Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.
This week: two Andys, white tigers and EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE.
Now is the time. Here is the place. This is The Cut.
But first… Dracula. Well, we’re at H minus 2 at the time of posting, so it’s important to keep the spooky ratio high. Francis Ford Coppola’s wild and lurid 90’s retelling of one of the core horror texts hit a big birthday this year, celebrated appropriately with a shiny new remaster. It’s worth looking into how some of the effects were devised and executed, as they have a major role to play in the theatrical and otherworldly look and feel of the movie.
With that in our back pocket, let’s consider the tricks used to capture a ghost story on screen. Critic and Cut Crush Anne Billson knows the genre backwards. She knows what scares us. And she’s about to share. Those of a nervous disposition may want to locate the back of the nearest sofa…
Cruises. Why? Stuck on a boat for weeks at a time with no way off, surrounded by strange old people? Sure, ok, there’s the bars and the foods and the ‘entertainment’ but on the whole… nope, sorry, too weird for us. And this is us we’re talking about. As an example of the skewiness, we present a report on a recent themed jaunt which promised a murderously good time with an acclaimed author but delivered significantly less…
The X-Men have always carried a thematic burden above and beyond most funny-book groups. They aren’t just mutants—they’re symbols of the oppressed, the despised, the outsiders. As Sara Century points out in The Gutter Review, that’s OK. We all need someone to lean on, to identify with. Even if those someones are completely fictional.
We feel this list of the strangest roadside attractions in America, organised by state, would make an excellent starting point for a truly epic road trip. What are you waiting for, adventurers? Get itinerising!
This long piece on magicians and animal lovers Siegfried And Roy is just lovely. It takes us back to a time when it was OK for magic to be big, brash and unapologetically showbiz. The world seems a little less wild without these two in it.
XTC were one of those bands which should have been bigger. They had the songs. They had the ideas. Sadly, head X Andy Partridge also had crippling stage fright, which scuppered the American tour intended to put them on the global map. Somehow, though, that failure seems appropriate for this most English of bands. And the music is utterly gorgeous.
Here’s another Andy. Comedian, subject of one of REM’s biggest hits, source of some wild conspiracy theories (he was Trump in disguise at one point) and of course, a huge wrestling fan. Here’s the story of how he turned a massive ass-kicking into a moment of pure comedic genius.
Andy Kaufman In A Wrestling Match Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah
We couldn’t resist a bit of kitchen process. Nothing fictional this time (although we’ll again make the point that if you’re not watching The Bear YOU SHOULD BE) but there are some delicious moments in this dig into chef Hillary Sterling’s hot take on live-fire cooking at her New York restaurant. If you’re not hungry yet, by the end of this vid YOU WILL BE.
Some films hit the right chord at the right time. They sum up a moment or a universal mood. So it is with the brilliant multiversal comedy Everything Everywhere All At Once, which is still cleaning up at the box office and the awards shows. The film of 2022? The evidence would suggest so?
And finally. It’s important to make a good start. A great title sequence will bring a film to life. Here’s a top five from director Leigh Wannell, who knows a bit about how to set a table.
In ‘I thought he’d died years ago’ news, word came down the pipe as we were in our final assembly of the passing of Jerry Lee Lewis. The original rock ‘n’ roll troublemaker, the one guy guaranteed to bring a gun to a knife fight. He was, objectively, a monster. But he knew how to shake up a party. We ain’t fakin’.
See you next Saturday, rocker and rollers.
EXCUSES AND HALF TRUTHS 