It was a small, 50-kilowatt station, which meant the range was a […]
HUMBUG: LOVE ACTUALLY? ACTUALLY…NAH
I don’t like Christmas. Don’t call me Scrooge or a Grinch — I’m not advocating spoiling people’s holiday cheer. Maybe it’s Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), courtesy of shortened winter days, the proliferation of red and […]
JAY ALARY DOESN’T LIKE NAPOLEON DYNAMITE
Grumpire 4, Napoleon Dynamite 0 For episode four, we welcome site contributor Jay Alary. Jay’s done a lot of great work so far for Grumpire, and we were ecstatic to have him on our show […]
MIXTAPE: NIGHT FALLS ON CHRISTMAS
Christmas is a difficult time for many folks. I’ve had my bouts with being grumpy during this festive season, but that had more to do with familial strife than seasonal depression. But even during those darker […]
WHADDAYA MEAN “THE DARKER WORKS OF ANDY GRIFFITH”?
Here’s what led to me writing this. On Twitter, I saw a post on the page for my favorite television channel, MeTV, with an article titled “Andy Griffith Had His Own Line of Canned Beans […]
HUMBUG: ELF, A SACK OF SUPERFICIAL SPIRIT
The “Christmas movie” is a vital part of the experience of Christmas under modern consumer capitalism, which sustains itself by transforming vital human experience into commodities and selling them back to us. Christmas is red […]