The Year in Review: Rewriting the Formula
Due to Covid, I didn’t write a review for last year, because I wasn’t able…
John Bruni
John Bruni teaches at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. His book, Scientific Americans: The Making of Popular Science and Evolution in Early-20th-Century U.S. Literature and Culture, was published by University of Wales Press in 2014. His second book, Astonishment and Recognition: Observing Systems in the Films of John Cassavetes, is under review at Fordham University Press.
Articles:
Year of the Month: THE MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC CO. and HAHA SOUND
Imagine a split-screen image with rural Northeast Ohio on one side and Birmingham, UK on…
Year of the Month: Reconstructing HUSBANDS
Husbands (1970) is a fascinating look at director John Cassavetes’s artistic process. Shot in 1969,…
Year of the Month: “The Greatest Disappointment” – A Reappraisal of LULU
The last song, “Junior Dad,” on Lulu (2011) offers compelling evidence that the collaboration between…
Year of the Month: Randy Newman’s LAND OF DREAMS Produces Nightmares
Land of Dreams contains both one of Randy Newman’s all-time best and worst songs –…
Year of the Month: FOREVER CHANGES and a “Bummer in the Summer (of Love)”
In attendance at a 1968 recording session for the Doors, Joan Didion called them “missionaries…
Year of the Month: The Disorientation of Joanna Newsom’s YS
In an interview, following the release of Ys, Newsom said that the ending of “Monkey…
Year of the Month: Tequila and Hamburgers – The Making of Neil Young’s TONIGHT’S THE NIGHT
Tequila and hamburgers. That was the input – Neil Young* After Time Fades Away (1973),…
Year of the Month: Owning the Night Life in THE MAN I LOVE
The Man I Love has a memorable first scene: when they hear the music playing…
Year of the Month: Deconstructing 1971 – TWO-LANE BLACKTOP/THE LAST MOVIE
The cultural shorthand for early-70s American filmmaking is that directors had a significant degree of…