The Founder
The man who bought the Padres (his check cleared) and earned my eternal, unfailing, love was Ray Kroc. The new overseer of the friars also, apparently, owned a little hamburger place called McDonald’s. Evidently, director John Lee Hancock thought the hamburger stand would make a better movie.
Top 50 Albums of 2016
As I scramble to scoop up and sift through everything I listened to in 2016, I never fail to appreciate how much music, or life for that matter, can be forgotten in even a small amount of time.
Andy & Rob Talk Sufjan Stevens
In our second installment of “Andy & Rob Talk…”, Cinema Spartan editor Rob Patrick and assistant editor Andy Ferguson dive into the oeuvre of celebrated musician, Sufjan Stevens. Here is the transcript.
What the Academy Overlooked: A Compendium
I know there is only room for so many nominations, and that complaining about the Oscars is an old hat worn by cawing bloggers and early morning television hosts, but I want to bring up a few omissions that bothered me.
The Singular Success of 10 Filmmakers
There are directors who never made a bad movie: Alfred Hitchcock, Frank Capra, Andrei Tarkovsky, Akira Kurosawa, Martin Scorsese and Billy Wilder leap to mind. There are gifted directors who made mostly great films, Stanley Kubrick and Sergio Leone fit into that category.
Interview w/ Jordan Canning
Dealing in the currency of friendship, love, and mourning, the Canadian filmmaker’s second full-length feature is a beautiful depiction of what it means to be human.
Q&A w/ Emma Olswing
Identity, spatial appreciation, and the exploration of color are all present in Olswing’s work. There’s effusive melody, designed restraint, and a compass for geography.
Suck It Up
The exchanges of dialogue, between Erin Carter and Grace Glowicki, feel textural, free of artifice, and wholly tangible. There’s glib quips in “Suck It Up”, but none of them feel whip smart to the point of being flippantly arrogant – we’re free of Aaron Sorkin adrenaline shots or Mike Mills snark.
Interview w/ Niki & The Dove
The Swedish duo of Malin Dahlström and Gustaf Karlöf created an album that spoke to the smoke and mirrors of memories, the deep, unyielding pain of love, and the sociopolitical unease of 2016.
Interview w/ Bearcats
Lisa Harrison and Lexi McCoy of Bearcats create chaotic harmonies that bay, thump, and brawl. Basically, they’re rad – why bury the lead? With their latest release, “Break Up Stories”, the band confiscates any notion of placidity and delivers one of the best EPs of 2016.
