Beltmann

I jumped on board with The Double EP, and picked up the new one this week. Love it. I'm a bit surprised at how much attention it's receiving, but I'm happy for Ms. Barnett!

Thanks for sharing, Crow, and I hope it proved cathartic. I read every word and I'll keep you in my thoughts. To use the parlance of the VC of old: ) ) ) ) ) V I B E S ( ( ( ( (

Gaslight Anthem tonight in Milwaukee.

I remember seeing Slacker when it first came out, and it struck me as an important work. From the start, Linklater has always been interested in time, both in terms of structure and subject. Boyhood is perhaps the most extreme example, but even something like Dazed and Confused is more about time than about parties. For me, the Before trilogy is his greatest meditation on time, and I'm partial to the middle film. What's astonishing about Before Sunset is how the weight of years--on their lives, on their emotions, on their faces--deepens the context of Jesse and Celine's original conversati

Whiplash is not realistic at all, but that's a strength, I think. It's a movie about how two characters feel within a particular and rare bubble, and the movie's visual style and rhythm helps express that psychological space. Somehow I managed to see nearly every single nominee this year. Sheer luck, I guess. Once I see the animated and live action shorts later this week, I'll have seen every nomination except Marion Cotillard in Two Days, One Night, several of the foreign language nods, two of the feature documentaries, one of the animated features, and one of the original songs. Most o

Same here. I wonder whether its exclusion has something to do with the old Conet Project copyright issue.

As a history lesson, Last Days in Vietnam is filled with rich human details and astonishing footage classically edited into an informative, compelling story. I can see why it was nominated for the Oscar. (Although I wouldn't let him watch the first half, which concerns combat and some atrocities, my six-year-old son was mesmerized by the second half, which chronicles the attempt to rescue as many South Vietnamese as possible during the Saigon evacuation.)

I've been working my way through movies made by BBS Productions, which means revisiting many familiar works like Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces. This one, though, was new to me. Drive, He Said (1971) is a strong work that describes the unforeseen consequences of the counterculture, and it's much different in style than the other two movies later directed by Jack Nicholson. Up next: The Last Picture Show, which I haven't seen for 20 years.

Love everything about this. Jealous!

Thanks for sharing, BT. One of the great things about this place is that we do care about each other, and that means we do want to read about such things if someone feels the need to share. Nine years ago my brother was killed in a car crash days before Thanksgiving, and VC's outpouring of support--both emotional and financial--was overwhelming. My family has never forgotten it. (In fact, it came up again last night when we had family over for New Year's, and spent a few minutes watching several songs from the recent Tweedy Austin City Limits.) Mr. Heartbreak is right, of course, in point

Agreed! It's not getting a lot of attention in the U.S., though. Shame.

The Paradise Lost documentaries are all compelling; it's been fascinating to watch the story twist and turn over the course of three films, with the directors even doubling back and making corrections to their previous work. (I remember seeing the first one when it was first released and being gobsmacked.) The experience deepens, too, when you throw in West of Memphis, a 2012 documentary produced by Peter Jackson that builds on the Lost trilogy. (I watched that just a few weeks ago.) And if you want more still, there's an okay feature film by Atom Egoyan called The Devil's Knot. Even more

You are in for a treat. (Word of advice: Skip Season 2... or watch Season 2 and know that it isn't representative and the ship will be righted.) Personal trivia: I bought a ping-pong table for my daughter because of this show. It's worked out exactly as planned, which is awesome.

I'm interested in Romania's serene new wave, and that's one of the best, I think. There's a merciless intimacy in its portrayal of a man who must choose between two loves. It's been several years since I saw it, but I still remember the rich, unhurried qualities of the post-coital scene with his mistress, and especially the agonizing confession scene, in which we visibly see the wife's trust--no, her entire life's meaning--evaporate.

I actually came here this morning to mention Pat's "RIP Ian" sign, which I thought was really great and nobody around me seemed to even notice that it happened. He held the sign up for the audience as the band exited the stage. Ditto on the return of bbop! Thanks, Paul! (I was hoping you were present, but never saw you. We were on the second level.)

For me, "Feed of Man" was the highlight, partially because it was unexpected but mostly because I love it and had never heard it live. (Jeff reported that "Feed of Man" was played because it got the most online votes, with 36 (the next highest was 8). He said someone in the audience must have stuffed the ballot box.)

North American release was 2014. I'd say it's fair game for either list. It's not much different than, say, a Moroccan movie made in 2012 that isn't released in the U.S. until 2014--it's a 2012 work, yes, but of course U.S. critics should consider it for their 2014 lists.

Thanks guys. I had never heard of Courtney Barnett, but a quick sample right now has already convinced me to buy the album. Sounds fantastic.

I saw Charlie's Country in early October, and it's really stuck with me. Here's what I wrote elsewhere: Ethnography plays an appealing role in the Australian Charlie’s Country, since director Rolf de Heer lingers on the details of how to carve hunting spears, cook fish, and dance in the bush. The movie stars David Gulpilil as an aging Aboriginal man unable to adjust to the laws and regulations of colonization. To these Midwestern eyes, the movie—which starts funny but carefully charts how Charlie’s mounting sense of persecution in his own land eventually goads him into lashing out—confirms d

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7uWygcyHrM Fun little horror movie that starts as a tribute to '80s killer-in-the-woods slashers, but then pivots into something totally different, and far more melancholic.

Over the last week or so, I've enjoyed sharing some Halloween-ish movies with my 6-year-old boy: The Invisible Man (1933); Young Frankenstein; and Joe Dante's Matinee. In a few more years he's getting Tremors! Donna, I love the "theater floor" costume idea. Didn't you also, one year, have your daughter dress up as a sick child with no health insurance? That was great!

I saw Ida over the summer in a very large art-house that seats 1,000, but there were only about a dozen of us there. Somehow, that empty cavern added an extra layer to the film's spare, grey, austere vibe.

Yeah, I thought we knew about the eyes a very long time ago.

That's a good story, A-man. Not too long ago I was in a hardware store, and the clerk noticed my Uncle Tupelo T-shirt. He said his dad was from St. Louis, and that's why he knew about the band. I wear that shirt a lot, but that's the only time anyone ever said anything about it.

Making a distinction between "film" and "movie" on the grounds that one connotes art and the other popular culture is, in my view, a meaningless endeavor. Those connotations are illusory, and have the effect of vastly oversimplifying the world of cinema--the binary is both reductive and artificial--which is, ironically, quite the reverse of the intended effect. After all, cinema contains multitudes: Makers of moving pictures work in fiction, documentary, experiments, animation, shorts, Hollywood, independents, the underground, advertising, and on and on, and all of them ultimately share a co