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The Kids Are Alright

My life changed one winter night in 1982. I had recently started to get into music and I desperately wanted to go see a midnight showing of The Kids Are Alright, a movie about

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This Is Spinal Tap

  “Hello Cleveland!!”  They’re loud, they’re misogynist, they’re wasted,  they’re extremely stupid, and they have armadillos in their trousers.  This is Spinal Tap was essentially the first and still the best episode of Behind

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The Buddy Holly Story

Death does amazing things for a performer’s reputation. Had Gary Busey gone by the wayside after his swaggering confident performance as bespectacled 50’s hiccupping proto-nerd and Elvis Costello impersonator Buddy Holly, and before all

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King Creole

Welcome to Elvis Noir, also known as the Encyclopedia of Cool, Volume Three. Everyone says that King Creole was Elvis Presley’s best film, but what they are really saying is that it doesn’t  have

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Jailhouse Rock

“In Jailhouse Rock, he was everything Rockabilly’s about. I mean he was mean, surly, nasty, rude. In that movie he didn’t give a fuck about nothing except Rocking and Rolling, living fast, dying young,

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Backbeat

“I’m not angry sister. I’m fucking desperate.”  It’s pretty hard not to be fascinated by the Beatle’s Hamburg, Germany period. Lore would have it that it was sort of a wild untamed boot camp

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A Hard Day’s Night

A Hard Day’s Night begins with the startling crisp ring of a sustained Gsus4th chord struck from George Harrison’s brand new Rickenbacker 360 12 string guitar, only the second one ever made, the most

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Bronco Billy

“Kids, you should never kill a man unless it’s absolutely necessary”  Everyone should get to be the hero of their very own Frank Capra movie. This is Clint Eastwood’s, and it’s a fine melting

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Born Yesterday

“He’s right I’m stupid and I like it.” I always sort of wondered exactly what the appeal of the dumb hot blonde was in the history of film and TV. I wonder if anyone really

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Mr. Roberts

Back in the day, just before Seinfeld mania hit the country I was watching Jack Lemmon in Mister Roberts. He plays a lazy, fast talking, pretty boy, cowardly, skirt chasing loon named Ensign Frank

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Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

“Dad used to say the only causes worth fighting for were the lost causes.” Remember back in the old days when there were only about six television channels and you’d marvel at your middle

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Mr. Deeds Goes To Town

Jean Arthur was Frank Capra’s secret weapon. Gary Cooper and Jimmy Stewart had all the bravado moves, but Arthur was the key to convincing the audience that these wholesome, ordinary men of truth and

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