Sonic Cinema

Sounds, Visions and Insights by Brian Skutle

News

There are some pleasant surprises with the nominees for this year’s Georgia Film Critics Association awards, but also some not-so-pleasant snubs. There are still several I haven’t seen, though. Here are the nominees, what won, and my thoughts as a voting member. I hope you enjoy! This was a fairly impressive selection this year. 2023 Georgia Film Critics Association Awards Best Picture “American Fiction” “Barbie” “Godzilla Minus One” “The Holdovers” […]

Categories: News, News - General

The excess of overspending on blockbusters and relying too much on audience goodwill for franchises, and not putting enough creative muscle in stories, finally caught up with Hollywood in 2023. This summer was a reckoning for studios on a number of fronts: first with the studios penny-pinching and disregard of creatives in the form of multi-month strikes by both the Writer’s Guild and Screen Actors Guild (with more potential strikes […]

Categories: News, News - General

Sonic Cinema Podcast

As I began to prepare for my recent episode with Jason from Binge Movies on Fascism in Cinema, it occurred to me that this would be a fascinating ongoing series in the next year or two in American history. For the next episode of the series, we are looking at authoritarian violence and the idea of due process in our society, and how it can be reflected in films. Joining […]

Categories: News, News - Podcast

On the next episode of the podcast, I’m joined by a fellow podcaster whom I’ve only talked to on social media, and will be my first new guest on 2025. The topic of the day is Mary Harron’s controversial dark comedy, “American Psycho”, which turns 25 this year. The guest is Pete Abeyta, one of the co-hosts of the Middle Class Film Class podcast. I hope you enjoy! Episode 165 […]

Categories: News, News - Podcast

Music News

When I began this tradition in 2003, my initial reason was so I could steam through the horror DVDs in my Netflix Queue. It’s been an interesting experiment that has led to the discovery of new and exciting genre favorites like the early Hammer classics, silent masterpieces like “Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages” and “Vampyr,” and the rediscovery of personal faves like “Friday the 13th: Part VI- Jason Lives.” I’ve […]

Categories: News, News - Music

A decade after its first conception, and 42 years after the film that inspired it, Atlanta-area filmmaker-composer Brian Skutle is proud to release his fourth album, “Beyond the Infinite: A Musical Odyssey”. In 1999, Skutle was a student at Georgia State University when he composed “Beyond the Infinite,” a 3 1/2 minute work inspired by the music of Gyorgy Ligeti and the cinema of Stanley Kubrick as it collided in […]

Categories: News, News - Music