Snobbin: Beautiful Trash in the Pop Culture Gutter

  A stunning debut from a first-time director that still holds up. John Singleton's story about a young man coming of age amidst gang violence in South Central Los Angeles has aged better than many of the other New Black Cinema films because of well-developed characters (at least for the most part) and realistic relationships. The compassion and decorum the film displays reinforce strong performances by Lawrence Fishburne and Ice Cube. Despite the rapper's brief role, Cube brings fresh air to his performance as wise-cracking and dogged Doughboy. Fishburne steals most of the scenes he appears in as Tre's (Cuba Gooding Jr.) tough but fair father. The chilling scene where he manipulates the stress balls as his son goes for revenge still hits hard thirty years later. If its been a while since you have seen Boyz n the Hood , you should revisit it. While a product of its time, this stylish movie  remains one of the best of the 1990s so-called hood films and one of the most moving...

Film Four: Dark Wind (1991). I have not seen this Tony Hillerman adaptation in years. While it was the only fiction film directed by famed documentarian Errol Morris, this one feels cobbled together because he left the project before completing his vision. Lou Diamond Phillip's tentative performance as Jim Chee and Gary Farmer's assured one as Deputy Cowboy Albert Dashee do little to help the fragmented narrative, and poor editing gives a boom mic star power that it does not deserve.  While I enjoyed the acting, I can't really recommend this one. Instead, if you are interested in adaptations of the Chee and Leaphorn mysteries, I suggest watching the 2022 AMC television series Dark Winds starring Zahn McClarnon, Kiowa Gordon, and Jessica Matten.

  When I was a young and impressionable punk rock kid in the 1990s, I went down a lot of paths. I was indoctrinated into the fold like many a naïve youth of the time by Green Day and then after pursuing their earlier albums and the Lookout Records catalog, I stumbled on to Fat Wreck Chords and Epitaph before disappearing ever further into the underground and classic hardcore. I flirted with many labels and have moved into other genres practically entirely, but I never forgot my love for those earlier records. The Shit Split , the joint collection from Bay Area crusty bands, Blatz and Filth, was one that was stamped indelibly on my mind, and I wish I had been in the scene when it was released in 1991. I made up for lost time when I got it later on CD, but I now I wish I had invested in the vinyl. I do have the 7 inches because I scoured every bin for Lookout releases for years. Blatz's “Cheaper Than The Beer” has been a longtime turntable favorite, but I was always partial to t...