What I’ve Seen
1995
Twelve Monkeys
Toy Story
The Usual Suspects
Species
Se7en
Pocahontas
Outbreak
Memories
Ghost in the Shell
GoldenEye
Dead Man Walking
Canadian Bacon
Casper
Braveheart
Balto
Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls
1996
Waiting for Guffman
Trainspotting
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Birdcage
Swingers
Space Jam
Sgt. Bilko
Scream
Romeo + Juliet
Muppet Treasure Island
Mission: Impossible
Matilda
Jerry Maguire
Independence Day
Happy Gilmore
Hamlet
101 Dalmations
33 Total
The Tree of Life
Wow, where to begin with this one? I have the strong suspicion that over the next few months and years many critics much more insightful and articulate than I will be writing about this film, and I feel almost presumptuous talking about it. And yet, here I go.
Today I’m debuting what will hopefully become a fairly regular addition to this blog. I write movie reviews with some frequency and have mentioned television quite often, but I have yet to actually review tv shows. In accordance with this being the lair of the Film Czar, that changes today. And yes, I consider television to be film. After all, TV shows are filmed, no? (I plan on writing an essay comparing and contrasting the two media some day, but that’ll have to wait).
I don’t have the time or patience to individually review episodes of television—I recommend this blog for that—so instead I think I’ll step back and review whole seasons of shows after I finish them (or however far I get with a show with which I decide not to continue). I’m starting with three cable shows, for all of which I recently finished the first season. And why not do it alphabetically? So first up is FX’s Archer.
Archer, Season 1
What if there were an American James Bond, only instead of a suave gentleman he was a juvenile, petty, petulant man-child? This is essentially the premise of Archer, a consistently funny animated show that comes, somewhat surprisingly, from FX (it looks like, and has the sensibilities of, something from Adult Swim or Comedy Central).
Babel
It’s a good thing
that I generally don’t fault a movie for being “award bait”. Sure it can be funny when they try and miss spectacularly (Australia), or were clearly mismarketed as such (The Men Who Stare at Goats), but unless it ludicrously obviously calibrated for an awards crowd (Crash), I’m usually not offended. Which was good for my enjoyment of Babel.
