The Friday 10/8/2021

Daniel Craig: No Time to Die (Nicola Dove/MGM)

My piece for the Scarecrow blog this week, and etc.

No Time to Die. “What it lacks in speed in makes up for in attitude, as the glum mood of the previous couple of Craig titles is leavened with humor and a certain pleasing deftness.”

I’ll be doing my talk for Humanities Washington, “This Is the End: How Movies Prepared Us for the Apocalypse,” on Wed. Oct. 13th at 6 pm Pacific Time, online, thanks to the hosting of the Everett Public Library. You can register for the talk here and read more here.

I have a new episode of my radio show “The Music and the Movies,” this one listening to rock stars who turned to soundtrack composing in the 1980s. Hear what happened when David Byrne went to China, Peter Gabriel found Jesus, and Prince met Batman. Plus, Danny Elfman gets his Burton on and Randy Newman swings for the fences. Produced by Voice of Vashon.

Or check out the M&M page for whatever episode might be live at any moment (as the episodes must disappear after two weeks).

Another session of Scarecrow Academy tomorrow, Sat. 10/9 at 2pm Pacific Time via Zoom, as we discuss Samuel Fuller’s Pickup on South Street. It’s free; listen to more below.

At my other blog, What a Feeling!, I’ve posted some big titles in my revival of vintage 1980s reviews: George Miller’s The Road Warrior, reviewed from an early screening at the Seattle International Film Festival; Paul Schrader’s Cat People, a colorful blend of Kinski and gore; and Wes Craven’s Swamp Thing, which, I was surprised to find out, was the first Craven picture I’d seen.