Blame it on the boogie: The Secret Disco Revolution **1/2
By Dennis Hartley (Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on June 29, 2013) Remember the disco era? I try not to. Yeah, I was one of those long-haired rocker dudes walking around brandishing a “Disco...
View ArticleThoughts on a Beatles anniversary & a new (-ish) documentary (***)
By Dennis Hartley (Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on February 9, 2014) Digby has invited me to share my memories and thoughts about the Beatles performing on the Ed Sullivan Show 50 years ago...
View ArticleA sad sequel: The American Assassin on Film II
By Dennis Hartley (Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on June 20, 2015) “When Mexico sends its people (to America), they are not sending their best… (Mexican immigrants) are bringing drugs and...
View ArticleSCOTUS Night at the Movies: Stonewall Uprising & SIcko revisited
By Dennis Hartley (Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on June 27, 2015) Stonewall rioters on the night on June 28, 1969 The White House on the night of June 26, 2015 What an extraordinary week it...
View ArticleI saw Fear in the People’s Temple: The Decline Trilogy arrives on Blu-ray
By Dennis Hartley (Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on August 8, 2015) I saw Fear in the People’s Temple. Sounds poetic, but I’m being quite literal. In 1980, I saw Fear (the L.A. punk band)...
View ArticleThe Death Hour: How Hollywood tried to warn us
By Dennis Hartley (Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on August 29, 2015) I love it. Suicides, assassinations, mad bombers, Mafia hitmen, automobile smash-ups: “The Death Hour”. A great Sunday...
View ArticleRock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominees announced: My 5 picks for the 2016 inductees
By Dennis Hartley While I abhor the concept of tossing creative artists into the gladiatorial pit (art, prose, poetry, music and film are not competitive sports), my sworn duties as a pop culture...
View ArticleMichael and me in Trumpland
By Dennis Hartley (Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on December 17, 2016) Growing up as a military brat is not easy. It’s a nomadic life; not so much by choice as by assignment. In the military,...
View ArticleChild’s guide to war: A film troika
By Dennis Hartley (I originally posted this over at Hullabaloo on September 14, 2013. I’m re-posting it with no revisions, because sadly, it’s relevant once more.) Have you heard the reasons why?...
View ArticleThe last picture show
By Dennis Hartley (Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on June 17, 2017) 6/11/17: Miyazaki sky courtesy of my chintzy Android This is the song at the end of the movie When the house lights go on...
View ArticleDirty movies: a top X list
By Dennis Hartley (Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on November 3, 2018) (Now that I have your attention) 50 years ago this month, Hollywood submitted to a new voluntary film rating system...
View ArticleSpecial guest post: A very, very, very fine house
By Dwight Slade Note: Dwight Slade is a Portland-based comic with whom I had the pleasure of working with several times during my stint in stand-up. Much has been written about comedians on the road;...
View ArticleDesperate housewife: Criterion reissues Barbara Loden’s Wanda (****)
By Dennis Hartley (Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on March 23, 2019) Wanda Goronski: I don’t have anything. I never did have anything. Never will have anything. Norman Dennis: You’re stupid....
View ArticleLoud love: Thoughts on Cobain, aging and a top 10 list
By Dennis Hartley (Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on April 6, 2019) In my 2007 review of A.J. Schnack’s documentary Kurt Cobain: About a Son, I wrote: It’s virtually impossible to live here in...
View ArticleOn mad kings, Mueller’s report, and Altman’s Secret Honor
By Dennis Hartley (Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on April 20, 2019) It’s been déjà vu all over again this week. In my 2008 review of Frost/Nixon, I wrote: There’s an old theatrical...
View ArticleNotes from Ground Zero…and The Twilight Zone
By Dennis Hartley (Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on March 7, 2020) The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply...
View ArticlePointing a way to the moon: Bruce Lee hits Criterion
By Dennis Hartley (Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on August 15, 2020) TV interviewer: Do you think of yourself Chinese, or do you ever think of yourself as North American? Bruce Lee: You know...
View ArticleI Caught It At The Movies: Can theaters survive?
By Dennis Hartley (Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on October 17, 2020) In 2017, my neighborhood theater, Seattle’s legendary Guild 45th shut down. I took the above photo about a month ago. It...
View ArticleMonsters from the id: Tigers Are Not Afraid (***) & The Spirit of the Beehive...
By Dennis Hartley Suffer not the little children: Still from The Spirit of the Beehive (1973) Is there an echo in here? Still from Tigers Are Not Afraid (2019) In my 2009 review of Where the Wild...
View ArticleEveryone’s a Captain Kirk
By Dennis Hartley (Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on October 13, 2021) What a long, strange trip it’s been. From my original review of the 2009 film Star Trek: OK, so now I have an excuse to...
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