Nathan Rabin’s Happy Place

2 weeks ago | nathanrabin.com | Nathan Rabin

Great satire is perpetually timely, even when explicitly rooted in a time, place, and specific cultural context. The classic terror tale “It’s a Good Life” began as a 1953 short story by Jerome Bixby. Rod Serling adapted it into a 1961 episode of The Twilight Zone. Joe Dante then adapted it for the big screen as the standout segment in 1983’s Twilight Zone: The Movie.

2 weeks ago | nathanrabin.com | Nathan Rabin

These supremely fluffy light comedies have a tragic undercurrent. They each shut down so their male romantic lead could deal with addiction issues that would eventually lead to premature deaths. Serving Sara similarly had to improvise because the man carrying the film on his shoulders was incapable of professionalism and self-control.

Nov 20, 2024 | nathanrabin.com | John Ford

2022’s Razzenest makes an already formidable challenge even more difficult by positing itself as the director’s commentary on a Terence Malick-like folk horror movie with no people or dialogue, just images of nature relating, on a very abstract level, to the bloodshed and horrors of the Thirty Years War. There is similarly an abstract to non-existent relationship between what we see and hear. Sometimes, the pastoral tableaus seem to correspond directly to the sonic action.

Oct 14, 2024 | nathanrabin.com | Nathan Rabin

For some reason my patrons voted for me to see Ricky Stanicky over Green Book. Not sure why, but the Farrelly Brother comedy is not good and sub-par.

Jul 21, 2024 | nathanrabin.com | Nathan Rabin

One of you wonderful weirdoes paid me to see Champagne and Bullets, an amazing piece of outsider art that suggests Tommy Wiseau remaking Cobra with plenty of Manos: The Hands of God and Miami Connection thrown in for good measure.