My friend started a record collection and asked me which albums I thought should be in it, so I have compiled a list my favorite albums from the 1950s through the 2010s. The albums in this list are records I like to listen to on the whole, not just individual songs. I have listened to around 3000 albums, and this list has about 500 of them.
Read moreSplit Screen Cinema
Over many years of studying film, I have collected over 500 instances of visual influences, homages, and rip-offs in movies and art, and I will continually update them here.
Read moreRevisiting “Harold and Maude”
Rather than a simple black comedy, Harold and Maude is arguably one of the best satires to come out of the New Hollywood genre. Ashby’s direction, Colin Higgins’s narrative, and Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon’s acting “weave a gentle spell,” as film critic Matt Zoller Seitz put it, by providing the audience with “a romance, a tragedy, a satire, a paean to eccentricity, a philosophical statement, and a ‘trip’ film whose music montages seem to roll in like waves.” It is in that spirit that Harold and Maude deserves to be revisited, not just as a quirky, low-budget Hollywood offshoot, but as a serious work of cinema.
Read moreBest Films of the 2000s (So Far)
Here is a list of my favorite films from 2000 to 2030. As of now, I have seen over 1200 movies from the 2000s, and this list has about 400 of them, with about 100 of them being worthy of “great film” status. I have watched over 3300 films across all genres and countries from the start of cinema to the present. If the film is in bold, that means I think it is one of the best films of the twenty-first century so far and belongs in a “must-see” category. As for everything else, a movie made the list if I believe it meets one of the following criteria: quality writing, acting, and directing that may not be “high art” but at least it is not the typical Hollywood schlock; interesting artistically or thematically, even if it does not come together as best as one could hope; solidly funny, delightfully weird, or at least just does something interesting for a change.
Read moreBecoming Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama’s attempts to be relatable and to portray herself as apolitical throughout her memoir is a purposeful way to obscure her privilege and promote a conservative, capitalist ideology: that women can be successful through strength of character rather than uprooting the systemic realities that actually affect them. If any lesson is to be had from Becoming, it is that women should not be distracted by celebrity power politics, but instead, they should return to a program of radical liberation and not conciliate to capitalism and imperialism.
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