Battleship Pretension profile picture

Battleship Pretension

My Interests

Music:

Neil Young, Tom Waits, The Talking Heads, Social Distortion, Vic Chesnutt, Johnny Dowd, Johnny Cash, Bright Eyes, Charlie Musselwhite, Smashing Pumpkins, The Mountain Goats, Eminem, Nirvana, System of a Down, They Might Be Giants, Townes Van Zandt, Wilco, The Lounge Lizards, David Johansen, Carter Burwell, Miles Davis, John Lee Hooker, Aimee Mann, The Mississippi Shieks.

Movies:

Michael Powell, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Luis Bunuel, David Lean, David Gordon Green, Joe Dante, Peter Weir, Federico Fellini, Jonathan Demme, John Dahl, John Sayles, Orson Welles, Jim Jarmusch, Sidney Lumet, Billy Wilder, John Cassavetes, Robert Altman, David Cronenberg, Curtis Hanson.

Television:

The Wire, The Sopranos, Deadwood, Rome, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Simpsons, Seinfeld, Futurama, Oz, Lost, Law & Order, Fishing with John, Roseanne, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, The Critic, Invader Zim, Arrested Development.

Books:

Crime and Punishment, Red Harvest, The Quiet American, In Cold Blood, Affliction, The Sweet Hereafter, The Glass Key, Pagan Babies, Mere Christianity, The Great Divorce, A Civil Action, The Island of Dr. Moreau, Continental Drift, The Great Gatsby, The Maltese Falcon, Blood Meridian, The Phantom Tollbooth, Bonfire of the Vanities, The Scarlet Letter, Snow Crash, Band of Brothers, The Stand, Needful Things.

My Blog

’90s Essential Films, Revisited

Below are the films from the 1990s that I consider to be essential viewing. All of them are great movies, for one reason or another. Some of them changed the way movies are made, while a few even ch...
Posted by Battleship Pretension on Thu, 09 Aug 2007 03:24:00 PST

Essential Films, Revised, then Justified

This is going to be a much more drawn-out blog series if I'm not careful. I'm all for justifying a film's inclusion on the list, but I know that I also tend to be a bit verbose. So, from now on, with ...
Posted by Battleship Pretension on Thu, 26 Jul 2007 12:14:00 PST

Essential Movies, 1990-1999

Here is our second round of essential movies, covering years 1990-1999. 1. Goodfellas (1990)2. Reversal of Fortune (1990)3. Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)4. Unforgiven (1992)5. The Fugitive (1993)6. Schi...
Posted by Battleship Pretension on Mon, 23 Jul 2007 07:33:00 PST

Essential Films, 2000-present

Here's our first list of essential movies, covering the years 2000 to 2007. These films are ordered by year, not preference. 1. Traffic (2000)2. You Can Count On Me (2000)3. Gosford Park (2001)4. Th...
Posted by Battleship Pretension on Mon, 23 Jul 2007 07:32:00 PST

Essential Films Throughout History

Okay. I'm going to be taking a short break from the blog series I'm working on now (Tyler's Favorite Films) to post a new series of blogs. In episode 18, David and I discuss movies throughout the ye...
Posted by Battleship Pretension on Mon, 23 Jul 2007 07:29:00 PST

64. JACKIE BROWN

There's no question that Quentin Tarantino is a talented writer and director. However, as his half of "Grindhouse" shows us, when accountable only to oneself, sometimes a director can put out a gratin...
Posted by Battleship Pretension on Thu, 19 Jul 2007 04:42:00 PST

65. TOOTSIE

In the past, people have come up to me and commented on how few comedies there are on my list. It is very strange, considering how much I love a good comedy. But, it's true. Many movies on my list,...
Posted by Battleship Pretension on Thu, 05 Jul 2007 01:21:00 PST

66. ANATOMY OF A MURDER

Courtrooms are inherently dramatic. Prosecution, defense, speeches, judgments; all in the service of the search for truth. Did the guy kill that other guy? Who's lying? Should we make an exception for...
Posted by Battleship Pretension on Fri, 15 Jun 2007 02:55:00 PST

67. PLANES, TRAINS, AND AUTOMOBILES

Among the smaller tragedies for modern film audiences is the fact that younger generations will not really remember just how great John Candy was. By all accounts, he was a big man with an even bigger...
Posted by Battleship Pretension on Fri, 15 Jun 2007 02:06:00 PST

Tyler's Favorite Villains

To coincide with episode 12 of the podcast, here is a list of Tyler's favorite movie villians. Several of these performances were nominated for numerous awards, and rightfully so. Some of the movies...
Posted by Battleship Pretension on Tue, 12 Jun 2007 03:20:00 PST