We all need surprising moments in our life. Little things that happen that take us by surprise and make us look at ourselves, and the world, from a different angle. Sometimes those are big events, and sometimes they’re little things. But they’re always powerful and need to be respected and observed.
For me, one of those moments was when I realized that “Die Hard” was based on a book.
Continue reading “Nothing Lasts Forever (not even my knowledge of Die Hard)”
The first week of October is a very special time of year for guys like me. Our flannel button-ups shed their dust and see the light of day once more, kegs of the dark beers we yearned for through the hard seltzer summer are finally being tapped, and we all get real fucking stoked to bust out our crockpot soup recipes. Most significantly, though, the ol’ seasonal depression rears its ugly head: that’s right, baby, it’s sad boy season!
Continue reading “The Menzingers’ “Hello Exile”: An Ode to a Sad Boy Weekend”
Growing up reading Batman comics as a kid in the 1980’s, I witnessed the evolution of this iconic villain from the earliest versions inspired by “The Man Who Laughs” to Ceasar Romaro’s slapstick antics as the “Clown Prince of Crime,” to the more twisted and deranged murderous psychopath that is the Joker of modern day. Todd Phillips gives fans of the character everything they could’ve asked for in an origin story for The Joker.
Continue reading “Joker Is Insanely Good!”With the release of Todd Phillip’s highly anticipated Joker, Fancy Boys David Vox Mullen & Matt Drufke decided to go back and take a peak at what the Detective Comics Films Universe (DCFU) has given us in the last six years. These films have had mixed results, both in the box office and in critical acclaim. The boys roll up their sleeves, straighten their capes, and dive in.
Continue reading “Fancy Boys Go To The Movies: DCU MEGA-REVIEW!”
In Sound & Fury, Sturgill Simpson doesn’t make music for you. He makes it despite you.
“Southern samurai glam rock” may sound like an excerpt from a lazy game of Mad Libs, but it’s the best description I could muster for Sound & Fury, the fourth studio album from Grammy winning artist Sturgill Simpson.
Once the heir apparent to the fiefdom Dave Cobb built for outlaw country revival, the main thread holding each of Sturgill’s albums together is how much they distance themselves from the last. None more so than Sound & Fury, which takes any trace of bluegrass twang and buries it under a heap of sleethy synth-rock riffs. Continue reading “Sturgill Simpson’s Sound & Fury Bucks Outlaw Revival”
Every year, one song defines the season as a landmark in American culture. It may have no relevance to current events, in fact, it would be better if it didn’t. 2019 just took a DNA test, and turns out “Truth Hurts” is 100% the Song of the Summer.
Continue reading “It Is Time To Declare the 2019 Song of the Summer”
With fall in full swing, we’re headed into the last quarter of this year… and this decade. This is the last chance for studios to get their films out to have them get Oscar consideration and to make the lists of all the critics whom they undoubtedly hate. What are the films I’m most looking forward to? Let’s count them down:
Continue reading “The Most Anticipated Films Left In 2019…”
This is the period in the cinematic year when studios stop sending us their blockbusters (how they make their money) and get ready to start sending us their Oscar bait (how they feel good about themselves). Both now, and in the spring when the same thing happens in reverse order, can be a feast or famine for a film that the studio doesn’t know exactly how well it could do. Sometimes, a film can find the right audience and become a massive and unlikely hit. More likely, a film can get lost and not find the audience it deserves.
I hope The Farewell finds the audience that it deserves, because it’s one of the best movies of the year.
Continue reading “Fancy Boys Go To The Movies: The Farewell”
September is here. Labor Day has passed. The kids are back in school. This marks the end of the summer movie season, that beautiful period from May through August when the major movie studios only care about one thing: making that sweet, sweet, sweeeeeeeeeet paper. You want remakes? THEY WILL GIVE YOU REMAKES! You want sequels? THEY WILL GIVE YOU SEQUELS! You want compelling Oscar-worthy think pieces? FUCK OFF! THEY ARE TOO BUSY GIVING YOU REMAKES AND SEQUELS!
So, how did the studios do?
Continue reading “The 2019 Summer Blockbuster Wrap-Up”
It was in the spring of 1995 that I had first heard of Boyz II Men or their album II. I was in second grade, and my family had just moved from Hobart, Indiana to nearby Valparaiso. It was far enough to lose contact with all of my friends but close enough that my mother could drive me to school on her way to work in Merrillville to let me finish out the year.
Continue reading “Realize I Was The One: A Love Letter to Boyz II Men’s ‘II’”
Fancy Boys Club 