Category: So Little Time

The supposedly big news is that Cris Kirkwood is back from drugaddiction and a stint in jail. But the exciting part is that older broCurt Kirkwood—the alpha talent responsible for both the blistering,psychedelic guitar explosions and the sardonic, semi-sage lyrics thatare the Pups’ signature one-two punch—has responded to the siblingreunion by spooling forth Rise to…

Bill Frisell’sloping, laconic guitar phrases are as implacably beautiful and subtlyshape-shifting as a prairie landscape, a perfect soundtrack forcompelling visuals. Indeed, two of the cooler items in his quilteddiscography were created to accompany the photographs of Walker Evans (This Land) and the films of Buster Keaton (Go West). Now the Walker has co-commissioned Frisell to…

“So these are the famous Beatles,” says one of the manyBritish stiff-upper-lip types in Help!, their second go-round with director RichardLester. This ’65 effort concerns the Fab Four on the run from pug-faced LeoMcKern, who is a kind of Indian spiritual leader with a Cockney accent, eagerto get Ringo’s holy mood ring. Watching Help! makes…

In Sam Fuller‘s 1953 paean to the New York City underworld,pickpocket Skip McCoy (the great Richard Widmark) accidentally nabs the wrongwallet-one containing microfilm that the Commies are hungry to get theirmitts on. Soon the cops, the feds, and the Reds are all out to get Skip and histreasure. In Pickup on South Street, the director…

Seventeen years in the making, Lake of Fire, the epic abortion documentary by Tony Kaye (best known for American History X),has finally arrived. Mercifully shot in silvery 35mm black and white(thus making its horribly graphic imagery that much less disturbing), Lake of Fireeschews narration to rely on 152 minutes of talking heads, protests,and, of course,…

Between the Coens’ new shoot-’em-up and American Gangster, this year’s Oscar contenders will probably be slam-bang pieces of entertainment. In Gangster, Denzel Washington plays African-American mob boss Frank Lucas,who ruled ’70s Harlem by making his product—heroin—better and cheaperthan his rivals’, while simultaneously becoming one of the city’s greatcivic leaders. Opposing him is one Russell Crowe,an…