The Witch. Feminist folk horror? I dig it.
The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code. I remember reading a few pages of the book when it came out, and… yeesh. This is much better. Not great at all, but elevates the source material into something amusing.
I Want You Still: Celebrating 40 Years of Marvin Gaye’s Sensual Classic | Pitchfork
Fun interview about creating one of my favorite albums. Nice bit:
Out of the 13 months we took to make the album, there was six months of partying. Seriously. We would come into the studio, and Marvin would say, “Let’s go play basketball.” And we would play basketball half the day, on studio time. There was no pressure.
I Want You Still: Celebrating 40 Years of Marvin Gaye’s Sensual Classic | Pitchfork
Citizenfour
Citizenfour. There’s this interesting tension where a guy has done something earth-shaking, and he knows it… but he’s watching the effects while hidden in a hotel room far from home. Very cool to see all the planning and diligence they took to keep things mum until they were ready to reveal. So glad they took the time to document this while it was happening. I’m probably on a watchlist now.
Ad Reinhardt, from “How to Look at Art” (1946)
The Seven Habits of Highly Depolarizing People
Count higher than two. Of all the mental habits that encourage polarization, the most dangerous is probably binary thinking – the tendency to divide everything into two mutually antagonistic categories.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Such a lovely mix in this movie. You’ve got one-liners, goofball slapstick, melodrama, real drama. Those mournful interludes on the Civil War battlefront hit hard this time around. :’(
Meru
Meru. I liked it most when they were showing the footage that makes you squirm and makes your palms get sweaty. Wish they’d geeked out on the nitty-gritty climbing details more, and/or cut back on the talking heads. Sometimes the people who were there aren’t the best ones to tell the story?
Gone Girl
The Weird Global Appeal of Heavy Metal
The explosion of local bands around the world tends to track rising living standards and Internet use. Making loud music is expensive: You need electric guitars, amplifiers, speakers, music venues and more leisure time. “When economic development happens, metal scenes appear. They’re like mushrooms after the rain,” says Roy Doron, an African history professor at Winston-Salem State University.