Sonic Cinema

I’ve covered four different film festivals since 2019. I think, when it comes down to how a festival’s programming aligns with my interests as a film critic, and as an individual, the Atlanta Film Festival is the festival that connects with me strongest. In discussing it with one of the programmers a couple of years ago, I think what I appreciated the most about this festival is that it has […]

The time has come, once again, for the Atlanta Film Festival. Because of personal matters, and just a bog of work and Sonic Cinema responsibilities through the first part of April, I haven’t made a big deal of it, but I cannot wait for year five of the festival, and I’m finally ready to delve into it. As with 2022, I will be doing double duty between work and the […]

Hello readers and listeners! With the 25th anniversary of the 1999 movie year, it seemed like a good time to revisit this series, and add some new voices to the conversation. We begin by welcoming back to the podcast film critic and podcaster Morgan Roberts, host of Female Gaze: The Film Club, whom is joining me to discuss the teen rom com, “10 Things I Hate About You”. I hope […]

Obviously, when you figure in all of the “Class of 1999” episodes, this is closer to episode 190, but I love that, in the basic episode numbering of the podcast, this episode has shown up in this slot. For this discussion, I bring in Darin and Jonny from NostalgiaCast to discuss some classic films they were introduced to as kids, and which gives them that hit of nostalgia, as a […]

In its second year as a regular column on Sonic Cinema, “A Movie a Week” has found its sea legs…as well as its own section on the front page of the site. That means no more obstruction of Oscar blogs & end-of essays. I figure some of you will be happy about that. I know I am… 🙂 As for the column itself, the basic structure of it (with films […]

Last year, I decided to start a weekly blog, entitled “A Movie a Week.” Inspired by Roger Ebert’s “Great Movies” series and AICN’s Quint’s “A Movie a Day” (and later, “A Movie a Week”) series, I decided to look at older movies in my collection. Some, I had wanted to write about for a while (“L.A. Confidential,” “Braveheart,” “Andrei Rublev”), some I was inspired to do as I went along […]

In January 2011, Atlanta-area composer Brian Skutle had an idea for an EP that would return to the more exploratory type of musical craft he did in his years at Georgia State University. The result is his sixth release, and first digital-only album, “Arpeggiations & Atmospheres”. Inspired by electronica artists such as BT and Daft Punk, Skutle wanted to try his hand at something more in keeping with “popular” notions […]

After the ambitious scope displayed in his last two albums, Atlanta-area composer Brian Skutle returns to the more compilation-like approach of his first two albums with “Storytelling”. The original title of his fifth album (“Storytelling Through Sound,” later shortened to just, “Storytelling”) was inspired by an “artistic mission statement” Skutle wrote in 2006, in which he said, “As early as my first compositions back in 1998, a common thread connected […]