#david mazzei

[diyeipetea]

Jean Toussaint JT4 (Festival de Jazz Zubipean 2022 Jazz Jaialdia. Puente la Reina - Gares, Navarra) Por Sera Martín [INSTANTZZ]

Jean Toussaint JT4 (Festival de Jazz Zubipean 2022 Jazz Jaialdia. Puente la Reina – Gares, Navarra) Por Sera Martín [INSTANTZZ]

Festival de Jazz Zubipean 2022 Jazz Jaialdia Festival de Jazz Zubipean 2022 Jazz Jaialdia Fecha: sábado 20 de agosto de 2022. 20:00. Lugar: Puente Románico, Puente La Reina – Gares, Navarra. Grupo: Jean Toussaint JT4 Jean Toussaint, saxo tenor Antonio Mazzei, piano David Mengual, contrabajo Marc Miralta, batería Tomajazz. Fotografías: © Sera Martín, 2022 Más información sobre Jean…

View On WordPress

#Antonio Mazzei #David Mengual #Festival de Jazz Zubipean #Festival de Jazz Zubipean 2022 #Festival de Jazz Zubipean 2022 Jazz Jaialdia #Festival de Jazz Zubipean Jaialdia #Jean Toussaint #Jean Toussaint JT4 #JT4 #Marc Miralta #Sera Martín

[sleepingwiththegods]

if you’re trying to meet a reading goal before the end of the year, here are some books that you can probably read in four hours or less.

Fiction

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (science fiction)

An Absoutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green (science fiction elements)

Noor by Nnedi Okorafor (science fiction)

School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan (speculative fiction)

The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Green (fantasy)

There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumara (literary fiction)

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (literary fiction)

How to Be Eaten by Maria Adelman (literary fiction)

Small Game by Blair Braverman (literary fiction)

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (literary fiction)

Nonfiction

Gentrifier: A Memoir by Anne Elizabeth Moore (memoir)

Everything I Need I Get From You: How Fangirls Created the Internet as We Know It by Kaitlyn Tiffany (social science/internet culture)

Waco Rising: David Koresh, the FBI, and the Birth of the America’s Modern Militias by Kevin Cook (political science)

How to Blow Up a Pipeline by Andeas Malm (manifesto)

Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay: The Case for Economic Disobedience and Debt Abolition by the Debt Collective (manifesto)

All About Love by bell hooks (essays)

Notes on Camp by Susan Sontag (a very long essay)

Camgirl by Issa Mazzei (memoir)

#book list

[ultimate-lf]

𝐵𝓇𝒶𝓏𝒾𝓁𝒾𝒶𝓃 𝒱𝑜𝒾𝒸𝑒-𝒜𝒸𝓉𝑜𝓇𝓈

Sam Winchester - Jorge Lucas

Richard Newman - Wilken Mazzei

Ben Yancy - Marco Ribeiro

Alex Simmons - Armando Tiraboschi

Vincent Geovovich - Marco Aurélio Campos

John Constantine - Gabriel Noya

Samael - Raphael Rossatto

Lawrence Newman - Alfredo Rollo

Danny Ketch - Renan Freitas

Johnny Blaze - Thiago Zambrano

Robbie Reyes - Marcelo Campos

Nate Winchester - Hermes Baroli

David Haller - Victor Soares

[latribune]

[micro961]

Francesco Lattanzi - “Alla morte”

Il secondo album del cantautore laziale

 La storia e il desiderio di poesia sono le muse ispiratrici di questo progetto che guarda al mondo e alle sue storture. “Alla morte” è un concept album che parla di geopolitica e di rapporti fra nazioni.

Racconta di come le società dei Paesi evoluti stiano subendo una pericolosa involuzione, abbandonando progressivamente quei valori fondamentali e indispensabili al comune benessere. Ogni canzone narra un fatto luttuoso, ma la morte che più spaventa, ed è a questa morte che l’album è dedicato, è quella delle virtù, delle qualità, dei valori morali, in una parola della civiltà e della nostra umanità.

 Track by Track

https://direzione816.wixsite.com/biografiedcod/lattanzi

 Francesco Lattanzi nasce a Roma nel maggio 1972. Dall’età di 5 anni inizia ad avvicinarsi alla musica studiando da autodidatta. Nel 1981, suo cugino gli fa ascoltare “La voce del padrone” album appena pubblicato da Franco Battiato e, come di fronte a una folgorazione, il cantautore siciliano diventerà un riferimento imprescindibile per tutti gli anni ’80. In adolescenza sviluppa la passione per la scrittura. Sempre durante quegli anni prova ad avvicinare testi e musiche, ma arriva tardi alle prime vere e proprie canzoni. “Pietrogrado” e “Turno di notte” (canzoni contenute nel disco d’esordio dal titolo "Turno di notte”) sono i primi brani completi di testo e musica, messi su pentagramma. In questi anni da preponderanza all’aspetto letterario a scapito di quello musicale, spesso i testi (che prendono anche mesi e a volte anni di stesura) nascono interamente privi di musica, composta ad hoc solo successivamente. Subito dopo la laurea in lingue dell’Europa orientale, inizia a collaborare con il compositore e arrangiatore Gianni Ferretti. Parte del materiale viene inviato come demo a varie etichette discografiche e a rispondere per prima è la DC Records Italy di David Costa. Con questa etichetta firma nel settembre 2011 un contratto di tre anni e pubblica i due singoli “La volpe restò senza fiato” (che diventerà un video realizzato e diretto da Marco Mazzei) e “Uischi in de giar” (cover di un famoso brano folk irlandese). Nell’agosto del 2013 arriva, con la stessa etichetta, la pubblicazione del primo album “Turno di notte”. A Tivoli, dove da sempre risiede, nel 2015/2016 inizia le prime prove di registrazione di un nuovo album con la collaborazione di Andrea Mattei. Entra in contatto con il regista bielorusso Dmitrij Dedok, a cui assegna il compito di scrivere la sceneggiatura e dirigere il video per il brano “Gli angeli di Horlivka”, scelto come primo singolo del nuovo disco. Il videoclip viene interamente girato in Bielorussia. La lavorazione del disco richiede ancora diversi anni e il 18 maggio 2022 pubblica un omaggio a Battiato, ad un anno dalla scomparsa, registrando in video (con la regia di Daniele Coccia) la “Prospettiva Nevskij” presso il Jungle Music Factory. Bisogna attendere proprio la primavera del 2022 per completare le ultime registrazioni dell’album. In estate hanno luogo missaggio e mastering. Per l’uscita del primo singolo si sceglie la data dell’11 gennaio 2023, anniversario della scomparsa di Fabrizio De André, altro artista che ha molto influenzato Francesco.

 Sito web: https://francescolattanzi.it

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSxJGh7dRL844pGwXo3CSQQ

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/francescolattanzi19

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/francescolattanzi19/

l’altoparlante - comunicazione musicale

www.laltoparlante.it

[email protected]

#album #new #radio

[fridaythe13ththeseries]

Face of Evil

Episode Recap #40: Face of Evil

Original Airdate: February 11, 1989

Starring: John D. LeMay as Ryan Dallion Louise Robey as Micki Foster Chris Wiggins as Jack Marshak

Guest cast: Laura Robinson as Tabitha Robbins Monika Schnarre as Sandy Thomerson Gwendoline Pacey as Joanne Mackie (as Gwendolyn Pacey) Barry Greene as Emery Donohue Lynne Gorman as Cora St. Clair James Mainprize as Dr. Sterling Sandrine Holt as Kamichi (as Sandrine Ho) Rest of cast listed alphabetically: David Orth as Scott Thomas (archive footage) Simon Reynolds as Russel Weigan (archive footage) Ingrid Veninger as Helen Mackie (archive footage) Zack Ward as Greg Mazzey (archive footage)

Written by Jim Henshaw

Directed by William Fruet

This week, we join a young woman at a cemetery. Turns out this is Joanne Mackie from the first season episode Vanity's Mirror. She remembers the events from that time as she brings flowers to her sister Helen's gravesite - and we get a recap through these flashbacks. We are reminded of all the deaths Helen was responsible for when using the cursed compact mirror, including her own death with Joanne's boyfriend. We also see that the someone who found the compact back then was Joanne herself.

Back in the present, we go to a photo shoot with models posing as music plays. The current top model is jealous that she is sitting by while the new model gets all the photographer's attention.

Emery, the photographer, asks Joanne, who is working there doing make up, to get Tabitha ready. Tabitha asks how she looks and Joanne reassures her. Tabitha then gives Emery the side-eye about his doting on the new chick. He comments that Tabitha is the one he goes home with, right? He notices wrinkles and demands Joanne touch her up. Seems the higher ups are questioning Tabitha's age. She is pissed as Joanne tries to help.

After Joanne goes to help Emery, Tabitha uses the cursed compact to touch up her make up. In the mirror, she sees the events it help cause in the past. She's intrigued.

At Curious Goods, Jack is frustrated at being sick. Micki is doting on him and tells him to go back to bed. Ryan agrees, and off Jack goes, but not before enjoying their attention.

At the photo studio, Emery is showing his boss the negatives, playing up how great Tabitha was. Boss isn't buying it and demands he reshoot without her. Emery says Tabitha is the cover, the whole center of the project. She says Tabitha is old news. Joanne also tries to advocate, but to no avail. Emery goes to call Sandy to replace Tabitha. Seems he sees things as the boss does now, too. Joanne can't find her compact.

At home, Tabitha is throwing things and taking out her anger on Emery, who tells her to accept it. Tab looks into the compact and tells him to go. She looks in again, at her face.

At the studio, Joanne is still searching, worried about what became of the cursed item.

Jack is still ill, and Micki goes to check on him. Ryan gets a call but no one speaks. It is Joanne, worried, but she hangs up.

Tabitha is talking with her doctor about more surgery to look younger. He is worried this would be too much and not willing to risk his reputation. He chases her upstairs to try and convince her. She is looking in the compact mirror, light reflecting onto his face. In the mirror, she sees his bloodied face. She demands he make her perfect, they struggle and he falls and crashes into a glass table. His face is bloody, as the mirror predicted. As he dies, Tabitha looks and sees her face turn younger.

At the store, Ryan and Micki are still fretting over Jack when a customer arrives. It's Joanne. Soon, we see Jack has joined them as Joanne talks. Jack wishes she had returned it, but she says it reminded her of Helen. She thinks someone at the magazine has it. They ask about suspicious activity. Jack tells her to take Micki and Ryan and they can hopefully find it before anyone dies.

At the magazine, Emery is setting up a new shoot with the boss. Joanne tells him Micki and Ryan are friends, Emery wants them gone, but the boss distracts him. Joanne fills them in on the drama with Tabitha. They try to be casual.

Emery is setting things up with Sandy as his new star, and cuts off Joanne when she ask if he has seen her compact. Tabitha arrives, to Emery's chagrin. She says she is there to wish Sandy well. The boss notices how good Tabitha looks, and wants her to get ready for tonight's shoot after all. Joanne also asks her about the compact.

Back at home, Micki and Ryan say they had no luck, but Jack shows them the article about the doctor dying at Tabitha's apartment. They don't know what Tabitha could be using the compact for, and wonder if it changed it's curse. They head back as Jack calls the cops to ask about the accident.

Emery and his boss scour the negatives. Joanne notices Tabitha needs a make up touch-up, and her boss notices, as well. Tab dons sunglasses. Boss lady is now saying she will have Emery shoot both women and decide later. Tabitha looks in the mirror.

Ryan and Micki talk with Joanne, but Emery wants them gone. Joanne doesn't want to believe Tabitha could have the compact. Emery asks after Tabitha, so Joanne goes to find her. Tab walks up on Sandy, primping in the mirror. Tab holds the compact, reflecting light into the younger woman's face. She then looks in the small mirror and sees Sandy's face, burnt and in pain. She gives her a snide comment and walks off. Sandy is spraying her hair and smoking and then is engulfed in flames. Chaos ensues but Tab just looks at her pristine-again face in the compact.

Sandy, burnt all over face, is taken away on a stretcher. Emery says to wrap up the shoot, but Tabitha demands they continue. This is her shoot, she says, to the shocked ensemble. Joanne realizes Tab must have the cursed item, as she recalls Helen saying and doing hurtful, insensitive things back when she had been using the compact.

At home, Tabitha knows Emery is just there to ride on her position back on top. She goes upstairs as he calls another model, Kimichi. Tab overhears him say the two models will share the photoshoot.

Jack tells Micki and Ryan what he learned about the doctor's death. He says they were expecting the item to do what it did last time, give the user love and respect. But Tabitha doesn't need that, she needs her face to be perfect for her career. Micki and Ryan head off to find Joanne.

At the new shoot, Emery sends Joanne off to make sure things go smoothly. A huge lighting rig is lifted up into place. Joanne is suspicious of Tabitha, and tries to keep an eye on her. Tab is playing nice about the double shoot. When Emery says Kimichi should go first, Tab agrees, to his surprise. Tabitha looks at her face and sees more wrinkles. She pulls out the compact as Joanne watches, again recalling her sister and the past.

Kimichi poses and Emery photographs her and the shoot seems to be going well. As Kimichi prepares for the next session, Tabitha watches, desperate. Joanne searches for the compact. Emery takes Kimichi and they go back to work. Tabitha shows up, reflecting light from the compact on the both of them. Emery tells her to knock it off, Tab looks and sees both of them in the mirror with grievous injuries. Joanne spies Tabith too late, as the lighting rig falls on both Emery and Kimichi. Joanne grabs the compact and runs, Tabitha chasing her.

Joanne tries to talk sense into the model, but Tabitha is loving the results of the curse.

Emery is dead and a wounded Kimichi is helped up. Ryan and Micki arrive as Tabitha grabs the compact and aims it at them all. Ryan using his coat to block the reflection in time, as Joanne continues to try and get through to Tabitha. But Tab again tries to use it on them, as Ryan struggles, throwing things. Micki uses mirror to reflect the reflection back at her, then Tabitha hits the big mirror, as well. She collapses as her face is basically melted, killing her. Joanne picks up the compact and hands it to Micki.

At the store, Jack asks Micki how Joanne is doing. Micki says she won't want to see them, since each time she does it is because someone has died. Jack tells Ryan not to blame Joanne, she thought she was doing the right thing, and not she has even more guilt to deal with. We see Joanne at the cemetery again, this time with two bouquets.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My thoughts:

I love the idea of a sequel episode, and following up on an item the gang wasn't able to retrieve. But I find it funny how some of Joanne's memories at the cemetery are of moments she was not present for.

They do make an awful big use of flashbacks in this episode, definitely padding the run time. I'm sure it was to help those who had no memory of the first episode, but I think it could have been done in a less heavy-handed way.

I feel bad for Joanne. Yes, she should have given the compact to them the first time, but she never used it and has to still deal with all this guilt in regards to it.

Also like that the cursed items can change what they offer depending on who is currently using it. For Helen the first time, it was complete love and smothering devotion. For Tabitha it was restoring her face to youthful beauty. I would assume all the items then had this ability.

Loved Micki and Ryan doting on the sick Jack, who played reluctant but liked the attention.

Next week: Better Off Dead

#episode recap #season two #face of evil #80s tv #compact mirror #compact #sequel #ryan dallion #jack marshak #micki foster #louise robey #robey #john d. lemay #chris wiggins #curious goods

[fuojbe-beowgi]

"The Story Behind DeSantis’s Migrant Flights to Martha’s Vineyard" by Edgar Sandoval, Miriam Jordan, Patricia Mazzei and J. David Goodman via NYT U.S. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/02/us/migrants-marthas-vineyard-desantis-texas.html?partner=IFTTT

#IFTTT #NYT

[topvehicles]

David Mazzei’s Four rotor Rx7 came to our Cars and Coffee in Alabama

via reddit

#cars #david mazzei #four #alabama

[topoet]

Essex Excess

On two cds of mp3s I have David Essex’s Rock On; Essex; All The Fun Of The Fair (these three I had at one time as lps); Imperial Wizard; Out On The Street; Gold & Ivory; Hot Love. Those first three were played & played. I was totally into this British pop sound, engineering was pristine, writing was inventive, sexy and his voice was great, plus he was sort of cute. There was a sense of…

View On WordPress

#arts #Bachman–Turner Overdrive #Capturing Fire #David Essex #Duncan T. Armstrong #entertainment #gay #Hot Damn! It&039;s a Queer Slam #Kiki Dee #Lemurian Congress #literature #male #Myke Mazzei #National Novel Writing Month #novel #queer #review #spoken-word #TOpoet #TOpoet.ca #Toronto

[diyeipetea]

Jean Toussaint JT4 (Festival de Jazz Zubipean 2022 Jazz Jaialdia. Puente la Reina - Gares, Navarra) Por Pachi Tapiz y Sera Martín [Concierto de jazz]

Jean Toussaint JT4 (Festival de Jazz Zubipean 2022 Jazz Jaialdia. Puente la Reina – Gares, Navarra) Por Pachi Tapiz y Sera Martín [Concierto de jazz]

Festival de Jazz Zubipean 2022 Jazz Jaialdia Festival de Jazz Zubipean 2022 Jazz Jaialdia Fecha: sábado 20 de agosto de 2022. 20:00. Lugar: Puente Románico, Puente La Reina – Gares, Navarra. Grupo: Jean Toussaint JT4 Jean Toussaint, saxo tenor Antonio Mazzei, piano David Mengual, contrabajo Marc Miralta, batería El segundo concierto de la edición de 2022 de Jazz Zubipean estuvo protagonizado…

View On WordPress

#Antonio Mazzei #Art Blakey #Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers #Courtney Pine #David Mengual #donald harrison #Festival de Jazz Zubipean #Festival de Jazz Zubipean 2022 #Festival de Jazz Zubipean 2022 Jazz Jaialdia #Festival de Jazz Zubipean Jaialdia #Gil Evans #Horace Silver #Jason Rebelo #Jean Toussaint #Jean Toussaint JT4 #JT4 #Julian Joseph #Lonnie Plaxico #Marc Miralta #Max Roach #mccoy tyner #Mulgrew Miller #Pachi Tapiz #Sera Martín #Steve Williamson #Terence Blanchard #Wallace Roney

[artycloudpop]

1hey are u bored at home, wanna chill and netflix....... but just can’t find some thing nice to watch? here’s a list of movies for u watch

A Ghost Story (2017)

Director David Lowery (Pete's Dragon) conceived this dazzling, dreamy meditation on the afterlife during the off-hours on a Disney blockbuster, making the revelations within even more awe-inspiring. After a fatal accident, a musician (Casey Affleck) finds himself as a sheet-draped spirit, wandering the halls of his former home, haunting/longing for his widowed wife (Rooney Mara). With stylistic quirks, enough winks to resist pretension (a scene where Mara devours a pie in one five-minute, uncut take is both tragic and cheeky), and a soundscape culled from the space-time continuum, A Ghost Story connects the dots between romantic love, the places we call home, and time -- a ghost's worst enemy.

Airplane! (1980)

This is one of the funniest movie of all time. Devised by the jokesters behind The Naked Gun, this disaster movie spoof stuffs every second of runtime with a physical gag (The nun slapping a hysterical woman!), dimwitted wordplay ("Don't call me, Shirley"), an uncomfortable moment of odd behavior ("Joey, have you ever seen a grown man naked?"), or some other asinine bit. The rare comedy that demands repeat viewings, just to catch every micro-sized joke and memorize every line.

A24

American Honey (2016)

Writer/director Andrea Arnold lets you sit shotgun for the travels of a group of wayward youth in American Honey, a seductive drama about a "mag crew" selling subscriptions and falling in and out of love with each other on the road. Seen through the eyes of Star, played by Sasha Lane, life on the Midwest highway proves to be directionless, filled with a stream of partying and steamy hookups in the backs of cars and on the side of the road, especially when she starts to develop feelings for Shia LaBeouf’s rebellious Jake. It’s an honest look at a group of disenfranchised young people who are often cast aside, and it’s blazing with energy. You’ll buy what they're selling.

Anna Karenina (2012)

Adapted by renowned playwright Tom Stoppard, this take on Leo Tolstoy's classic Russian novel is anything but stuffy, historical drama. Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander are all overflowing with passion and desire, heating up the chilly backdrop of St. Petersburg. But it's director Joe Wright's unique staging -- full of dance, lush costuming, fourth-wall-breaking antics, and other theatrical touches -- that reinvent the story for more daring audiences.

NETFLIX

Apostle (2018)

For his follow-up to his two action epics, The Raid and The Raid 2, director Gareth Evans dials back the hand-to-hand combat but still keeps a few buckets of blood handy in this grisly supernatural horror tale. Dan Stevens stars as Thomas Richardson, an early 20th century opium addict traveling to a cloudy island controlled by a secretive cult that's fallen on hard times. The religious group is led by a bearded scold named Father Malcolm (Michael Sheen) who may or may not be leading his people astray. Beyond a few bursts of kinetic violence and some crank-filled torture sequences, Evans plays this story relatively down-the-middle, allowing the performances, the lofty themes, and the windswept vistas to do the talking. It's a cult movie that earns your devotion slowly, then all at once.

Back to the Future (1985)

Buckle into Doc's DeLorean and head to the 1950s by way of 1985 with the seminal time-travel series that made Michael J. Fox a household name. It's always a joy watching Marty McFly's race against the clock way-back-when to ensure history runs its course and he can get back to the present. Netflix also has follow-up Parts II and III, which all add up to a perfect rainy afternoon marathon.

NETFLIX

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)

The Coen brothers gave some big-name-director cred to Netflix by releasing their six-part Western anthology on the streaming service, and while it's not necessarily their best work, Buster Scruggs is clearly a cut above most Netflix originals. Featuring star turns from Liam Neeson, Tom Waits, Zoe Kazan, and more, the film takes advantage of Netflix's willingness to experiment by composing a sort of death fugue that unfolds across the harsh realities of life in Manifest Destiny America. Not only does it revel in the massive, sweeping landscapes of the American West, but it's a thoughtful meditation on death that will reveal layer after layer long after you finish.

Barbershop (2002)

If you've been sleeping on the merits of the Barbershop movies, the good news is it's never too late to get caught up. Revisit the 2002 installment that started Ice Cube's smack-talking franchise so you can bask in Cedric the Entertainer's hilarious wisdom, enjoy Eve's acting debut, and admire this joyful ode to community.

NETFLIX

Barry (2016)

In 1981, Barack Obama touched down in New York City to begin work at Columbia University. As Barry imagines, just days after settling into his civics class, a white classmate confronts the Barry with an argument one will find in the future president's Twitter @-mentions: "Why does everything always got to be about slavery?" Exaltation is cinematic danger, especially when bringing the life of a then-sitting president to screen. Barry avoids hagiography by staying in the moment, weighing race issues of a modern age and quieting down for the audience to draw its own conclusions. Devon Terrell is key, steadying his character as smooth-operating, socially active, contemplative fellow stuck in an interracial divide. Barry could be any half-black, half-white kid from the '80s. But in this case, he's haunted by past, present, and future.

Being John Malkovich (1999)

You can't doubt the audacity of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Anomalisa), whose first produced screenplay hinged on attracting the title actor to a script that has office drones discovering a portal into his mind. John Cusack, Catherine Keener, and Cameron Diaz combine to create an atmosphere of desperate, egomaniacal darkness, and by the end you'll feel confused and maybe a little slimy about the times you've participated in celebrity gawking.

A24

The Blackcoat's Daughter (2017)

Two young women are left behind at school during break... and all sorts of hell breaks loose. This cool, stylish thriller goes off in some strange directions (and even offers a seemingly unrelated subplot about a mysterious hitchhiker) but it all pays off in the end, thanks in large part to the three leads -- Emma Roberts, Lucy Boynton, and Kiernan Shipka -- and director Oz Perkins' artful approach to what could have been just another occult-based gore-fest.

Bloodsport (1988)

Jean-Claude Van Damme made a career out of good-not-great fluff. Universal Soldier is serviceable spectacle, Hard Target is a living cartoon, Lionheart is his half-baked take on On the Waterfront. Bloodsport, which owes everything to the legacy of Bruce Lee, edges out his Die Hard riff Sudden Death for his best effort, thanks to muscles-on-top-of-muscles-on-top-of-muscles fighting and Stan Bush's "Fight to Survive." Magic Mike has nothing on Van Damme's chiseled backside in Bloodsport, which flexes its way through a slow-motion karate-chop gauntlet. In his final face-off, Van Damme, blinded by arena dust, rage-screams his way to victory. The amount of adrenaline bursting out of Bloodsport demands a splash zone.

Blue Ruin (2013)

Before he went punk with 2016's siege thriller Green Room, director Jeremy Saulnier delivered this low-budget, darkly comic hillbilly noir. When Dwight Evans (Macon Blair) discovers that the man who killed his parents is being released from prison, he returns home to Virginia to claims his revenge and things quickly spin out of control. Like the Coen Brothers' Blood Simple, this wise-ass morality tale will make you squirm.

WELL GO USA ENTERTAINMEN

Burning (2018)

Some mysteries simmer; this one smolders. In his adaptation of a Haruki Murakami short story, writer and director Lee Chang-dong includes many elements of the acclaimed author's slyly mischievous style -- cats, jazz, cooking, and an alienated male writer protagonist all pop up -- but he also invests the material with his own dark humor, stray references to contemporary news, and an unyielding sense of curiosity. We follow aimless aspiring novelist Lee Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in) as he reconnects with Shin Hae-mi (Jeon Jong-seo), a young woman he grew up with, but the movie never lets you get too comfortable in one scene or setting. When Steven Yeun's Ben, a handsome rich guy with a beautiful apartment and a passion for burning down greenhouses, appears, the film shifts to an even more tremulous register. Can Ben be trusted? Yeun's performance is perfectly calibrated to entice and confuse, like he's a suave, pyromaniac version of Tyler Durden. Each frame keeps you guessing.

Cam (2018)

Unlike the Unfriended films or this summer's indie hit Searching, this web thriller from director Daniel Goldhaber and screenwriter Isa Mazzei isn't locked into the visual confines of a computer screen. Though there's plenty of online screen time, allowing for subtle bits of commentary and satire, the looser style allows the filmmakers to really explore the life and work conditions of their protagonist, rising cam girl Alice (Madeline Brewer). We meet her friends, her family, and her customers. That type of immersion in the granular details makes the scarier bits -- like an unnerving confrontation in the finale between Alice and her evil doppelganger -- pop even more.

THE ORCHARD

Creep (2014)

Patrick Brice's found-footage movie is a no-budget answer to a certain brand of horror, but saying more would give away its sinister turns. Just know that the man behind the camera answered a Craigslist ad to create a "day in the life" video diary for Josef (Mark Duplass), who really loves life. Creep proves that found footage, the indie world's no-budget genre solution, still has life, as long as you have a performer like Duplass willing to go all the way.

The Death of Stalin (2017)

Armando Iannucci, the brilliant Veep creator, set his sights on Russia with this savage political satire. Based on a graphic novel, the film dramatizes the madcap, maniacal plots of the men jostling for power after their leader, Joseph Stalin, keels over. From there, backstabbing, furious insults, and general chaos unfolds. Anchored by performances from Shakespearean great Simon Russell Beale and American icon Steve Buscemi, it's a pleasure to see what the rest of the cast -- from Star Trek: Discovery's Jason Isaacs to Homeland's Rupert Friend -- do with Iannucci's eloquently brittle text.

Den of Thieves (2018)

If there's one thing you've probably heard about this often ridiculous bank robbery epic, it's that it steals shamelessly from Michael Mann's crime saga Heat. The broad plot elements are similar: There's a team of highly-efficient criminals led by a former Marine (Pablo Schreiber) and they must contend with a obsessive, possibly unhinged cop (Gerard Butler) over the movie's lengthy 140 minute runtime.  A screenwriter helming a feature for the first time, director Christian Gudegast is not in the same league as Mann as a filmmaker and Butler, sporting unflattering tattoos and a barrel-like gut, is hardly Al Pacino. But everyone is really going for it here, attempting to squeeze every ounce of Muscle Milk from the bottle.

NETFLIX

Divines (2016)

Thrillers don't come much more propulsive or elegant than Houda Benyamina's Divines, a heartwarming French drama about female friendship that spirals into a pulse-pounding crime saga. Rambunctious teenager Dounia (Oulaya Amamra) and her best friend Maimouna (Déborah Lukumuena) begin the film as low-level shoplifters and thieves, but once they fall into the orbit of a slightly older, seasoned drug dealer named Rebecca (Jisca Kalvanda), they're on a Goodfellas-like trajectory. Benyamina offsets the violent, gritty genre elements with lyrical passages where Dounia watches her ballet-dancer crush rehearse his routines from afar, and kinetic scenes of the young girls goofing off on social media. It's a cautionary tale told with joy, empathy, and an eye for beauty.

Dolemite Is My Name (2019)

Eddie Murphy has been waiting years to get this movie about comedian and blaxploitation star Rudy Ray Moore made, and you can feel his joy in finally getting to play this role every second he's on screen. The film, directed by Hustle & Flow's Craig Brewer, charts how Moore rose from record store employee, to successful underground comedian, to making his now-cult classic feature Dolemite by sheer force of passion. It's thrilling (and hilarious) to watch Murphy adopt Moore's Dolemite persona, a swaggering pimp, but it's just as satisfying to see the former SNL star capture his character at his lowest points. He's surrounded by an ensemble that matches his infectious energy.

The Edge of Seventeen (2016)

As romanticized as adolescence can be, it’s hard being young. Following the high school experience of troubled, overdramatic Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld), The Edge of Seventeen portrays the woes of adolescence with a tender, yet appropriately cheeky tone. As if junior year isn’t hellish enough, the universe essentially bursts into flames when Nadine finds out her best friend is dating her brother; their friendship begins to dissolve, and she finds the only return on young love is embarrassment and pain. That may all sound like a miserable premise for a young-adult movie, except it’s all painfully accurate, making it endearingly hilarious -- and there’s so much to love about Steinfeld’s self-aware performance.

FOCUS FEATURES

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Romance and love are nothing without the potential for loss and pain, but most of us would probably still consider cutting away all the worst memories of the latter. Given the option to eradicate memories of their busted relationship, Jim Carrey's Joel and Kate Winslet's Clementine go through with the procedure, only to find themselves unable to totally let go. Science fiction naturally lends itself to clockwork mechanisms, but director Michel Gondry and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman never lose the human touch as they toy with the kaleidoscope of their characters' hearts and minds.

The Evil Dead (1981)

Before Bruce Campbell's Ash was wielding his chainsaw-arm in Army of Darkness and on Starz's Ash Vs. Evil Dead, he was just a good looking guy hoping to spend a nice, quiet vacation in a cabin with some friends. Unfortunately, the book of the dead had other plans for him. With this low-budget horror classic, director Sam Raimi brings a surprising degree of technical ingenuity to bear on the splatter-film, sending his camera zooming around the woods with wonder and glee. While the sequels double-downed on laughs, the original Evil Dead still knows how to scare.

The Firm (1993)

The '90s were a golden era of sleek, movie-star-packed legal thrillers, and they don't get much better than director Sydney Pollack's The Firm. This John Grisham adaptation has a little bit of everything -- tax paperwork, sneering mobsters, and Garey Busey, for starters -- but there's one reason to watch this movie: the weirdness of Tom Cruise. He does a backflip in this movie. What else do you need to know?

A24

The Florida Project (2017)

Sean Baker's The Florida Project nuzzles into the swirling, sunny, strapped-for-cash populace of a mauve motel just within orbit of Walt Disney World. His eyes are Moonee, a 6-year-old who adventures through abandoned condos, along strip mall-encrusted highway, and across verdant fields of overgrown brush like Max in Where the Wild Things Are. But as gorgeous as the everything appears -- and The Florida Project looks stunning -- the world around here is falling apart, beginning with her mother, an ex-stripper turning to prostitution. The juxtaposition, and down-to-earth style, reconsiders modern America in the most electrifying way imaginable.

Frances Ha (2012)

Before winning hearts and Oscar nominations with her coming-of-age comedy Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig starred in the perfect companion film, about an aimless 27-year-old who hops from New York City to her hometown of Sacramento to Paris to Poughkeepsie and eventually back to New York in hopes of stumbling into the perfect job, the perfect relationship, and the perfect life. Directed by Noah Baumbach (The Meyerowitz Stories), and co-written by both, Frances Ha is a measured look at adult-ish life captured the kind of intoxicating black and white world we dream of living in.

NETFLIX

Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened (2019)

Everyone's favorite disaster of a festival received not one, but two streaming documentaries in the same week. Netflix's version has rightly faced some criticism over its willingness to let marketing company Fuck Jerry off the hook (Jerry Media produced the doc), but that doesn't take away from the overall picture it portrays of the festival's haphazard planning and the addiction to grift from which Fyre's founder, Billy McFarland, apparently suffers. It's schadenfreude at its best.

Gerald's Game (2017)

Like his previous low-budget Netflix-released horror release, Hush, a captivity thriller about a deaf woman fighting off a masked intruder, Mike Flanagan's Stephen King adaptation of Gerald's Game wrings big scares from a small location. Sticking close to the grisly plot details of King's seemingly "unfilmable" novel, the movie chronicles the painstaking struggles of Jessie Burlingame (Carla Gugino) after she finds herself handcuffed to a bed in an isolated vacation home when her husband, the titular Gerald, dies from a heart attack while enacting his kinky sexual fantasies. She's trapped -- and that's it. The premise is clearly challenging to sustain for a whole movie, but Flanagan and Gugino turn the potentially one-note set-up into a forceful, thoughtful meditation on trauma, memory, and resilience in the face of near-certain doom.

A24

Good Time (2017)

In this greasy, cruel thriller from Uncut Gems directors the Safdie brothers, Robert Pattinson stars as Connie, a bank robber who races through Queens to find enough money to bail out his mentally disabled brother, who's locked up for their last botched job. Each suffocating second of Good Time, blistered by the neon backgrounds of Queens, New York and propelled by warped heartbeat of Oneothrix Point Never's synth score, finds Connie evading authorities by tripping into an even stickier situation.

Green Room (2015)

Green Room is a throaty, thrashing, spit-slinging punk tune belted through an invasion-movie microphone at max volume. It's nasty -- and near-perfect. As a band of 20-something rockstars recklessly defend against a neo-Nazi battalion equipped with machetes, shotguns, and snarling guard dogs, the movie blossoms into a savage coming-of-age tale, an Almost Famous for John Carpenter nuts. Anyone looking for similar mayhem should check out director Jeremy Saulnier's previous movie, the low-budget, darkly comic hillbilly noir, Blue Ruin, also streaming on Netflix.

The Guest (2014)

After writer-director Adam Wingard notched a semi-sleeper horror hit with 2011's You're Next, he'd earned a certain degree of goodwill among genre faithful and, apparently, with studio brass. How else to explain distribution for his atypical thriller The Guest through Time Warner subsidiary Picturehouse? Headlined by soon-to-be megastar Dan Stevens and kindred flick It Follows' lead scream queen Maika Monroe, The Guest introduces itself as a subtextual impostor drama, abruptly spins through a blender of '80s teen tropes, and ultimately reveals its true identity as an expertly self-conscious straight-to-video shoot 'em up, before finally circling back on itself with a well-earned wink. To say anymore about the hell that Stevens' "David" unleashes on a small New Mexico town would not only spoil the fun, but possibly get you killed.

THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY

The Hateful Eight (2015)

Quentin Tarantino has something to say about race, violence, and American life, and it's going to ruffle feathers. Like Django Unchained, the writer-director reflects modern times on the Old West, but with more scalpel-sliced dialogue, profane poetry, and gore. Stewed from bits of Agatha Christie, David Mamet, and Sam Peckinpah, The Hateful Eight traps a cast of blowhards (including Samuel L. Jackson as a Civil War veteran, Kurt Russell as a bounty hunter known as "The Hangman," and Jennifer Jason Leigh as a psychopathic gang member) in a blizzard-enveloped supply station. Tarantino ups the tension by shooting his suffocating space in "glorious 70mm." Treachery and moral compromise never looked so good.

High Flying Bird (2019)

High Flying Bird is a basketball film that has little to do with the sport itself, instead focusing on the behind-the-scenes power dynamics that play out during an NBA lockout. At the center of the Steven Soderbergh movie -- shot on an iPhone, because that's what he does now -- is André Holland's Ray Burke, a sports agent trying to protect his client's interests while also disrupting a corrupt system. It's not an easy tightrope to walk, and, as you might expect, the conditions of the labor stoppage constantly change the playing field. With his iPhone mirroring the NBA's social media-heavy culture, and appearances from actual NBA stars lending the narrative heft, Soderbergh experiments with Netflix's carte blanche and produces a unique film that adds to the streaming service's growing list of original critical hits.

PARAMOUNT PICTURES

Hugo (2011)

Martin Scorsese hit pause on mob violence and Rolling Stones singles to deliver one of the greatest kid-centric films in eons. Following Hugo (Asa Butterfield) as he traces his own origin story through cryptic automaton clues and early 20th-century movie history, the grand vision wowed in 3-D and still packs a punch at home.

I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016)

A meditative horror flick that's more unsettling than outright frightening, I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House follows the demise of Lily, a live-in nurse (Ruth Wilson) who's caring for an ailing horror author. As Lily discovers the truth about the writer's fiction and home, the lines between the physical realm and the afterlife blur. The movie's slow pacing and muted escalation might frustrate viewers craving showy jump-scares, but writer-director Oz Perkins is worth keeping tabs on. He brings a beautiful eeriness to every scene, and his story will captivate patient streamers. Fans should be sure to check out his directorial debut, The Blackcoat's Daughter.

NETFLIX

I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore (2017)

In this maniacal mystery, Ruth (Melanie Lynskey), a nurse, and her rattail-sporting, weapon-obsessed neighbor Tony (Elijah Wood) hunt down a local burglar. Part Cormac McCarthy thriller, part wacky, Will Ferrell-esque comedy, I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore is a cathartic neo-noir about everyday troubles. Director Macon Blair's not the first person to find existential enlightenment at the end of an amateur detective tale, but he might be the first to piece one together from cussing octogenarians, ninja stars, Google montages, gallons of Big Red soda, upper-deckers, friendly raccoons, exploding body parts, and the idiocy of humanity.

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

With a bullwhip, a leather jacket, and an "only Harrison Ford can pull this off" fedora, director Steven Spielberg invented the modern Hollywood action film by doing what he does best: looking backward. As obsessed as his movie-brat pal and collaborator George Lucas with the action movie serials of their youth, the director mined James Bond, Humphrey Bogart, Westerns, and his hatred of Nazis to create an adventure classic. To watch Raiders of the Lost Ark now is to marvel at the ingenuity of specific sequences (the boulder! The truck scene! The face-melting!) and simply groove to the self-deprecating comic tone (snakes! Karen Allen! That swordsman Indy shoots!). The past has never felt so alive.

Inside Man (2006)

Denzel Washington is at his wily, sharp, and sharply dressed best as he teams up once again with Spike Lee for this wildly entertaining heist thriller. He's an NYPD hostage negotiator who discovers a whole bunch of drama when a crew of robbers (led by Clive Owen) takes a bank hostage during a 24-hour period. Jodie Foster also appears as an interested party with uncertain motivations. You'll have to figure out what's going on several times over before the truth outs.

DRAFTHOUSE FILMS

The Invitation (2015)

This slow-burn horror-thriller preys on your social anxiety. The film's first half-hour, which finds Quarry's Logan Marshall-Green arriving at his ex-wife's house to meet her new husband, plays like a Sundance dramedy about 30-something yuppies and their relationship woes. As the minutes go by, director Karyn Kusama (Jennifer's Body) burrows deeper into the awkward dinner party, finding tension in unwelcome glances, miscommunication, and the possibility that Marshall-Green's character might be misreading a bizarre situation as a dangerous one. We won't spoil what happens, but let's just say this is a party you'll be telling your friends about.

Ip Man (2008)

There aren't many biopics that also pass for decent action movies. Somehow, Hong Kong action star Donnie Yen and director Wilson Yip made Ip Man (and three sequels!) based on the life of Chinese martial arts master Yip Kai-man, who famously trained Bruce Lee. What's their trick to keeping this series fresh? Play fast and loose with the facts, up the melodrama with each film, and, when in doubt, cast Mike Tyson as an evil property developer. The fights are incredible, and Yen's portrayal of the aging master still has the power to draw a few tears from even the most grizzled tough guy.

NETFLIX

The Irishman (2019)

Opening with a tracking shot through the halls of a drab nursing home, where we meet a feeble old man telling tall tales from his wheelchair, The Irishman delights in undercutting its own grandiosity. All the pageantry a $150 million check from Netflix can buy -- the digital de-aging effects, the massive crowd scenes, the shiny rings passed between men -- is on full display. Everything looks tremendous. But, like with 2013's The Wolf of Wall Street, the characters can't escape the fundamental spiritual emptiness of their pursuits. In telling the story of Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro), a World War II veteran and truck driver turned mob enforcer and friend to labor leader Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino), director Martin Scorsese and screenwriter Steven Zaillian construct an underworld-set counter-narrative of late 20th century American life. Even with a 209 minute runtime, every second counts.

It Comes at Night (2017)

In this post-apocalyptic nightmare-and-a-half, the horrors of humanity, the strain of chaotic emotions pent up in the name of survival, bleed out through wary eyes and weathered hands. The setup is blockbuster-sized -- reverts mankind to the days of the American frontier, every sole survivor fights to protect their families and themselves -- but the drama is mano-a-mano. Barricaded in a haunted-house-worthy cabin in the woods, Paul (Edgerton) takes in Will (Abbott) and his family, knowing full well they could threaten his family's existence. All the while, Paul's son, Trevor, battles bloody visions of (or induced by?) the contagion. Shults directs the hell out of every slow-push frame of this psychological thriller, and the less we know, the more confusion feels like a noose around our necks, the scarier his observations become.

WARNER BROS. PICTURES

Jupiter Ascending (2015)

Jupiter Ascending is one of those "bad" movies that might genuinely be quite good. Yes, Channing Tatum is a man-wolf and Mila Kunis is the princess of space and bees don't sting space royalty and Eddie Redmayne hollers his little head off about "harvesting" people -- but what makes this movie great is how all of those things make total, absolute sense in the context of the story. The world the Wachowskis (yes, the Wachowskis!) created is so vibrant and strange and exciting, you almost can't help but get drawn in, even when Redmayne vamps so hard you're afraid he's about to pull a muscle. (And if you're a ballet fan, we have some good news for you.)

Jurassic Park (1993)

Perhaps the only movie that ever truly deserved a conversion to a theme-park ride, Steven Spielberg's thrilling adaptation of the Michael Crichton novel brought long-extinct creatures back to life in more ways than one. Benevolent Netflix gives us more than just the franchise starter, too: The Lost World and JP3 sequels are also available, so you can make a marathon of it.

THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY

Killing Them Softly (2012)

Brad Pitt doesn't make conventional blockbusters anymore -- even World War Z had epidemic-movie ambitions -- so it's not surprising that this crime thriller is a little out there. Set during the financial crisis and presidential election of 2008, the film follows Pitt's hitman character as he makes sense of a poker heist gone wrong, leaving a trail of bodies and one-liners along the way. Mixed in with the carnage, you get lots of musings about the economy and American exceptionalism. It's not subtle -- there's a scene where Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn do heroin while the Velvet Underground's "Heroin" plays -- but, like a blunt object to the head, it gets the job done.

Lady Bird (2017)

The dizzying, frustrating, exhilarating rite of passage that is senior year of high school is the focus of actress Greta Gerwig's first directorial effort, the story of girl named Lady Bird (her given name, in that "it’s given to me, by me") who rebels against everyday Sacramento, California life to obtain whatever it is "freedom" turns out to be. Laurie Metcalf is an understated powerhouse as Lady Bird's mother, a constant source of contention who doggedly pushes her daughter to be successful in the face of the family's dwindling economic resources. It's a tragic note in total complement to Gerwig's hysterical love letter to home, high school, and the history of ourselves.

A24

The Lobster (2016)

Greek style master Yorgos Lanthimos' dystopian allegory against romance sees Colin Farrell forced to choose a partner in 45 days or he'll be turned into an animal of his choice, which is a lobster. Stuck in a group home with similarly unlucky singles, Farrell's David decides to bust out and join other renegades in a kind of anti-love terror cell that lives in the woods. It's part comedy of manners, part futuristic thriller, and it looks absolutely beautiful -- Lanthimos handles the bizarre premise with grace and a naturalistic eye that reminds the viewer that humans remain one of the most interesting animals to exist on this planet.

Mad Max (1979)

Before Tom Hardy was grunting his way through the desert and crushing tiny two-headed reptiles as Max Rockatansky, there was Mel Gibson. George Miller's 1979 original introduces the iconic character and paints the maximum force of his dystopian mythology in a somewhat more grounded light -- Australian police factions, communities, and glimmers of hope still in existence. Badass homemade vehicles and chase scenes abound in this taut, 88-minute romp. It's aged just fine.

Magic Mike (2012)

Steven Soderbergh's story of a Tampa exotic dancer with a heart of gold (Channing Tatum) has body-rolled its way to Netflix. Sexy dance routines aside, Mike's story is just gritty enough to be subversive. Did we mention Matthew McConaughey shows up in a pair of ass-less chaps?

The Master (2012)

Loosely inspired by the life of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard -- Dianetics buffs, we strongly recommend Alex Gibney's Going Clear documentary as a companion piece -- The Master boasts one of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman’s finest performances, as the enigmatic cult leader Lancaster Dodd. Joaquin Phoenix burns just as brightly as his emotionally stunted, loose-cannon protege Freddie Quell, who has a taste for homemade liquor. Paul Thomas Anderson’s cerebral epic lends itself to many different readings; it’s a cult story, it's a love story, it's a story about post-war disillusionment and the American dream, it's a story of individualism and the desire to belong. But the auteur's popping visuals and heady thematic currents will still sweep you away, even if you’re not quite sure where the tide is taking you.

NETFLIX

The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (2017)

When Danny (Adam Sandler), Matthew (Ben Stiller) and Jean (Elizabeth Marvel), three half-siblings from three different mothers, gather at their family brownstone in New York to tend to their ailing father (Dustin Hoffman), a lifetime of familial politics explode out of every minute of conversation. Their narcissistic sculptor dad didn't have time for Danny. Matthew was the golden child. Jean was weird… or maybe disturbed by memories no one ever knew. Expertly sketched by writer-director Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale) this memoir-like portrait of lives half-lived is the kind of bittersweet, dimensional character comedy we're now used to seeing told in three seasons of prestige television. Baumbach gives us the whole package in two hours.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

The legendary British comedy troupe took the legend of King Arthur and offered a characteristically irreverent take on it in their second feature film. It's rare for comedy to hold up this well, but the timelessness of lines like, "I fart in your general direction!" "It's just a flesh wound," and "Run away!" makes this a movie worth watching again and again.

A24

Moonlight (2016)

Chronicling the boyhood years, teenage stretch, and muted adult life of Chiron, a black gay man making it in Miami, this triptych altarpiece is at once hyper-specific and cosmically universal. Director Barry Jenkins roots each moment in the last; Chiron's desire for a lost lover can't burn in a diner booth over a bottle of wine without his beachside identity crisis years prior, blurred and violent, or encounters from deeper in his past, when glimpses of his mother's drug addiction, or the mentoring acts of her crack supplier, felt like secrets delivered in code. Panging colors, sounds, and the delicate movements of its perfect cast like the notes of a symphony, Moonlight is the real deal, a movie that will only grow and complicate as you wrestle with it.

Mudbound (2017)

The South's post-slavery existence is, for Hollywood, mostly uncharted territory. Rees rectifies the overlooked stretch of history with this novelistic drama about two Mississippi families working a rain-drenched farm in 1941. The white McAllans settle on a muddy patch of land to realize their dreams. The Jacksons, a family of black sharecroppers working the land, have their own hopes, which their neighbors manage to nurture and curtail. To capture a multitude of perspectives, Mudbound weaves together specific scenes of daily life, vivid and memory-like, with family member reflections, recorded in whispered voice-over. The epic patchwork stretches from the Jackson family dinner table, where the youngest daughter dreams of becoming a stenographer, to the vistas of Mississippi, where incoming storms threaten an essential batch of crops, to the battlefields of World War II Germany, a harrowing scene that will affect both families. Confronting race, class, war, and the possibility of unity, Mudbound spellbinding drama reckons with the past to understand the present.

NETFLIX

My Happy Family (2017)

At 52, Manana (Ia Shughliashvili) packs a bag and walks out on her husband, son, daughter, daughter's live-in boyfriend, and elderly mother and father, all of whom live together in a single apartment. The family is cantankerous and blustery, asking everything of Manana, who spends her days teaching better-behaved teenagers about literature. But as Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß's striking character study unfolds, the motivation behind Manana's departure is a deeper strain of frustration, despite what her brother, aunts, uncles, and anyone else who can cram themselves into the situation would like us to think. Anchored by Ia Shughliashvili's stunningly internal performance, and punctured by a dark sense of humor akin to Darren Aronofsky's mother! (which would have been the perfect alternate title), My Happy Family is both delicate and brutal in its portrayal of independence, and should get under the skin of anyone with their own family drama.

The Naked Gun (1988)

The short-lived Dragnet TV spoof Police Squad! found a second life as The Naked Gun action-comedy movie franchise, and the first installment goes all in on Airplane! co-star Leslie Nielsen's brand of straight-laced dementia. Trying to explain The Naked Gun only makes the stupid sound stupider, but keen viewers will find jokes on top of jokes on top of jokes. It's the kind of movie that can crack "nice beaver," then pass a stuffed beaver through the frame and actually get away with it. Nielsen has everything to do with it; his Frank Drebin continues the grand Inspector Clouseau tradition in oh-so-'80s style.

The Notebook (2004)

"If you’re a bird, I’m a bird." It's a simple statement and a declaration of devotion that captures the staying power of this Nicholas Sparks classic. The film made Ryan Gosling a certified heartthrob, charting his working class character Noah's lovelorn romance with Rachel McAdam's wealthy character Allie. The star-crossed lovers narrative is enough to make even the most cynical among us swoon, but given that their story is told through an elderly man reading (you guessed it!) a notebook to a woman with dementia, it hits all of the tragic romance benchmarks to make you melt. Noah's commitment to following his heart -- and that passionate kiss in the rain -- make this a love story for the ages.

NETFLIX

Okja (2017)

This wild ride, part action heist, part Miyazaki-like travelogue, and part scathing satire, is fueled by fairy tale whimsy -- but the Grimm kind, where there are smiles and spilled blood. Ahn Seo-hyun plays Mija, the young keeper of a "super-pig," bred by a food manufacturer to be the next step in human-consumption evolution. When the corporate overlords come for her roly-poly pal, Mija hightails it from the farm to the big city to break him out, crossing environmental terrorists, a zany Steve Irwin-type (Gyllenhaal), and the icy psychos at the top of the food chain (including Swinton's childlike CEO) along the way. Okja won't pluck your heartstrings like E.T., but there's grandeur in its frenzy, and the film's cross-species friendship will strike up every other emotion with its empathetic, eco-friendly, and eccentric observations.

On Body and Soul (2017)

This Hungarian film earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Film, and it's easy to see why. The sparse love story begins when two slaughterhouse employees discover they have the same dream at night, in which they're both deer searching the winter forest for food. Endre, a longtime executive at the slaughterhouse, has a physically damaged arm, whereas Maria is a temporary replacement who seems to be on the autism spectrum. If the setup sounds a bit on-the-nose, the moving performances and the unflinching direction save On Body and Soul from turning into a Thomas Aquinas 101 class, resulting in the kind of bleak beauty you can find in a dead winter forest.

NETFLIX

The Other Side of the Wind (2018)

Don't go into Orson Welles' final film expecting it to be an easy watch. The Other Side of the Wind, which follows fictional veteran Hollywood director Jake Hannaford (tooootally not modeled after Welles himself) and his protegé (also tooootally not a surrogate for Welles' own friend and mentee Peter Bogdanovich, who also plays the character) as they attend a party in celebration of Hannaford's latest film and are beset on all sides by Hannaford's friends, enemies, and everyone in between. The film, which Welles hoped would be his big comeback to Hollywood, was left famously unfinished for decades after his death in 1985. Thanks to Bogdanovich and producer Frank Marshall, it was finally completed in 2018, and the result is a vibrant and bizarre throwback to Welles' own experimental 1970s style, made even more resonant if you know how intertwined the movie is with its own backstory. If you want to dive even deeper, Netflix also released a documentary about the restoration and completion of the film, They'll Love Me When I'm Dead, which delves into Welles' own complicated and tragic relationship with Hollywood and the craft of moviemaking.

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Guillermo Del Toro’s dark odyssey Pan’s Labyrinth takes a fantasy setting to mirror the horrible political realities of the human realm. Set in 1940s Falangist Spain, the film documents the hero’s journey of a young girl and stepdaughter of a ruthless Spanish army officer as she seeks an escape from her war-occupied world. When a fairy informs her that her true destiny may be as the princess of the underworld, she seizes her chance. Like Alice in Wonderland if Alice had gone to Hell instead of down the rabbit hole, the Academy Award-winning film is a wondrous, frightening fairy tale where that depicts how perilous the human-created monster of war can be.

Paranormal Activity (2007)

This documentary-style film budgeted at a mere $15,000 made millions at the box office and went on to inspire a number of sequels, all because of how well its scrappiness lent to capturing what feels like a terrifying haunted reality. Centered on a young couple who is convinced an evil spirit is lurking in their home, the two attempt to capture its activity on camera, which, obviously, only makes their supernatural matters worse. It leans on found footage horror tropes made popular by The Blair Witch Project and as it tessellates between showing the viewer what’s captured on their camcorders and the characters’ perspectives, it’s easy to get lost in this disorienting supernatural thriller.

UNIVERSAL PICTURES

Poltergeist (1982)

If you saw Poltergeist growing up, chances are you’re probably equally as haunted by Heather O’Rourke as she is in the film, playing a little girl tormented by ghosts in her family home. This Steven Spielberg-penned, Tobe Hooper-directed (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) paranormal flick is a certified cult classic and one of the best horror films of all time, coming from a simple premise about a couple whose home is infested with spirits obsessed with reclaiming the space and kidnapping their daughter. Poltergeist made rearranged furniture freaky, and you may remember a particularly iconic scene with a fuzzed out vintage television set. It’s may be nearly 40 years old, but the creepiness holds up.

Pride & Prejudice (2005)

Taking Jane Austen's literary classic and tricking it out with gorgeous long takes, director Joe Wright turns this tale of manners into a visceral, luminescent portrait of passion and desire. While Succession's Matthew MacFadyen might not make you forget Colin Firth from 1995's BBC adaptation, Keira Knightley is a revelation as the tough, nervy Lizzie Bennett. With fun supporting turns from Donald Sutherland, Rosamund Pike, and Judi Dench, it's a sumptuous period romance that transports you from the couch to the ballroom of your dreams -- without changing out of sweatpants.

NETFLIX

Private Life (2018)

Over a decade since the release of her last dark comedy, The Savages, writer and director Tamara Jenkins returned with a sprawling movie in the same vein: more hyper-verbal jerks you can't help but love. Richard (Paul Giamatti) and Rachel (Kathryn Hahn) are a Manhattan-dwelling couple who have spent the last few years attempting to have a baby with little success. When we meet them, they're already in the grips of fertility mania, willing to try almost anything to secure the offspring they think they desire. With all the details about injections, side effects, and pricey medical procedures, the movie functions as a taxonomy of modern pregnancy anxieties, and Hahn brings each part of the process to glorious life.

The Ritual (2018)

The Ritual, a horror film where a group of middle-aged men embark on a hiking trip in honor of a dead friend, understands the tension between natural beauty of the outdoors and the unsettling panic of the unknown. The group's de facto leader Luke (an understated Rafe Spall) attempts to keep the adventure from spiralling out of control, but the forest has other plans. (Maybe brush up on your Scandinavian mythology before viewing.) Like a backpacking variation on Neil Marshall's 2005 cave spelunking classic The Descent, The Ritual deftly explores inter-personal dynamics while delivering jolts of other-worldly terror. It'll have you rethinking that weekend getaway on your calendar.

NETFLIX

Roma (2018)

All those billions Netflix spent paid off in the form of several Oscar nominations for Roma, including one for Best Picture and a win for Best Director. Whether experienced in the hushed reverence of a theater, watched on the glowing screen of a laptop, or, as Netflix executive Ted Sarandos has suggested, binged on the perilous surface of a phone, Alfonso Cuarón's black-and-white passion project seeks to stun. A technical craftsman of the highest order, the Children of Men and Gravity director has an aesthetic that aims to overwhelm -- with the amount of extras, the sense of despair, and the constant whir of exhilaration -- and this autobiographical portrait of kind-hearted maid Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio) caring for a family in the early 1970s has been staged on a staggering, mind-boggling scale.

Schindler's List (1993)

A passion project for Steven Spielberg, who shot it back-to-back with another masterpiece, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List tells the story of Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who reportedly saved over 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust. Frank, honest, and stark in its depiction of Nazi violence, the three-hour historical drama is a haunting reminder of the world's past, every frame a relic, every lost voice channeled through Itzhak Perlman's mourning violin.

A Serious Man (2009)

This dramedy from the Coen brothers stars Michael Stuhlbarg as Larry Gopnik, a Midwestern physics professor who just can't catch a break, whether it's with his wife, his boss, or his rabbi. (Seriously, if you're having a bad day, this airy flick gives you ample time to brood and then come to the realization that your life isn't as shitty as you think.) Meditating on the spiritual and the temporal, Gopnik's improbable run of bad luck is a smart modern retelling of the Book of Job, with more irony and fewer plagues and pestilences. But not much fewer.

WELL GO USA

Shadow (2019)

In Shadow, the visually stunning action epic from Hero and House of Flying Daggers wuxia master Zhang Yimou, parasols are more than helpful sun-blockers: They can be turned into deadly weapons, shooting boomerang-like blades of steel at oncoming attackers and transforming into protective sleds for traveling through the slick streets. These devices are one of many imaginative leaps made in telling this Shakespearean saga of palace intrigue, vengeance, and secret doppelgangers set in China's Three Kingdoms period. This is a martial arts epic where the dense plotting is as tricky as the often balletic fight scenes. If the battles in Game of Thrones left you frustrated, Shadow provides a thrilling alternative.

She's Gotta Have It (1986)

Before checking out Spike Lee's Netflix original series of the same name, be sure to catch up with where it all began. Nola (Tracy Camilla Johns) juggles three men during her sexual pinnacle, and it's all working out until they discover one another. She's Gotta Have It takes some dark turns, but each revelation speaks volumes about what real romantic independence is all about.

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

The late director Jonathan Demme's 1991 film is the touchstone for virtually every serial killer film and television show that came after. The iconic closeup shots of an icy, confident Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) as he and FBI newbie Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) engage in their "quid pro quo" interrogation sessions create almost unbearable tension as Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine) remains on the loose, killing more victims. Hopkins delivers the more memorable lines, and Buffalo Bill's dance is the stuff of nerve-wracking anxiety nightmares, but it's Foster's nuanced performance as a scared, determined, smart-yet-hesitant agent that sets Silence of the Lambs apart from the rest of the serial killer pack.

THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY

Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, and David O. Russell’s first collaboration -- and the film that turned J-Law into a bona fide golden girl -- is a romantic comedy/dramedy/dance-flick that bounces across its tonal shifts. A love story between Pat (Cooper), a man struggling with bipolar disease and a history of violent outbursts, and Tiffany (Lawrence), a widow grappling with depression, who come together while rehearsing for an amateur dance competition, Silver Linings balances an emotionally realistic depiction of mental illness with some of the best twirls and dips this side of Step Up. Even if you're allergic to rom-coms, Lawrence and Cooper’s winning chemistry will win you over, as will this sweet little gem of a film: a feel-good, affecting love story that doesn’t feel contrived or treacly.

Sin City (2005)

Frank Miller enlisted Robert Rodriguez as co-director to translate the former's wildly popular series of the same name to the big screen, and with some added directorial work from Quentin Tarantino, the result became a watershed moment in the visual history of film. The signature black-and-white palette with splashes of color provided a grim backdrop to the sensational violence of the miniaturized plotlines -- this is perhaps the movie that feels more like a comic than any other movie you'll ever see.

Sinister (2012)

Horror-movie lesson #32: If you move into a creepy new house, do not read the dusty book, listen to the decaying cassette tapes, or watch the Super 8 reels you find in the attic -- they will inevitably lead to your demise. In Sinister, a true-crime author (played by Ethan Hawke) makes the final mistake, losing his mind to home movies haunted by the "Bughuul."

NETFLIX

Small Crimes (2017)

It's always a little discombobulating to see your favorite Game of Thrones actors in movies that don't call on them to fight dragons, swing swords, or at least wear some armor. But that shouldn't stop you from checking out Small Crimes, a carefully paced thriller starring the Kingslayer Jaime Lannister himself, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. As Joe Denton, a crooked cop turned ex-con, Coster-Waldau plays yet another character with a twisted moral compass, but here he's not part of some mythical narrative. He's just another conniving, scheming dirtbag in director E.L. Katz's Coen brothers-like moral universe. While some of the plot details are confusing -- Katz and co-writer Macon Blair skimp on the exposition so much that some of the dialogue can feel incomprehensible -- the mood of Midwestern dread and Coster-Waldau's patient, lived-in performance make this one worth checking out. Despite the lack of dragons.

Snowpiercer (2013)

Did people go overboard in praising Snowpiercer when it came out? Maybe. But it's important to remember that the movie arrived in the sweaty dog days of summer, hitting critics and sci-fi lovers like a welcome blast of icy water from a hose. The film's simple, almost video game-like plot -- get to the front of the train, or die trying -- allowed visionary South Korean director Bong Joon-ho to fill the screen with excitement, absurdity, and radical politics. Chris Evans never looked more alive, Tilda Swinton never stole more scenes, and mainstream blockbuster filmmaking never felt so tepid in comparison. Come on, ride the train!

The Social Network (2010)

After making films like Seven, The Game, Fight Club, Panic Room, and Zodiac, director David Fincher left behind the world of scumbags and crime for a fantastical, historical epic in 2008's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The Social Network was another swerve, but yielded his greatest film. There's no murder on screen, but Fincher treats Jesse Eisenberg's Mark Zuckerberg like a dorky, socially awkward mob boss operating on an operatic scale. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin's rapid-fire, screwball-like dialogue burns with a moral indignation that Fincher's watchful, steady-handed camera chills with an icy distance. It's the rare biopic that's not begging you to smash the "like" button.

SONY PICTURES RELEASING

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

In this shrewd twist on the superhero genre, the audience's familiarity with the origin story of your friendly neighborhood web-slinger -- the character has already starred in three different blockbuster franchises, in addition to countless comics and cartoon TV adaptations -- is used as an asset instead of a liability. The relatively straight-forward coming-of-age tale of Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), a Brooklyn teenager who takes on the powers and responsibilities of Spider-Man following the death of Peter Parker, gets a remix built around an increasingly absurd parallel dimension plotline that introduces a cast of other Spider-Heroes like Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld), Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage), Peni Parker (Kimiko Glen), and, most ridiculously, Spider-Ham (John Mulaney), a talking pig in a Spider-Suit. The convoluted set-up is mostly an excuse to cram the movie with rapid-fire jokes, comic book allusions, and dream-like imagery that puts the rubbery CGI of most contemporary animated films to shame.

Spotlight (2015)

Tom McCarthy stretches the drama taut as he renders Boston Globe's 2000 Catholic Church sex scandal investigation into a Hollywood vehicle. McCarthy's notable cast members crank like gears as they uncover evidence and reflect on a horrifying discovery of which they shoulder partial blame. Spotlight was the cardigan of 2015's Oscar nominees, but even cardigans look sharp when Mark Ruffalo is involved.

The Squid and the Whale (2005)

No movie captures the prolonged pain of divorce quite like Noah Baumbach's brutal Brooklyn-based comedy The Squid and the Whale. While the performances from Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney as bitter writers going through a separation are top-notch, the film truly belongs to the kids, played by Jesse Eisenberg and Owen Kline, who you watch struggle in the face of their parents' mounting immaturity and pettiness. That Baumbach is able to wring big, cathartic laughs from such emotionally raw material is a testament to his gifts as a writer -- and an observer of human cruelty.

SONY PICTURES RELEASING

Starship Troopers (1997)

Paul Verhoeven is undoubtedly the master of the sly sci-fi satire. With RoboCop, he laid waste to the police state with wicked, trigger-happy glee. He took on evil corporations with Total Recall. And with Starship Troopers, a bouncy, bloody war picture, he skewered the chest-thumping theatrics of pro-military propaganda, offering up a pitch-perfect parody of the post-9/11 Bush presidency years before troops set foot in Iraq or Afghanistan. Come for the exploding alien guts, but stay for the winking comedy -- or stay for both! Bug guts have their charms, too.

Swiss Army Man (2016)

You might think a movie that opens with a suicidal man riding a farting corpse like a Jet Ski wears thin after the fourth or fifth flatulence gag. You would be wrong. Brimming with imagination and expression, the directorial debut of Adult Swim auteurs "The Daniels" wields sophomoric humor to speak to friendship. As Radcliffe's dead body springs back to life -- through karate-chopping, water-vomiting, and wind-breaking -- he becomes the id to Dano's struggling everyman, who is also lost in the woods. If your childhood backyard adventures took the shape of The Revenant, it would look something like Swiss Army Man, and be pure bliss.

NETFLIX

Tallulah (2016)

From Orange Is the New Black writer Sian Heder, Tallulah follows the title character (played by Ellen Page) after she inadvertently "kidnaps" a toddler from an alcoholic rich woman and passes the child off as her own to appeal to her run-out boyfriend's mother (Allison Janney). A messy knot of familial woes and wayward instincts, Heder's directorial debut achieves the same kind of balancing act as her hit Netflix series -- frank social drama with just the right amount of humorous hijinks. As Tallulah grows into a mother figure, her on-the-lam parenting course only makes her more and more of a criminal in the eyes of... just about everyone. You want to root for her, but that would be too easy.

Taxi Driver (1976)

Travis Bickle (a young Bobby De Niro) comes back from the Vietnam War and, having some trouble acclimating to daily life, slowly unravels while fending off brutal insomnia by picking up work as a... taxi driver... in New York City. Eventually he snaps, shaves his hair into a mohawk and goes on a murderous rampage while still managing to squeeze in one of the most New York lines ever captured on film ("You talkin' to me?"). It's not exactly a heartwarmer -- Jodie Foster plays a 12-year-old prostitute -- but Martin Scorsese's 1976 Taxi Driver is a movie in the cinematic canon that you'd be legitimately missing out on if you didn't watch it.

FOCUS FEATURES

The Theory of Everything (2014)

In his Oscar-winning performance, Eddie Redmayne portrays famed physicist Stephen Hawking -- though The Theory of Everything is less of a biopic than it is a beautiful, sweet film about his lifelong relationship with his wife, Jane (Felicity Jones). Covering his days as a young cosmology student ahead of his diagnosis of ALS at 21, through his struggle with the illness and rise as a theoretical scientist, this film illustrates the trying romance through it all. While it may be written in the cosmos, this James Marsh-directed film that weaves in and out of love will have you experience everything there is to feel.

There Will Be Blood (2007)

Paul Thomas Anderson found modern American greed in the pages of Upton Sinclair's depression-era novel, Oil!. Daniel Day-Lewis found the role of a lifetime behind the bushy mustache of Daniel Plainview, thunderous entrepreneur. Paul Dano found his milkshake drunk up. Their discoveries are our reward -- There Will Be Blood is a stark vision of tycoon terror.

Time to Hunt (2020)

Unrelenting in its pursuit of scenarios where guys point big guns at each other in sparsely lit empty hallways, the South Korean thriller Time to Hunt knows exactly what stylistic register it's playing in. A group of four friends, including Parasite and Train to Busan break-out Choi Woo-shik, knock over a gambling house, stealing a hefty bag of money and a set of even more valuable hard-drives, and then find themselves targeted by a ruthless contract killer (Park Hae-soo) who moves like the T-1000 and shoots like a henchmen in a Michael Mann movie. There are dystopian elements to the world -- protests play out in the streets, the police wage a tech-savvy war on citizens, automatic rifles are readily available to all potential buyers -- but they all serve the simmering tension and elevate the pounding set-pieces instead of feeling like unnecessary allegorical padding. Even with its long runtime, this movie moves.

STUDIOCANAL

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

If a season of 24 took place in the smoky, well-tailored underground of British intelligence crica 1973, it might look a little like this precision-made John le Carré adaptation from Let the Right One In director Tomas Alfredson. Even if you can't follow terse and tightly-woven mystery, the search for Soviet mole led by retired operative George Smiley (Gary Oldman), the ice-cold frames and stellar cast will suck you into the intrigue. It's very possible Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Mark Strong, and Benedict Cumberbatch are reading pages of the British phone book, but egad, it's absorbing. A movie that rewards your full concentration.

To All the Boys I've Loved Before (2018)

Of all the entries in the rom-com revival, this one is heavier on the rom than the com. But even though it won't make your sides hurt, it will make your heart flutter. The plot is ripe with high school movie hijinks that arise when the love letters of Lara Jean Covey (the wonderful Lana Condor) accidentally get mailed to her crushes, namely the contractual faux relationship she starts with heartthrob Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo). Like its heroine, it's big-hearted but skeptical in all the right places.

Total Recall (1990)

Skip the completely forgettable Colin Farrell remake from 2012. This Arnold Schwarzenegger-powered, action-filled sci-fi movie is the one to go with. Working from a short story by writer Philip K. Dick, director Paul Verhoeven (Robocop) uses a brain-teasing premise -- you can buy "fake" vacation memories from a mysterious company called Rekall -- to stage one of his hyper-violent, winkingly absurd cartoons. The bizarre images of life on Mars and silly one-liners from Arnold fly so fast that you'll begin to think the whole movie was designed to be implanted in your mind.

NETFLIX

Tramps (2017)

There are heists pulled off by slick gentlemen in suits, then there are heists pulled off by two wayward 20-somethings rambling along on a steamy, summer day in New York City. This dog-day crime-romance stages the latter, pairing a lanky Russian kid (Callum Tanner) who ditches his fast-food register job for a one-off thieving gig, with his driver, an aloof strip club waitress (Grace Van Patten) looking for the cash to restart her life. When a briefcase handoff goes awry, the pair head upstate to track down the missing package, where train rides and curbside walks force them to open up. With a laid-back, '70s soul, Tramps is the rare doe-eyed relationship movie where playing third-wheel is a joy.

Uncut Gems (2019)

In Uncut Gems, the immersive crime film from sibling director duo Josh and Benny Safdie, gambling is a matter of faith. Whether he's placing a bet on the Boston Celtics, attempting to rig an auction, or outrunning debt-collecting goons at his daughter's high school play, the movie's jeweler protagonist Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler) believes in his ability to beat the odds. Does that mean he always succeeds? No, that would be absurd, undercutting the character's Job-like status, which Sandler imbues with an endearing weariness that holds the story together. But every financial setback, emotional humbling, and spiritual humiliation he suffers gets interpreted by Howard as a sign that his circumstances might be turning around. After all, a big score could be right around the corner.

Velvet Buzzsaw (2018)

Nightcrawler filmmaker Dan Gilroy teams up with Jake Gyllenhaal again to create another piece of cinematic art, this time a satirical horror film about the exclusive, over-the-top LA art scene. The movie centers around a greedy group of art buyers who come into the possession of stolen paintings that, unbeknownst to them, turn out to be haunted, making their luxurious lives of wheeling and dealing overpriced paintings a living hell. Also featuring the likes of John Malkovich, Toni Collette, Billy Magnussen, and others, Velvet Buzzsaw looks like Netflix’s next great original.

COLUMBIA PICTURES

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)

Oscar-baiting, musician biopics became so cookie-cutter by the mid-'00s that it was easy for John C. Reilly, Judd Apatow, and writer-director Jake Kasdan (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle) to knot them all together for the ultimate spoof. Dewey Cox is part Johnny Cash, part Bob Dylan, part Ray Charles, part John Lennon, part anyone-you-can-think-of, rising with hit singles, rubbing shoulders with greats of many eras, stumbling with eight-too-many drug addictions, then rising once again. When it comes to relentless wisecracking, Walk Hard is like a Greatest Hits compilation -- every second is gold.

The Witch (2015)

The Witch delivers everything we don't see in horror today. The backdrop, a farm in 17th-century New England, is pure misty, macabre mood. The circumstance, a Puritanical family making it on the fringe of society because they're too religious, bubbles with terror. And the question, whether devil-worshipping is hocus pocus or true black magic, keeps each character on their toes, and begging God for answers. The Witch tests its audience with its (nearly impenetrable) old English dialogue and the (anxiety-inducing) trials of early American life, but the payoff will keep your mind racing, and your face hiding under the covers, for days.

Y Tu Mamá También (2001)

Before taking us to space with Gravity, director Alfonso Cuarón steamed up screens with this provocative, comedic drama about two teenage boys (Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal) road-trippin' it with an older woman. Like a sunbaked Jules and Jim, the movie makes nimble use of its central love triangle, setting up conflicts between the characters as they move through the complicated political and social realities of Mexican life. It's a confident, relaxed film that's got an equal amount of brains and sex appeal. Watch this one with a friend -- or two.

PARAMOUNT PICTURES

Zodiac (2007)

David Fincher's period drama is for obsessives. In telling the story of the Zodiac Killer, a serial murderer who captured the public imagination by sending letters and puzzles to the Bay Area press, the famously meticulous director zeroes in on the cops, journalists, and amateur code-breakers who made identifying the criminal their life's work. With Jake Gyllenhaal's cartoonist-turned-gumshoe Robert Graysmith at the center, and Robert Downey Jr.'s barfly reporter Paul Avery stumbling around the margins, the film stretches across time and space, becoming a rich study of how people search for meaning in life. Zodiac is a procedural thriller that makes digging through old manilla folders feel like a cosmic quest.

13th (2016)

Selma director Ava DuVernay snuck away from the Hollywood spotlight to direct this sweeping documentary on the state of race in America. DuVernay's focus is the country's growing incarceration rates and an imbalance in the way black men and women are sentenced based on their crimes. Throughout the exploration, 13th dives into post-Emancipation migration, systemic racism that built in the early 20th century, and moments of modern political history that continue to spin a broken gear in our well-oiled national machine. You'll be blown away by what DuVernay uncovers in her interview-heavy research.

20th Century Women (2016)

If there's such thing as an epistolary movie, 20th Century Women is it. Touring 1970s Santa Barbara through a living flipbook, Mike Mills's semi-autobiographical film transcends documentation with a cast of wayward souls and Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann), an impressionable young teenager. Annette Bening plays his mother, and the matriarch of a ragtag family, who gather together for safety, dance to music when the moment strikes, and teach Jamie the important lesson of What Women Want, which ranges from feminist theory to love-making techniques. The kid soaks it up like a sponge. Through Mills's caring direction, and characters we feel extending infinitely through past and present, so do we.

for more cool stuff life this, follow my page an send me a message for suggestions and queries

[wrapdaddy]

Who wants a go? 1000RWHP . Can you imagine the weekend run out to the shop for Milk and Bread in this? 😎🔥 . 4 Rotor #TURBO #MazdaRX7 #DynoPull OWNER: David Zachary Mazzei @mazzei_formula . #modified #carsofinstagram #cars #petrolhead #awesome #epic #wrapdaddy #fastcar #fastcars #carfanatics #drivenationuk #mycarcalendar #crazycars https://www.instagram.com/p/B_8DZwBDUO0/?igshid=1okn91qeyho6q

#turbo #mazdarx7 #dynopull #modified #carsofinstagram #cars #petrolhead #awesome #epic #wrapdaddy #fastcar #fastcars #carfanatics #drivenationuk #mycarcalendar #crazycars

[architectuul]

FOMA 14: My Domestic Architecture

In Davide Marchetti’s everyday, there have been instances of architecture that have marked significantly his memory. Therefore Forgotten Masterpieces are this time researching memories in eternal city, in his Rome. 

Unpredictable events and even the mundane happenings of life have also involuntarily led me to meaningful instances - teaching me little by little to appreciate the beauty and the qualities of innovation. Yet also, it has allowed me to learn to appreciate the slow passage from the memory of a building as to that of a living body, subject to both a place in perennial abandonment, various ailments, or everlasting memory.

Some are known as landmarks, or rather architectures that have become symbolic of a city, and memories of a well-defined historical period. For others, the extraordinary character of uniqueness and aesthetic singularity has produced an irrepressible curiosity to come into contact with them - to know them.

The Experimental House also known as a Tree-House in Fregene by Giuseppe Perugini from the late 60s is perhaps one of the few extraordinary examples of brutalist architecture in Italy. Abandoned for many years, the house now lives suspended in a fascinating state of decay, immersed in a jungle of oaks that cling to it, hide it but also protect it.

The rediscovery of Perugini’s hidden gem, now reclaimed by the forest, is experienced by passing beachgoers and cyclists returning from a day at sea to enter a forbidden place, like an enchanted castle in a forest. For the most part, it was a photographic discovery, marked by the appearance in the social media of science-fiction look alike images in which the only aliens were the bathers who had violated a private property.

Suspended for the moment in time and space, tremendously attractive with its forms hanged in balance between constructivist references and extraterrestrial fascinations, it remains above all the surviving fragment of a utopia, the testimony of an alternative (anti-) urban vision located in the pinewoods of a summer holiday village—confined within a single lot.

However the memory of a place, a building, architecture in general - is the first means by which we mediate our perception of landmark: the decision to turn one of the artifacts of our time into a monument to be preserved does not depend only from the intrinsic qualities of the object, but from how has been represented over time through the media.

The image that we have acquired in our subconscious of the house in Fregene is therefore that of a spacecraft that landed on the earth and remained there, entombed by negligence and laziness, embellished by vines and rust. Yet, this is how it has remained in my memory, a quality that I hope it never loses this charm, even after the necessary restoration.

The Maestoso Cinema Complex in Rome by Riccardo Morandi, built in the late 1950’s, represented the demands of post-WWII urban growth. Morandi used the complex to present a new building typology that could meet the growing demand for urban spaces, but maintain the quality with which the city accounted itself.

I feel it remains a wonderful example of multi-functional architecture, in which the commercial spaces on the ground floor define an intimate piazza, open to the street for bustling urban life while flowing into the entrance to the cinema. Atop, it is culminated by the residential functions, set above the happenings underneath. It is simple - in its way of presenting itself to pedestrians - and honest, in which the individual functions are highlighted and distinguishable in their spatial articulation. The public and the private coexist in a perfectly balanced harmony, as if an ecosystem of nature.

It is strange now to think that such a formidable example of modernity, for example repeated dozens of times in the contemporary projects of Rem Koolhaas, is put out-of-service. The cohabitation of different functions seems to be linked more to real estate issues strategies than to a need of renewing or redeveloping the urban fabric of places where life has been stratified.

Morandi continued his experimentation of new building typologies with the Metronio Market, not far from the Maestoso Cinema. This time he combined various programs of an agri-food market, commercial spaces and a multi-storey car park. The design highlights the car as the protagonist, and the post-war motorization phenomenon, which inspires the distinctive elements of the architecture. Particularly, this can be seen in the helical ramp and the way in which the correspondence between architecture and structure is marked in an exceptional detail, as well as the saw-tooth facade, which incorporates the geometric sequence of the parking stalls. The central space featuring the full-height market re-proposes the traditional patterns of historic sales spaces, with areas for temporary kiosks surrounded by permanent shops. It is an exceptional re-proposal of the covered gallery of the beginning of the 20th century, in which the modern city engages the urban fabric with a typology in which pedestrian routes are transformed into public meeting spaces surrounded by commercial activities. Such a harmonious mechanism of urban aggregation, however, is once again forgone in history, due to a poor urban development strategy.

Finally, I wonder if the development of the contemporary city should take a page from the former visions of these small moments of architecture. These interventions that mark themselves in our minds - from the detail to the urban connection - which were once mere answers to current issues of the time.

As we look at the urban development of architecture today, we see less of the contextual significance or responsiveness to the real needs of people and more of the overscaled and out-of-touch postures to which we have become so accustom.

All photos by ©Annamaria Mazzei

___

#FOMA 14: Davide Marchetti

Davide Marchetti received his Master’s in Architecture from the University of Rome La Sapienza in 2001 and joined the Massimiliano Fuksas Office in Rome. He has taught as a Visiting Critic in advanced design studios at Cornell University continuously from 2011. He has been an invited critic at Pratt Institute, Syracuse University, Washington University, Waterloo University and Catholic University. He won numerous awards in international architecture competitions including the 1st Prize in the Redesigning Detroit: a new vision for an iconic site project in 2013, the 1st Prize for the New Australian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale Giardini in 2008, the 1st Prize for the renewal of the 1° Ottobre Square in Santa Maria Capua Vetere in 2006 and the 1st Prize for the Attilio Pecile square and mixed use sustainable building in Rome in 2006. His projects have been exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale and in Heide Museum in Melbourne.

#forgotten masterpieces #foma #marchetti #architecture #cornell university

[alessandro-lorusso]

#ConfassociazioniCoaching #Confassociazioni @angelodeianaig Riparte oggi, #28settembre, il #FestivalSviluppoSostenibile di #ASviS - Alleanza Italiana per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile. Presente anche quest'anno #Prioritalia che conferma il proprio impegno per una visione di #sostenibilità a 360°, principale driver di sviluppo e di creazione di valore per le persone, la società e tutti i territori in cui opera. Oggi alle ore 10.00 #eventodiapertura dove verrà presentato il rapporto annuale e lo stato di avanzamento del Paese rispetto agli SDGs ma anche verranno discusse proposte per un futuro migliore. Un evento da non perdere in cui interverrà anche il nostro Presidente marcella mallen 👉 https://lnkd.in/eAAZsJX4 Condividere il programma degli eventi del Festival dello #SviluppoSostenibile significa per me sostenere e diffondere la cultura della #sostenibilità. Dal 28 settembre al 14 ottobre, in varie città dal Nord al Sud Italia, sono previsti oltre 500 eventi in 17 giorni - tanti quanti sono gli #Obiettivi fissati dall’ #Agenda2030 delle #NazioniUnite – tra convegni, manifestazioni e incontri sulla #sostenibilità ambientale, economica e sociale. Accogliamo con entusiasmo questo grande Festival che sensibilizza i cittadini a rendere sostenibile un modello di sviluppo che ormai non lo è più! Il calendario completo #mettiloinagenda lo trovi al seguente link 👇  https://lnkd.in/dfGUacdg Contribuiamo a realizzare un futuro sostenibile! #stiamoagendo Francesca Buttara Monica B.M. Pontiroli Elisa Roldo Roberto Ghiglia Antonio Dell'Atti Debora Merighi Piero Zanotti Maddalena Giacchero Giulia La Magna Paolo Maria Baggioni, MBA, PCC Gianluca Abbati Giusva Pulejo Andrea Latino Mauro AG Beretta Sabrina Bonomi Luciana Delfini Valentino Bobbio Giorgio Buffa MBA Antonio Cecere Antonino Costantino Linda Carobbi Sabrina Dubbini Roberto Orsi Myriam Ines Giangiacomo Andrea Gombac Davide Maniscalco 🇮🇹🇪🇺 Alessandro MANTINI Alessandro LoRusso Tiziana Montinari Samuel Piana Odile Robotti Nadia Servino Giovanni Santaniello Giuseppe Sulpizio Elisa Meloni Mario P. Mazzei Enrico Pedretti Betty Basanisi https://www.instagram.com/p/CUW_gPEIOOa/?utm_medium=tumblr

#confassociazionicoaching #confassociazioni #28settembre #festivalsvilupposostenibile #asvis #prioritalia #sostenibilità #eventodiapertura #svilupposostenibile #obiettivi #agenda2030 #nazioniunite #mettiloinagenda #stiamoagendo

[tararira2020]

| ART |

LA PANAMERICANA

Ya con la dirección de David Lipszyc, a partir de 1968, la institución establece nexos con el Instituto Di Tella. De manera significativa, se organiza la Bienal Internacional (1968) y forma parte de una serie de estrategias de limitación de la historieta. De hecho, la incorporación de una imagen pop de la Gioconda como eslogan de la escuela se produce durante estos años. Su diseñador, Pino Migliazzo,1 destaca: “Sabía lo que en otros lugares se estaba haciendo en cuanto a gráfica fresca, joven”. De allí que no resultaba extravagante el ejercicio de desacralización: “Fue natural pensar en un símbolo tan divulgado como la Gioconda, imagen de la cual se habían hecho marcas populares como en los envases de dulce de membrillo y batata, de pastillas o de púas para discos” (Milas, 1989).

En la EPA daban sus cursos de dibujo los más destacados del medio, personalmente y por correspondencia2. En el último tramo de la década del cincuenta, dada la situación crítica por la que atravesaban, algunos profesionales optan por dedicarse a la docencia. Dar Clases en algunas de las academias de dibujo que proliferaban por entonces constituyó un recurso viable y, al mismo tiempo, prestigioso para los “maestros”. La promoción respondía a un circuito virtuoso que resultaba fecundo: “Los que entraban a la Panamericana se encontraban con Breccia o con Pratt, y más que eso no se podría tener. Se creó una especie de fanatismo, eran como ídolos” (Garaycochea, 2007).

En efecto, la EPA contaba con un plus, un cuerpo de profesores de renombre fue reunido para dar lecciones a los aficionados. Dibujantes como Alberto Breccia y Hugo Pratt resultaban figuras célebres que atraían la admiración de los adolescentes entusiastas. En este sentido, destaca Roberto Fontanarrosa: “Yo nunca llego a publicar historieta seria. Incluso hice un curso por correspondencia de los 12 famosos artistas de la Escuela Panamericana de Arte subyugado, más que nada, por la presencia de Pratt (Fontanarrosa, en Fiore, 2008). Asimismo, José Muñoz subraya el interés que estos “maestros” despertaban entre los aprendices y evoca sus años como estudiante en la EPA:

Tenia 12 años y mis viejos me llevaron allí, a la calle Paraná al 600. era un departamento minúsculo de dos ambientes. Justo en ese momento, Pratt estaba terminando su ciclo lectivo, yo quería aprender con Pratt porque estaba poseído por su trabajo. Pero él estaba terminando, sólo alcance a verlo, tostado, buen mozo, italiano de importación. Estaba con una camisa blanca, bien tostado, era mās o menos Hollywood para mí (Muñoz, 2007).

De manera ejemplar, la revista Dibujantes fomentó, a través de sus sucesivos números, la idea de que en la EPA “estaban los mejores”. Bajo el eslogan “12 famosos artistas harán posible que usted tenga una carrera exitosa”3 se alentó a los lectores a que comprasen el prestigioso curso. En lugar de resaltar la dificultad, se evidencia que la fortuna es posible si se siguen las instrucciones. El comprador del método es presentado como "un privilegiado entre miles de aficionados:

Ahora, enteramente por un nuevo y único método de estudio por correspondencia, usted y todo joven, hombre o mujer con talento artístico puede prepararse para una exitosa y lucrativa carrera artística. Doce exitosos artistas, actualmente los mejores y los más conocidos dibujantes, han reunido sus conocimientos para preparar un nuevo, más efectivo estudio por correspondencia: el Curso de los Famosos Artistas (…). Y es un gran privilegio, sin duda alguna, estar capacitado para estudiar un curso preparado por ellos.

(…)

Cuando todo es carencia, los avales mínimos son sumamente estimulantes. Lo que garantiza el curso es un método para alcanzar un bagaje de conocimientos formales; y, aunque la mayor parte de los aspirantes no logren convertirse en “artistas”, al menos accederán a un diploma que los habilite a tentar suerte en otras profesiones: “Es el derecho de todo niño tener la oportunidad de ser bien nacido y bien educado, y aquellos que privan a los niños de estos derechos están ciertamente contrayendo una grave deuda con el Destino” (Lipszyc 1957). A pesar de la promoción de un circuito competente, Alberto Breccia plantea la necesidad de establecer otro tipo de contacto entre discípulos y maestros, ya no mediatizados por las instituciones. Y deja testimonio de su incomodidad frente a la diplomatura o formalización del oficio:

Jamás propicié los cursos por correspondencia, que siempre me parecieron una porquería. Yo fui profesor con los alumnos en el aula y jamás tuve la veleidad de que estaba enseñando a dibujar simplemente enseñaba los conceptos. Para canalizar lo que cada uno tenía adentro. Algunos de los muchachos que fueron alumnos míos hoy trabajan bien: José Muñoz, Rubén Sosa, Leopoldo Durañona, Lito Fernández, Mandrafina (...). Para ser un dibujante hay que saber dibujar y para mostrar lo que uno sabe lo mejor es una buena carpeta y no un diploma (Breccia, 1980: 150).

El caso sirve para ejemplificar que hay “maestros”, con trayectorias singulares, que se apartan de la determinación que impone la institución academicista. Breccia entiende la creación en términos de autonomía estética y ejercicio experimental. Su posición de “artista maldito” le impide ubicarse en el lugar de “correa de transmisión” del saber profesional. En contraposición, desde el curso de los “12 famosos” se hacía resaltar el valor de estar diplomado, como si ello fuera aval suficiente para un porvenir venturoso: “Observe el diploma (…) es su pasaporte para una excitante carrera artística, es su medalla de honor para mayores oportunidades”.

A través de Dibujantes se busca prevenir al ingenuo de los habituales engaños en los que incurren las “academias falsas”. Mientras se busca exaltar la seriedad de la Panamericana, se observa que otras escuelas prometen “salida laboral inmediata”, pero no cumplen con las expectativas: “Todos los días llegan a nuestra casa dibujos de dibujantes diplomados, por tal o cual escuela, en donde se evidencia la más absoluta ignorancia del dibujo. Esto no puede seguir así. PEDIMOS Y EXIGIMOS al Ministerio de Educación que se reglamenten o por lo menos se revisen los ‘cursos’ de dibujos de todas las escuelas de dibujo del país [...]. Las BUENAS escuelas nada tienen que temer, y sí las que sólo procuran hacer pingues negocios aprovechándose de los aficionados” (Dibujantes, marzo de 1957).

En síntesis, el método de la EPA compensaba (al menos parcialmente) la desventaja inicial de quienes no tuvieron en el entorno familiar acceso a una educación cultural más amplia. Como veremos en el siguiente capítulo, si el Di Tella operó como un espacio para el ejercicio de la vanguardia, la Panamericana desempeñó un rol integrador entre el arte, el oficio y el mercado. Para entonces, la profesión habrá alcanzado nuevos perfeccionamientos.

____________________________________

1 Pino Migliazzo ejerció como docente en la EPA entre 1966 y 1972. En 1983, Martin Mazzei se encargaría del diseño del frente de la academia, pintando junto a Emmo Rosi, Luis Torres, y un grupo de estudiantes, una imagen ampliada de la Gioconda en la sede de Belgrano (Milas, 1989: 21).

2 Además de cursos de dibujo de historieta (aunque no de guión) la escuela dictaba “Ilustración Periodística y Publicitaria”, “Dibujo y pintura”, “Diseño gráfico”, “Decoración de Interiores”, “Fotografía artística” “Historia de las Artes Contemporáneas” y diversos talleres. La institución contaba con filiales en Brasil y en Perú.

3 El curso de los famosos artistas costaba $890 y, dado el importe que esta suma representaba para la época, se podía adquirir y pagar en mensualidades. El curso completo constaba de 120 lecciones e incluía cinco especialidades; junto a las entregas se brindaba una carpeta para archivar y una “carpeta-caja” para conservar los trabajos prácticos. Estaba dividido en 15 meses de estudio. Se incluía material como hojas para lápiz, cartulinas y bolsas con membrete para enviar los trabajos a la EPA. El comprador recibía pruebas y cada mes debía remitirlas a la dirección postal de la Escuela para su evaluación.

La Bienal Internacional de la Historieta en el Di Tella

(…) Por otra parte, la experiencia se propuso posicionar la historieta como campo de interpelación semiológica, Una tradición ligada a disciplinas como la sociología, el estructuralismo, la psicología y la crítica literaria encontró en el medio un inusitado interés. Las gacetillas publicadas son elocuentes al respecto.

Se le dio a las charlas y conferencias el carácter de “simposio y mesas redondas y disertaciones”, siguiendo una tradición académica habitual. Las indagaciones sobre la experiencia, la técnica y el lenguaje fueron los temas centrales: “Aspectos del lenguaje de la historieta” (Alicia Páez y Norma Berthol), “Tácticas retóricas en la historieta (Armando Sercovich), “Observaciones diferenciales sobre el lenguaje” (Oscar Masotta), “Las artes visuales en la historieta” (Jorge Romero Brest), “La historieta que hay que hacer” (Héctor Oesterheld), “Significación de la anatomía en el dibujo” (Burne Hogart), “La historieta en la sociedad de consumo” (Luis Gasca), “Patoruzú” (Oscar Steimberg), “Reflexiones sobre mi experiencia” (Alberto Breccia) y “Peanuts” (Carlos Sluski).

Tal enfoque no fue tan bien recibido por los historietistas que veían de buen grado que sus obras se mostraran en una institución legitimada, pero no que hicieran de ellas un terreno fértil para la crítica de mesa redonda y la disertación intelectual. Es sintomática la mirada del dibujante Enrique Breccia:

Cuando el semiólogo Masotta hizo LD y comenzó a analizar la historieta desde la semiología, se pudrió todo... No creo que tenga tanta trascendencia como para que se hagan libros, análisis sociológicos (…). Una vez fui a una charla a la que me invitó Saccomanno y donde estaban Oscar Steimberg, un jesuita, Guillermo y Broccoli. ¡Se hablaron tantas boludeces! Yo, que era el único historietista -los demás eran estudiantes que anotaban y anotaban- y sabía que todo lo que decían era mentira. Todo verso.1

En última instancia, lo que estaba en juego era el rol del crítico de historietas, por entonces una figura ausente en el campo. Una posición similar a la referida, pero acentuando la tensión arte y mercado, es la que sostiene el dibujante Hugo Pratt:

Un crítico debe informarse, No tiene derecho a ser naif, ingenuo. Yo sí puedo hacerme el naif porque soy autor. Y hubo críticos que dijeron cosas tontas, entonces me dedique a atacar críticos también. Y me valí de la pintura para hacerlo, para demostrarles que uno puede. Fue después que Roy Lichtenstein ampliara cien veces un cuadrito de historieta e hiciera con eso un cuadro. Era un acto de piratería, y yo pensé que si él podía hacer cuadros con historietas, yo podía hacer historietas con cuadros. Entonces pinté óleos ampliando desmesuradamente fragmentos de De Chirico (Sasturain, 2004: 41).

En efecto, a principios de los sesenta, junto a las señales de tránsito, los afiches publicitarios, las estrellas cinematográficas y los discos de vinilo, el cómic popular y comercial fue utilizado por el artista Roy Lichtenstein para producir arte pop. Su técnica es analizada por Oscar Masotta en El pop art (1967), para detectar los códigos y las significaciones que poseen las obras de varios artistas de la “segunda ola” de la Escuela de Nueva York. El crítico destaca positivamente la “técnica de la redundancia” (propia del lenguaje del cómic) que utiliza Lichtenstein, mientras que, en la cita precedente, Pratt califica la pintura del artista como “un acto de piratería”.

El tono de esta querella permite trazar un rasgo generalizado: la correspondencia entre el pop y la historieta no era entendida en los mismos términos por artistas, intelectuales e historietistas.2 Lichtenstein utiliza aquellas historietas que se destacan por su carácter estereotipado y no por su cualidad estética. De allí que su obra se torne interesante en términos artísticos cuando hace uso de historietas mediocres o estéticamente pobres. En otros términos, Lichtenstein utiliza las historietas como banco de imágenes de la cultura de masas norteamericana y las interviene para quebrar cánones, reaccionar frente a movimientos pictóricos y posicionarse en la vanguardia de nuevas formaciones.

En tanto que los gestores de la Bienal acogían la idea de discutir sobre técnica y lenguaje, los historietistas abrazaron una causa de mercado ligada a su condición como profesionales. Para los autores y editores el interés residía en ser “puro presente”: el aquí y ahora de sus condiciones profesionales. A propósito, Subraya Oesterheld:

Recuerdo el comentario final que hice para mí mismo: aquello mostraba en la Argentina la muerte de una hermosa época. Porque la exposición era en el 68 y la última historieta que había en exhibición era del 63. Y, si había algún joven dibujante mostrando algo, tenía tantas influencias de Breccia que no era cosa nueva, no aportaba nada (Saccomanno y Trillo: 1980: 112).

Y coincide Juan Sasturain:

El Di Tella del sesenta y ocho en la Argentina no es un reflejo de lo que pasa en el país, no es culturalmente representativo. Es un reflejo de Europa. La historieta argentina en 1968 estaba muerta. ¡Lo decía el viejo Breccia! ¡Se cagaba de hambre! Oesterheld no tenía un mango, laburaba para los chilenos haciendo una basura porque no tenía trabajo. El fenómeno Di Tella no era el resultado de la cultura popular masiva en la Argentina, fue un rescate teórico, un fenómeno especular (Sasturain, 2002).

Asimismo, los guionistas Carlos Tillo y Cuille Emo Saccomano destacaron:

Se dice que, cuando en octubre de 1968 la historieta argentina entró en los amplios y luminosos salones del Instituto Di Tella, en la Primera Bienal de la Historieta, la historieta argentina estaba aletargada si no muerta. Los trabajos que allí se exponían correspondían a una década atrás. Ninguna de las cosas recientes que colgaban de las paredes decían mucho de sí (Saccomanno y Trillo, 1980: 172).

La Primera (y última) Bienal involucró, al menos un aspecto clave: en la Argentina la actividad cultural se remite a “instancias de consagración externas y, al mismo tiempo interioriza criterios exteriores de valoración” (Sigal, 1991:34). Su organización siguió el mismo patrón de interés que ya se había manifestado en Europa. De allí que fue una actividad compatible con la actividad que se concentraba en el Di Tella. Probablemente, su límite más caro haya sido no pensar al campo en su propia historicidad, en su contexto latinoamericano, sino en relación a otras experiencias y producciones. La Bienal se realiza en un momento en el que el tono celebratorio con el que el arte argentino esperaba ser colocado en el primer mundo fue dejando paso al desencanto. Esta concepción de una producción “a destiempo” con respecto a “avances” que se venían dando en Europa y Estados Unidos obstruía la posibilidad de pensar las vanguardias en sus propios términos.

Pero mientras que una mirada eurocéntrica sólo revela al evento en su carácter deslucido y tardío, otro punto de vista permite ver que, si bien la Bienal reprodujo un fenómeno europeo, presentó, al mismo tiempo, sus rasgos específicos. En un momento en que la historieta no pasaba por su etapa más esplendorosa, los esfuerzos de los organizadores arrojaron resultados productivos. Finalmente, los vínculos realizados en los viajes de Masotta y las innumerables cartas gestionadas durante casi un año habían alcanzado su propósito: la Bienal “superó” en calidad y en cantidad a su predecesora, la exhibición en el Palacio del Louvre. Masotta desde Nueva York, ya anticipaba su éxito en una carta dirigida a Romero Brest:

Mi trabajo aquí sigue produciendo resultados excelentes, me refiero al material que voy consiguiendo. Y, si ustedes me apoyan desde ahí (y tengo que reconocer que lo hacen), la muestra de octubre superará bastante a la del Louvre. Por ejemplo, voy comparando paso a paso nuestro material con el material de que ellos disponían (lo hago comparando con el catálogo) y, efectivamente, estamos ganando. Nos llevan ventajas sólo en cuestiones muy materiales, como por ejemplo el espacio de que disponían (los salones del Museo de Arte Decorativo son más grandes que los del Instituto Di Tella). Pero aun en esto: si el diseño y la disposición de los stands en medio de las salas del Di Tella se hace con inteligencia, yo creo que no vamos a poder, entonces, envidiarles nada. La otra ventaja (esta, insalvable por el momento) se cuenta en términos de sabiduría. Ellos saben más que nosotros. Esto es porque cuentan con instituciones dedicadas al estudio de la historieta y la comunicación masiva (...). Pero aquí también confío en que usted apoyará ahí, a mi vuelta, digo, la idea de crear un Centro de Comunicaciones de Masa. Sin ese Centro, Romero, se nos recordará como habilidosos y como sensitivos (tenemos, efectivamente, un bastante reinado sentido histórico de la oportunidad), pero no como gente seria.3

Es evidente que el entusiasmo de Masotta es más un gesto voluntarista (“estamos ganando”) que un diagnóstico de resultados ponderables. La comparación es sintomática: la historieta formaba parte (en términos de centro/periferia) del afán de modernización de esos años.

- En: Laura Vázquez, El oficio de las viñetas. La industria de la historieta argentina, Paidós, 2010.

_______________________________________

1 Y continúa más adelante: “El jesuita explicaba una secuencia de Marco Mono, la historieta de Trillo que dibujé para “HURRA” y bueno... Era una secuencia que yo hago lo más simple posible como una cortesía con el lector, para no complicarle la vida. Y el tipo le daba vueltas y le metía cosas raras. Por ahí dice: “A los cuadritos les vamos a decir ‘íconos’ y los globos ‘sintagmas’ y ya con eso cagó todo. ¿Sabés qué? Le quitan el encanto” (Entrevista realizada por Martín García a Enrique Breccia, publicada en Fierro, Ediciones de la Urraca, año I, Nº 11, julio de 1985, p. 43).

2 “Se hicieron bienales de la historieta, se realizaron exhaustivos análisis “(...); uno disfruta una historieta cuando es lector de historietas. Por eso pensamos que el pop y el camp no le han hecho tan bien al género, aunque tampoco lo han perjudicado. Simplemente son dos cosas distintas" (Bróccoli y Trillo, 1971: 103). Y destaca Andrés Cascioli: “Fue un gesto típico del Di Tella rescatar experiencias extrañas, como alguna vez el pintor Lichtenstein hizo un cuadro con una historieta. Lo hicieron más que nada como una cosa que les servia a ellos y en ese momento. Me parece que a la historieta no la entendieron nunca los intelectuales” (Cascioli, 2007). También Alberto Breccia hizo referencia a la distancia entre la cultura pop y la historieta (Breccia, 1988).

3 “Quisiera pedirle, o recordarle, la importancia de algunos puntos para cuya solución usted y solo usted es la persona ideal: 1) Cuestión embajadas. Hay que conseguir pasajes. En especial de la embajada francesa. De Francia hay que invitar por lo menos a cuatro personas. Y entre ellas al director cinematográfico Alain Resnais (estudioso de la historieta) (...). Por lo menos habría que invitar de aquí a tres dibujantes: esto daría más alcance popular a la muestra. Llevaríamos los más conocidos y famosos. Gente que puede intervenir en mesas redondas, y que puede dibujar en público. Es el caso del figurón de Al Capp. 3) Le pido (y le encargo) que no se olvide de llamar a Torre Nilsson. El ya está avisado por una carta mía. Yo lo he invitado a dirigir la parte de la Bienal dedicada al Cine. Hay que conseguir películas: él lo puede hacer. Además es inteligente y buen discutidor, elemento esencial para las discusiones y mesas redondas (...). Sin más, un saludo verdaderamente cordial: Oscar Masotta”. Nueva York, 8 de abril de 1968. Fuente: Archivos Di Tella.

#panamericana #bienales #historieta #instituto di tella #breccia #masotta

[newstfionline]

A ‘Mass Shooting Generation’ Cries Out for Change

By Audra D. S. Burch, Patricia Mazzei and Jack Healy, NY Times, Feb. 16, 2018

PARKLAND, Fla.--Delaney Tarr, a high school senior, cannot remember a time when she did not know about school shootings.

So when a fire alarm went off inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and teachers began screaming “Code red!” as confused students ran in and out of classrooms, Ms. Tarr, 17, knew what to do. Run to the safest place in the classroom--in this case, a closet packed with 19 students and their teacher.

“I’ve been told these protocols for years,” she said. “My sister is in middle school--she’s 12--and in elementary school, she had to do code red drills.”

This is life for the children of the mass shooting generation. They were born into a world reshaped by the 1999 attack at Columbine High School in Colorado, and grew up practicing active shooter drills and huddling through lockdowns. They talked about threats and safety steps with their parents and teachers. With friends, they wondered darkly whether it could happen at their own school, and who might do it.

Now, this generation is almost grown up. And when a gunman killed 17 students this week at Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Fla., the first response of many of their classmates was not to grieve in silence, but to speak out. Their urgent voices--in television interviews, on social media, even from inside a locked school office as they hid from the gunman--are now rising in the national debate over gun violence in the aftermath of yet another school shooting.

While many politicians after the shooting were focused on mental health and safety, some vocal students at Stoneman Douglas High showed no reluctance in drawing attention to gun control.

They called out politicians over Twitter, with one student telling Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, “YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND.” Shortly after the shooting, Cameron Kasky, a junior at the school, and a few friends started a “Never Again” campaign on Facebook that shared stories and perspectives from other students who survived the rampage.

On a day when the funerals of the shooting victims began here, more than a dozen schools from Massachusetts to Iowa to Michigan were shut down in response to copycat threats and social media interpreted in the worst light. A college near Seattle was on lockdown for several hours on Friday after an unfounded report of gunfire and in at least one case an entire district closed down. Several students have been arrested, accused of phoning in threats to their schools.

At other high schools across the country, students rallied in solidarity with Stoneman Douglas High and staged walkouts to protest what they called Washington’s inaction in protecting students and teachers. A gun control advocacy group, Moms Demand Action, said it had been so overwhelmed with requests from students that it was setting up a parallel, student focused advocacy group.

“People say it’s too early to talk about it,” Mr. Kasky said. “If you ask me, it’s way too late.”

His argument reflects the words of other students who want action: The issue is not an abstraction to them. These are their murdered friends, their bloodstained schools, their upended lives.

Students said they did not want to cede the discussion over their lives to politicians and adult activists.

“We need to take it into our hands,” Mr. Kasky said.

David Hogg, a 17-year-old student journalist who interviewed his classmates during the rampage in Parkland, said he had thought about the possibility of a school shooting long before shots from an AR-15 started to blast through the hallways. As he huddled with fellow students, he stayed calm and decided to try to create a record of their thoughts and views that would live on, even if the worst happened to them.

“I recorded those videos because I didn’t know if I was going to survive,” he said in an interview here. “But I knew that if those videos survived, they would echo on and tell the story. And that story would be one that would change things, I hoped. And that would be my legacy.”

It is a stark change from the moments that followed the Columbine shooting in April 1999, said Austin Eubanks, who survived the shooting. Mr. Eubanks and a friend hid under a table when the two teenage gunmen walked into the library and started shooting. Mr. Eubanks was wounded. His friend, Corey DePooter, was killed.

“There was nobody who took an activism stance,” Mr. Eubanks said of Columbine’s immediate aftermath. He said he began abusing opiates shortly after as a coping mechanism. “I just wanted to be left alone. I was so destabilized and traumatized.”

No matter how rare school shootings are for the vast majority of students, they have grown up in a world so attuned to these threats that high schoolers are now more conversant in the language of lockdowns and code red drills than their parents.

Soon after Amy Campbell-Oates, 16, heard about the Parkland shooting, she knew she wanted to try, in some small way, to influence the national discussion on gun violence. She and two friends organized a protest, made posters, and on Friday, they rallied with dozens of fellow students from South Broward High School.

They carried signs that read “It Could’ve Been Us,” and “Your Silence is Killing Us,” and “We Stand with Stoneman Douglas.” They chanted, their collective voices rising as cars honked in support.

“We agreed that our politicians have to do more than say thoughts and prayers,” Ms. Campbell-Oates said. “We want voters to know that midterms are coming up. Some of us can’t vote yet but we want to get to the people that can to vote in common sense laws, ban assault rifles and require mental health checks before gun purchases.”

#mass shootings #school shootings #Parkland Florida shooting