Month: May 2023

Alright, Alright, Alright…: The Top 5 Characters from “Dazed and Confused”

Alright, Alright, Alright…: The Top 5 Characters from “Dazed and Confused”

It’s the end of the school year. For me, that seems like a perfect time to revisit Richard Linklater’s epic salute to the last day of school, Dazed and Confused. On top of that, Dazed is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Lots of words have been spilled about this true classic coming-of-age-ish tale, about the big splash it made for Linklater, and about the myriad stars whose careers blossomed from it. I don’t know that me doing a review of it would make that big a contribution to that body of reviews. So instead, I’m going to highlight the best part of the movie for me–its panorama of characters portraying and occasionally subverting high-school types–and have some fun revisiting the film by counting down my five favorite characters. I hope you’ll think it’s fun, too!

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“Air” is a Breezy Good Time

“Air” is a Breezy Good Time

Confession time: I wasn’t a fan of Michael Jordan during his playing career. I was a fan of the late 80s-early 90s “Bad Boys” Pistons and Jordan and the Bulls were the hated rivals. I never quite got over that. So, naturally, I never had any interest in obtaining a pair of Air Jordans. So, a few decades later, could I find a movie about the creation of the Air Jordan to be a worthwhile watch? Thanks to a great cast, a streamlined script, and an “air” of not taking itself too seriously, the answer is, “Absolutely.” For a movie about product marketing, Air is a lot of fun.

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Goodbye to the “Guardians”

Goodbye to the “Guardians”

Guardians of the Galaxy is not only still my favorite movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but, when it came out, it was one of my favorite films of 2014 (part of a Chris Pratt one-two punch with The Lego Movie). Director and co-writer James Gunn and company made a movie that still fit well in the MCU and its CGI-powered spectacle, but also gave us characters that we could really care about because they came to care about each other. While Volume 2 was…not my favorite, that and the Infinity Saga Avengers movies gave us more time to spend with this ragtag, irreverent group of “heroes.” Now, with Gunn heading up the DC film universe and some of the stars saying that they are done, we have now reached what appears to be the end of the Guardians, at least in this form. And, while it’s not a great film, Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 still gives us the humor, emotion, and great soundtrack that has made this found family of castoffs worth watching in the first place.

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The Pieces Fly Fast in “Tetris”

The Pieces Fly Fast in “Tetris”

This past week, The Super Mario Bros. Movie crossed the one billion dollar worldwide box-office threshold and has more than doubled the take of the the #2 movie of the year, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. It’s easily the best-performing movie based on video game of all time. And while I enjoyed it, I just saw a 2023 video-game themed movie that I liked even better. With a fantastic lead performance by Taron Egerton (Rocketman) and a breakneck pace that just seems to get faster and faster the more you play…err, watch, Apple’s Tetris is almost as much fun as the game itself.

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