In my previous post, I explained the goals and methodology of this list. As a reminder, here’s the cinematic food pyramid guide:
Without further ado, here’s my list of movies that are culturally-essential for the 21st-century American citizen, beginning in 1980: Continue reading →
Back in August of 2014, my friend Kevin shared through Pocket a NY Times column by film critic Dan Kois entitled “Eating Your Cultural Vegetables”. You should read the entire piece, but the gist of it is summarized in this excerpt:
“As I get older, I find I’m suffering from a kind of culture fatigue and have less interest in eating my cultural vegetables, no matter how good they may be for me… Part of me mourns the sophisticated cineaste I might never become; part of me is grateful for all the time I’ll save now that I am a bit more choosy about the aspirational viewing in which I engage.” Continue reading →
Jurassic World both met my lowest expectations and surpassed my highest expectations of what this movie would be: loud, thrilling, and emotionally vacuous. Overall, it speaks to the massive changes in popular taste since the first movie was released over two decades ago. 1
The overwhelming nostalgia for the first film was so constant, so blatant that even the most casual viewer could detect something was schmaltzy and amiss. Indeed, the numerous references to Jurassic Park also underscored the ways in which this movie is the product of the new millennium in which Hollywood has gone all-in on the mantra of the Age of Transformers and Iron Man: MOAR DESTRUCTION, MOAR LOUD, MOAR WOW.
This reviewer will attempt to erase from his memory the failed evolutionary speedbumps that were The Lost World and Jurassic Park III. ↩