Music Box in 1980: Joy Division's "Closer"

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Music Box in 1980: Joy Division's "Closer"

I almost couldn’t decide on an album to pick from 1980, not because there was no good music, but because there wasn’t much that spoke to me. There’s not a favorite album of mine from 1980 or something with a personal meaning. So I just picked an album I like and that I knew would offer me something to write about, Joy Division’s Closer, which was released two months after Ian Curtis had committed suicide. It is unsurprisingly dark and cold, yet undeniably powerful.

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This 80s Movie: Prom Night (1980)

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This 80s Movie: Prom Night (1980)

(spoilers ahead)

Prom Night is a terribly formulaic and terrible slasher movie. It sets up everything it needs for a by-the-numbers slasher concept and follows it through without even the slightest hint of surprise. It starts out with a wrongdoing in the past, makes a time jump of six years (in which all the characters age by about 15 years), just so that a killer can take revenge on them for what they did as kids. It’s amateurishly filmed and acted, the dialogue is boring and even the murders are uninventive. Actually, the murders astonished me the most, since there is no attempt made to graphically show them at all, although movies like this are all about showing grisly murders. A lot of them happen off-screen and it takes the movie over an hour to even get there. Considering this is one of the first examples of slasher movies, it should have been clear to anyone seeing it in 1980 that there wouldn’t be another gem like Halloween anytime soon.

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Poster of a Girl: 1980 Edition

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Poster of a Girl: 1980 Edition

It’s 1980 Week! What does that mean, you ask? Well, I decided to try out doing theme weeks from time to time, dedicating each post during that week to cultural artifacts (movies, comics, books, music) or historic events from one specific year. In the future, I will pick those years randomly, but for a start I decided on 1980, the year I was born, because, well, today’s my birthday. I don’t know how this will work out, so it’s an experiment. But I like experiments, obviously, which means I’m very excited!

To get an overview of this particular year, I thought it would be nice to look at its movie posters. I looked at all the posters of 1980 that can be found on IMP Awards and picked out the ones I found interesting. Which is still a lot (49). But because there are so many, I grouped them in categories, because many things repeat themselves. Without further ado, let’s give it up for 1980!

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Leprechaun in the Hood (2000)

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Leprechaun in the Hood (2000)

Leprechaun in the Hood is… well, it’s called Leprechaun in the Hood, so what would you expect? It’s a terrible movie, really, really terrible. The story makes no sense, the characters are all idiots, the jokes aren’t funny and it’s definitely not scary. It’s a bad movie and not even an unintentionally funny one. The Leprechaun part guarantees a bad horror movie, but the In the Hood part guarantees an amazing amount of stereotypes and racism. You might find that funny, but it doesn’t make it less racist. No, this is not a movie I’m happy to have seen (but thanks to How Did This Get Made the suffering was a bit easier).

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Book Report: David Levithan's Every Day (2012)

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Book Report: David Levithan's Every Day (2012)

(no spoilers!)

David Levithan’s Every Day has a central idea that is so simple and brilliant, that it’s hard to believe no one else has written that book already. It’s the story of A, who wakes up in a new body every day, for one day, since his (or her, there’s no definite gender) birth. He doesn’t get involved too much and just follows along the person’s normal routine until he jumps into the next person. That alone would make an interesting book. He’s sixteen when we meet him and just reading about him observing the people whose lives he joins is interesting enough. But then he falls in love for the first time, with a girl called Rhiannon and suddenly he has to live actively if he wants to enjoy this love. This is where the book becomes really interesting. It’s a really good book, well-written and with one of the best endings I could imagine because until the very end, it’s hard to see it coming. It plays with our expectations and I really enjoyed that. I try to keep it short because I do not want to spoil the book in any way, as I think it’s really worth reading.

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Win Win (2011)

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Win Win (2011)

Win Win is a traditional indie comedy. It follows rather typical indie movie characters through a standard indie movie plot. It’s good, but not because of the story or some of the underdeveloped characters, but mainly because of the incredible acting. Paul Giamatti is amazing and, well, everyone else is too. But the story moves along such conventional paths and especially the ending is resolved much too easy. Also, the character of Jeffrey Tambor, as funny as he is, has no back story at all and only shows up to be funny. On the other hand, Kyle (Alex Shaffer) is a very well-written and acted character that keeps most of the movie going. Thomas McCarthy is both a great writer and director and you see that in most of the scenes, even if others don’t work or feel hokey. Anyway, I really liked the movie despite its flaws and I want to take a look at how it depicts the average life of common people.

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You Belong on the Radio: Music Video Edition (1)

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You Belong on the Radio: Music Video Edition (1)

I know the last time on this series, I basically promised to try something else. My thought was to look at charts from different continents to get a more diverse view on what happens culturally outside of “Western civilization.” But the problem is that you either don’t get charts from specific countries or the lyrics aren’t in English or it’s just the same songs like everywhere else. Then I thought about going back in time, but I have something special planned for next week already. I almost thought of giving up and doing a straight charts analysis, when I remembered something I had wanted to do already: music videos! So, today, I look at the German Singles Charts again, but only at the videos of songs I haven’t discussed already. There’s nothing like good random parameters.

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All Good Things (2010)

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All Good Things (2010)

(spoilers ahead)

All Good Things is a fascinating movie that maybe doesn’t completely satisfy in the end, but is still able to hold the audience’s attention all the way through. It’s the story of David Marks and Katherine McCarthy (or the real-life story of Robert Durst and Katherine McCormack on whom the movie is based) and it’s clear why director Andrew Jarecki was intrigued by this story. Its biggest problem is that the movie can’t provide a satisfying conclusion because it has to stay true to the facts and the facts don’t provide an answer either. But this doesn’t lessen the movie’s power, which is mostly due to the strong performances. Ryan Gosling is as good as always, but the real surprise is Kirsten Dunst. She surely was never a bad actress, but she shines so brightly in this movie that when her character disappears, the movie loses a lot of its appeal. Still, the direction is strong and the score keeps you entertained for the last 30 minutes where the doomed romance turns into an unsolved crime mystery.

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This 80s Movie: Ms. 45 (1981)

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This 80s Movie: Ms. 45 (1981)

(spoilers ahead)

Ms. 45 is an example of a vigilante movie, although it goes even more absurd than most of them are. It is one of Abel Ferrara’s first movies and is crude, violent and absurd. I couldn’t call it good convincingly but in a way it was better than I expected after the first ten minutes of the movie. The acting is mostly bad, the dialogue too, the music is torture for the ears, but there is a certain fascination for a movie that mostly does what you assume it would, but sometimes goes along paths that are totally unexpected. And for a movie that deals with a female vigilante (or “misandristic spree killer” as Wikipedia proudly sets right), it sure says many things about men and women. I’m not sure it knows exactly what to say, but it’s interesting to take a look at the messages it conveys. It also works as an era representative for the 80s: a mixture of fashion world and crime infected New York, both typical 80s memes.

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Why Being a Teacher Sucks (Sometimes)

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Why Being a Teacher Sucks (Sometimes)

My holidays are almost over and once school starts, I will probably return to more thought pieces on school and general things. But to get ready for school and after Detachment, I thought I could spend two posts on reflecting what exactly I like and don’t like about being a teacher. And as I dutifully learned in school, I start with the bad things now and continue with the good things on Sunday. I heard this will strengthen my conclusion. So, in no particular order and without an end in sight as I write this now, some of the reasons what’s bad about being a teacher (and if you haven't seen, I explained why I'm a teacher already).

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Detachment (2011)

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Detachment (2011)

(spoilers ahead)

Detachment is a movie about school, so it’s made out for me, obviously. It made me very angry. The movie is directed by (yeah, yeah, "the infamous") Tony Kaye and I would put most of the blame for the failure of the movie on him, especially since he is his own cinematographer. I’m not sure if the script could have been filmed better (as Bryan Cranston claims, who has the most unnecessary role in the movie, so the feelings might be mutual), but the direction seems totally misguided. But even apart from that, the movie is full of clichés and school tropes, thereby neglecting its own purpose of trying to show what school is like. The great actors are mostly wasted. Yes, Adrien Brody is great, they’re all great, but why have some big names in the credits only to make them say one or two lines? The editing is sometimes off (look at the first principal scene) and the camera work is pretentious. But the biggest problem I have with the movie is the message it sends and the contradictions it gets caught up in. A movie doesn’t make me angry often, so I want to dive into why in more detail.

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Poster of a Girl: Misogynist Tornadoes and Highway Robbery Girls

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Poster of a Girl: Misogynist Tornadoes and Highway Robbery Girls

Movies, music, comics, books. I’ve looked for cultural implications concerning gender, authority or violence in all kinds of media already, but I know there is enough left. Today I pick something slightly new: movie posters! I just went to the best movie poster site, IMP Awards, and checked out all the posters I found on the current homepage. I haven’t seen any of the movies and judge the posters only by what I see and know about the movie. But they are all current posters, not some things of the past that didn’t know better.

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Total Eclipse (1995)

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Total Eclipse (1995)

Total Eclipse is not a pleasant movie. As many reviewers before me have pointed out years ago, the two main characters are extremely unsympathetic and watching them fight and make their lives miserable is no joy. They are played believably by David Thewlis and Leonardo DiCaprio, but that doesn’t make it easier to watch. There is no one to identify with, which might work in other movies, but here it’s just, well, unpleasant. The movie does give an interesting portrayal of its time and how poets lived and worked, but it’s too long and too repetitive in showing us suffering.

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Music Box: Pulp's "This Is Hardcore"

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Music Box: Pulp's "This Is Hardcore"

Pulp’s This Is Hardcore, released in 1998, is a testament of anxiety in our culture, the diary of someone failing at life despite having success, a war report from the front of unsuccessfully battling to fill the void. Pulp, the Britpop band that had been releasing albums for over 10 years before suddenly having enormous success, published this album three years after Disco 2000 was an international hit and the fallout was wearing them down. Artistically I consider this album their masterpiece, despite its flaws. It’s a bit messy, untrimmed and unfocused at times, but when it hits its mark, it goes straight for the kill. It’s unflinching and bitter and cynical but always with a certain sense of humor and full of brutal honesty. And it’s brilliant. You might feel uneasy and slightly embarrassed while listening to it, but you might also get an idea of an artist struggling with life in this culture, but never stopping from telling us about it.

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I Know Who Killed Me (2007)

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I Know Who Killed Me (2007)

I Know Who Killed Me is a great bad movie. It’s so ridiculous that it’s entertaining. If only more bad movies were like this. There are some boring scenes, but watching the movie stumble to its unbelievable ending is undeniably fun. Or “fun.” I’m a fan of using color in movies, but this movie was the most exaggerated and blatant use of color schematics that can be imagined. My 3-year-old-daughter would have figured out the concept after five minutes because it’s so incredibly obvious. Hearing Lindsay Lohan’s hangover voice is great when you see her as a high school student. And let’s not talk about her robotic limbs, because at this point you don’t know what kind of movie you are watching anymore. If you like funny bad movies, this one will be for you.

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Comics Are For Everyone: The Last of the Greats/Avengers vs. X-Men #6

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Comics Are For Everyone: The Last of the Greats/Avengers vs. X-Men #6

“Humans are flawed and this is why they destroy the earth.” Would anyone doubt that assumption? Probably not. I do because I think it’s not humans but culture that is flawed. Anyway, I want to look at two comic books today that ask the question: What would happen if all the problems in the world could be solved? What would humans do then? Those are intriguing questions that revolve around the notion of humans being flawed or not. If they are not flawed, solving all the problems would save the world. If they are flawed, all the problems will just come back. Looking at these questions are Joshua Hale Fialkov and Brent Peeples in their mini-series The Last of the Greats, published by Image in 2011 and 2012, and Jonathan Hickman and Olivier Coipel in the best issue of the event comic Avengers vs. X-Men (or just AvX because it’s so cool), published in 2012 by Marvel (which was written by every major Marvel writer but was quite a mess overall).

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American Psycho (2000)

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American Psycho (2000)

(spoilers ahead)

American Psycho is one of those impossible book adaptations that you wouldn’t anyone who knows the book expect to even consider. That book is insane! Mostly in a good way and in a very disturbing way for the rest of the time. But Bret Easton Ellis knows how to write. The movie is relatively harmless in comparison and while it might not be completely successful, it is a worthy attempt that captures some of the spirit of the book. The direction by Mary Harron (a woman!) is excellent and the use of excerpts from the book works well. And Christian Bale of course, he completely sells the movie by his extraordinary performance. But the movie drags for a while in the middle because it doesn’t know what to do after the main jokes are made but the mayhem is not about to start yet, which bored me. Still, the movie, like the book (which I admire but never want to read again) made some great points about society and capitalism we can look at here.

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You Belong on the Radio - U.K. Music Charts

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You Belong on the Radio - U.K. Music Charts

These posts seem to be popular, so let’s finish up the Big Three with looking at the U.K. Singles Charts. Though, looking at all three now, I see that the difference between them is not as big as it once was, since there are many repeats. I remember a time when the U.K. charts was full of hip new indie bands. Yes, I'm old.So maybe we have to shake things up a little next time…

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