Film Review: Phantom Thread

It looks great, sounds great, and contains great performances, and that should be enough, right?

Daniel Day-Lewis and Vicky Krieps in Phantom Thread

There are six words that gets the blood of every movie nerd pumping: Paul Thomas Anderson are three of them, and Daniel Day-Lewis are the other three. The other time these two worked together, they created the modern masterpiece There Will be Blood. Now they return, sans milkshakes, for what Sir Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis claims will be his last acting job. Whether this retirement sticks is anyone’s guess, but is it worth catching him on the screen one last time?

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Film Review: The Commuter

Rough commute takes on a whole new meaning in fun Neeson-helmed thrill ride

Commuter Michael (Liam Neeson, r.) tries to save his fellow train passengers. 

If you are suffering from post-holiday malaise and need a pick-me-up, you could do worse than seeing the new Liam Neeson action flick The Commuter. Unlike the usual forgettable fare that typically inhabits the January cinematic wasteland, Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra’s new film offers the sort of hold-your-breath thrills that you would expect from the same director who pitted Blake Lively against a shark in 2016’s The Shallows and who collaborated with Neeson back in 2014 on Non-Stop.
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Spinning Platters Interview: Dave Hill

Photo by Michelle Crow

Dave Hill is one of the most prolific performers you’ve probably never heard of. He plays guitar for the bands Valley Lodge (who do the theme to Last Week Tonight with John Oliver), Diamondsnake (a metal band with Moby), and his black metal band Witch Taint, which he’s bringing to Sketchfest this year as part of a larger schedule. He also hosts “The Goddamn Dave Hill Show” on WFMU radio, and a podcast called “Dave Hill’s Podcasting Incident.” Not good enough? He’s also an accomplished writer and stand-up comic. Spinning Platters pulled Hill away from his busy schedule to speak to us. Here’s how it went!

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A Nerd’s Guide To Sketchfest 2018

It’s that time of year when the best possible three weeks of comedy programing take over Bay Area theaters, art spaces, and nightclubs: SF Sketchfest! There is so much good stuff happening that it’s impossible to make heads or tails of where to go when. Well, I’ve been studying the schedule in great detail for the last several weeks, and since I am of impeccable taste, I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt what the best things are to do each day of the event. Continue reading “A Nerd’s Guide To Sketchfest 2018”

Spinning Platters Recommends: Josh Ritter and the Royal City Band, January 19/20 at the Fillmore

Show date: January 19/20, 2018, 7:00 pm

Venue: The Fillmore

City: San Francisco

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Film Feature: Carrie’s Top 10 Films of 2017

If you didn’t get out to the movies as much as you’d hoped in 2017, it’s not too late to catch up on these worthy titles!

Spinning Platters Film Editor Carrie Kahn shares her ten favorite films of 2017, presented in descending rank order. You can also check out her list from last year here. 

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Spinning Platters’ Top 10 Albums of 2017

A look back at the records that got us through the dumpster fire that was 2017…

By The Spinning Platters Staff

2017 may go down as one of the worst years in recorded history. In fact, I’m almost 100% certain of that. However, the best art is created out of strife, and 2017 yielded an especially passionate crop of records. So, without further adieu, here is Spinning Platters’ Top 10 records of 2017, as selected and voted on by our entire team:

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Film Review: All the Money in the World

All the money can’t buy happiness in Scott’s tense new thriller

Gail (Michelle Williams) waits to speak with her ex-father-in-law.

There’s no such thing as bad publicity, the saying goes, and so director Ridley Scott’s new film All the Money in the World had already captivated the public interest months before its release today. As most readers are probably aware, the bad publicity here was the revelation back in October that the film’s original lead, Kevin Spacey, had sexually harassed actor Anthony Rapp when he was 14. Spacey controversially apologized, but the damage was done; in early November, Scott and the film’s production team made the extraordinary decision to reshoot all Spacey’s scenes with a new actor, just three weeks before the film’s scheduled opening.
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Film Review: The Post

Spielberg brilliantly brings First Amendment showdown to life 

Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) and publisher Kay Graham (Meryl Streep) weigh big decisions for their paper.

“We can’t have the administration dictate our coverage just because they don’t like what we printed about them in the newspaper,” Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) tells Post owner and publisher Kay Graham (Meryl Streep) in director Steven Spielberg’s fine new film The Post. A paean to journalism that is still exceedingly relevant today, Spielberg’s story of the Post’s battle to publish the confidential Pentagon Papers in the early 1970s succeeds on a number of levels, making it one of the best pictures of the year, and giving it a rightful place in the canon of great journalism movies.

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