Hackneyed

  • The Bustle Booth

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    Since it’s my birthday and I haven’t really said hi in quite some time, I figured I would answer the same questions The Bustle plans to inflict on celebrities for eternity. What’s your coffee order?No. What are the saved weather locations on your phone?East Lansing, various other Michigan cities I frequent, the cities I have…

  • Films Are Allowed to Make You Think

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    Had a conversation last night about this video from Bill Maher that I saw via a tweet from Scott Adams on this year’s Best Picture nominations, which Adams calls, “feel-bad ‘entertainment’ that gives you brain damage.” I haven’t seen all of the films (yet), but I wonder if Adams or Maher have either, or why…

  • Fuck January

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    Luke
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    You’re coming off the holidays. It’s cold outside. It’s snowing. Not suggesting be outright lazy for a month, but lean into the new year. You’re much more likely to set goals and keep them if you formulate a game plan. I keep a planner and in the back pages run monthly tasks that I use…

  • Michael Apted, Director and Seven Up Documentarian, Dies at 79

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    From his obituary in The Guardian: “The film-maker and documentarian was known for films such as Gorillas in the Mist and Coal Miner’s Daughter, as well as his long-running series of Up documentaries. His death has been confirmed by his agency to the Hollywood Reporter. No further details are yet known. Apted’s career started in…

  • Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund

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    Oddly enough after writing about this, I am reminded a year ago today I watched the 2014 dark comedy with the same name: Pretty fucking funny. The Gods of Carnage turn a routine, man-made avalanche into something that at least looks scarier. Scary enough to knockout assumptions of security and a few gender stereotypes. Scary…

  • Metropolitan, Whit Stillman

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  • A Mighty Wind, Christopher Guest

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    Rest in Peace, Mr. Willard.

  • Spoolswap Sundays

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    How are you? What are you working on, artistically or otherwise? Who or what has shaped who you are? What inspires you? What do you love? Send a letter to luke@retroduck.com and let me know. These letters inspire me. I hope they inspire you, too. I have often said, “Sundays are for worship and Netflix.”…

  • Nostalghia, Andrei Tarkovsky

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    Relatable as fuck.

  • Film: Year in Review (Sorta)

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    Watched 322 films last year that I hadn’t seen before. I’m usually not qualified to make year-end lists till March or so, but a few from 2019 that stood out to me thus far: Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, Uncut Gems, Jojo Rabbit, Knives Out, Parasite, I Heard You Paint Houses, Booksmart, Us and…

  • Life Update

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    Thank you to everybody that has reached out and asked how shooting has been going. If I’ve missed you, the answer is, hectic. Possibly the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I sleep very little, and on the set’s couch because it forces me to get up and be ready bright and early every day. But…

  • 63 Up

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    Realized a day or two ago: 63 Up will be coming out this year and I am tearing up just thinking about it. This series tugs at every heart string. I could barely hold it together (read: could not hold it together) just watching the trailer for the previous installment. We should also be what,…

  • If a star was born in 1937, 1954, 1976 and 2018…

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    … the mid/late 90s Mariah Carey/Diddy R&B/hip-hop remake must have gotten lost in a time warp.

  • #52Films By Women

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    I made a pledge to watch at least one female-directed film per week that I hadn’t seen prior in 2019. I will log them as I go, and likely rank them in the same list when I am done. Did the same thing in 2016. *** Speaking of movies. This is going to get discussed…

  • Hallmark & Chill

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    If you ever find yourself looking for a Christmas movie involving a grown woman trapped in a magical snow globe, I’ve seen two. Also, Holiday in Handcuffs, the Buffalo ’66 of the genre. PS: Luke, read more, you philistine.

  • Welles

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    Been devouring Orson Welles the past week or so. Started with watching The Other Side of the Wind, which I would not recommend to another human being. Still, I found it fascinating. Since, I’ve watched/rewatched eight films either by him, and/or starring him, or about him. Plan on keeping that up while I await next…

  • Milos Forman has passed.

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    He was 86. In my formative years I often felt like an outsider and Forman’s best films – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Man on the Moon, The People vs. Larry Flynt, Hair and Amadeus– sang to my rebellious heart.

  • Darren Brown: The Push

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    Trying to figure out how to never have to agree to anything ever again. Afraid getting dinner with someone is only a few steps away from committing a crime.