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Articles by Danny Keith Anderson
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"Because We Are Human." Trading Assessment For an Irrational Education
I’ve decided to run a short series of essays inspired by Lionel Trilling, this being the second. Like the first, it is adapted from a talk I gave a few years ago. I know I risk testing your patience with this project, but I’m increasingly mortified by the mechanization of all human life, so I do hope you’ll forgive me. In 1967, Lionel Trilling published a textbook called The Experience of Literature.
Regina Spektor's Answer Song to John Keats
I’m lucky enough to have several “cool stories” to trot out from time to time. One of my favorites is that I knew Regina Spektor before she was famous. Ok ok, I didn’t actually “know” her; we never exchanged more than a nodding “hello” or “excuse me,” but I was there at the beginning. Back in the late 90’s I lived in New York City and one of my favorite things to do was go down to Alphabet City on Monday nights for the open-mic weirdness of my beloved Sidewalk Café on Avenue A.
Rodney Crowell's 'Diamonds and Dirt' at 35
There was a glorious moment in country music. It was wedged right between two distinct eras and didn’t last long, but it was beautiful. It was near the end of the 1980s, just as a largely forgettable era of pop-country radio was ending.
Die, Bureaucratic Monstrosity, Die!
I am begging your forgiveness, but a deep and hideous anger has boiling in my belly for some time now, creating a volcanic pressure in my metaphorical innards. If I don’t find a way to vent, to release that pressure, it’ll be the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa all over. My spleen-venting has to do with how number-crunching bureaucrats, who must get their night’s rest sleeping on spreadsheets, are doing their best to mutilate all that is good in the world. Pause. Breathe. Repeat. OK.
'Glass Onion' is 'God's Not Dead' for Liberals
Glass Onion is God’s Not Dead for Liberals Before you start furiously typing your angry responses to the title of this post, let me defend myself. As I watched Rian Johnson’s latest entry in the Knives Out franchise, I found myself laughing and appreciating the clever dispensation of justice on the movie’s antagonist. And the performances! Without exception, the performances were sensational. And I hope they keep making these movies. But as soon as the movie as over, I felt duped.
M3GAN Knows Us
If you’re looking for evidence that there is some justice in the world, take heart in the fact that M3GAN is a bona fide hit, both with critics and the cold-cash calculus of the box office. It would have been easy for critics to sour the public appetite for M3GAN. One can imagine lazy dismissals of the film as a Chucky knock-off that shifts the source of the horror from magic to technology (as Lars Klevberg’s sadly under-appreciated 2019 remake of Child’s Play did).
Ends Against Means
This week, I had the chance to meet with a student who was looking for a hobby. God bless her, she settled on writing and came to me for advice on how to begin. I think that most all teachers are thrilled when students come to their offices to chat. Even more so when the chats are not expressly about assignments. Humans growing with humans. That’s kind of what it’s all about.
Trekkies in the 21st Century
This semester, I’m teaching a class on documentary films. Late in the course, I assigned the 1997 film Trekkies, directed by Roger Nygard. Former Next Generation star Denise Crosby travels the world interviewing fans and stars from the franchise, and her interactions with folks behind and in front of the camera are engaging and hilarious. I thought that, at the end of a semester, when students are tiring, let’s watch something fun. And trust me, the film is still wildly fun.
Darkness on the Edge of the Tunnel of Love
In 1987, Bruce Springsteen took a career-turn that many saw as radically conservative, an understandable reaction. Tunnel of Love was, on the surface, a major departure from the artistic road Springsteen had been traveling. For nearly 15 years Springsteen and his E.
The Menu: A Brutally Insightful Satire
It’s a bleak world that Rotten Tomatoes has wrought. Hot takes and sick burns are the internet’s fuel, and what used to be called “pwning” (for whatever reason) is now the standard attitude that we all bring to all social media discourse. This sadly includes our conversations about art. The speed of electronic communication and the reward incentives of social media have deformed us into judgmental prudes with no sense of hospitality for an artistic experience.
Nihilism and the Internet Age
Writer-director David Prior’s adaptation of Cullen Bunn and Vanesa R. Del Ray’s comic series, The Empty Man, was never aimed at a mass audience. It’s not a Marvel property. It’s ephemeral, and rather than giving the viewer resolution, it purposefully obscures its message. The audacious choice to open with a 20-minute prologue unrelated to the plot is downright Kubrickian.
'The Dropout' and the Vice of Virtue
A teenage girl, awkward in her track uniform and wearing a large pair of glasses, runs with great effort. Only her father cheers for her from the stands. She is the last to finish the race, and all the other runners look at her with a combination of bewilderment and disgust. Her great effort, heroic to her father, is merely holding them up. Hulu’s limited series, The Dropout, opens with a montage centered around this scene. In it, young Elizabeth Holmes symbolizes everything that Americans love.
Horror 'The Black Cat' Slinks Easily into Our Time of Terror
We are living in a ruined world. The general consensus seems to be that we’ve scorched the earth below our feet and now live in the last days. It is a malaise that transcends political persuasion. Left, right, and center: everyone agrees that the world has gone to Hell. If global warming, pandemics, and political destabilization were not evidencing enough, the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine has pushed our world to the brink. It seems as if the apocalypse is unfolding all around us.
The Kinks' Muswell Hillbillies at 50
On the 50th anniversary of the Kinks’ classic album Muswell Hillbillies, the time has come to appreciate the unique genius of Ray Davies’ political vision. The Kinks have always been an enigma. Though firmly part of the British Invasion that swept America in the mid-1960s, the band were also so idiosyncratically British that American audiences were often baffled by their music.
A 'Midnight Mass' for Post-Trump American Christianity
Mike Flanagan’s new Netflix series, Midnight Mass, was always bound to be a focal point for one culture war or another. Flanagan has already established himself as a filmmaker that people talk about, and his horror films and shows consistently become cultural events. Add to this Midnight Mass’s overt and deep exploration of religion, and the stage is set for a critical moment.
The Diving Sun by Joe Pug
In the middle of Joe Pug‘s rich new album, The Diving Sun, I found myself completely lost in the rapturous anthem “Deep End”. The song, a desperate, romantic call to commitment, is a microcosm of everything special about Joe Pug’s music, which champions the art of emergence. If there is a central theme in Pug’s body of work, it is never too late to re-invent oneself if one is willing to commit nose to the grindstone. Against whatever odds, a new life is possible.
ABOUT A BOY: Community for a Post-Pandemic World
It’s always struck me as odd that Chris and Paul Weitz’s 2002 comedy About a Boy isn’t more popular than it is. Based on a novel by Nick Hornby and boasting a stellar cast that includes Hugh Grant, Toni Collette, Rachel Weisz, and a very young Nicholas Hoult, the film has tremendous star power. Added to this fact, it’s a remarkably warm and witty film, filmed with unique creativity and visual gusto, with a catchy soundtrack by Badly Drawn Boy.
Zack Snyder, Matthew Arnold, and Ancient Stories in Comic Book Films
Right now, on some social media platform, someone is ranting about Zack Snyder. In comic fandom debates and “Film Twitter” discourse, no filmmaker incites more passionate opinioneering than Snyder. His films’ fundamental form and style excites certain viewers to a fanatical devotion while driving others into a furious rage. The Snyderverse is, to put it mildly, divisive.
HANNIBAL RISING: Anti-Fascism Without Ideology
Hannibal Rising will probably always be an under-appreciated footnote to the Hannibal Lecter literary and cinematic universes. The prequel takes us back to Lecter’s origins. First, we see him as a victim of atrocities during World War II, then we see the monster emerge in an extended revenge thriller. Both the novel and the accompanying film are tightly plotted and provide plenty of opportunities to be simultaneously fascinated and repulsed by Hannibal Lecter.
Review: Bread Givers, by Anzia Yezierska
A reflection on education and inventing the self Literature Review Bread Givers, by Anzia Yezierska. Available via Bookshop.
LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS At 60: Social Change and White Male Anxiety
As we await another musical adaptation of Little Shop of Horrors, it’s worth looking back to Roger Corman’s campy 1960 original film. Before inspiring all of the catchy musical numbers, Corman’s film remains an absurd, slapstick comedy with a sharp mix of stark depression. Mainly remembered for inspiring a massively successful musical and a memorable early performance by a delightfully bizarre Jack Nicholson, the film deserves a second look on its 60th anniversary.
Nimród Antal’s KONTROLL: The Kafkaesque Comic Nightmare Perfect For 2020
“Wandering between two worlds, one dead, The other powerless to be born,” – Matthew Arnold, “Stanzas From the Grand Chartreuse” The world as we have known it disintegrates before our eyes. 2016 ushered in an extended period of political upheaval and uncertainty. Then, suddenly, the COVID-19 pandemic brought death and fear, hurling the world into a massive economic recession.
| Film Inquiry
The first week of the 55th Chicago International Film Festival has come to a close, so let’s take time to recap some of the films that screened during this week.
Christians Should Watch 1932 Horror Film WHITE ZOMBIE For Easter
As Easter approaches, Christians all over the world prepare to mourn the death of Christ on Good Friday, and then to celebrate his resurrection three days later, on Easter. For most believers, these events mark the holiest days on the calendar. Jesus’s mastery over death and his power of resurrection form the foundation for the hope Christianity offers the world. Very rarely do Christians shudder at the horror of such power.
How THE WOLFMAN (2010) Breaks Down The Corrosive Ideology Of Its Predecessor
The latest film version of The Invisible Man has hit theaters to great critical success. That film’s updating of a classic horror film brings a fresh ideological perspective to a foundational horror film. This is not the first time a remake of a classic Universal monster movie has done this.
WOLFEN: Horror, Capitalism & The Environment
We’re in a kind of golden age of radical horror films. In politics, Bernie Sanders’ rises in the polls and class consciousness simultaneously permeates many recent horror films. Jordan Peele‘s Us and Get Out, Bong Joon Ho‘s Best Picture-Winning Parasite, and a host of others have taken up the class-based critiques of earlier classics dating back to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and before.
"The Dead Speak!" What RISE OF SKYWALKER Shares With Jewish American Fiction
Episode IX of the Star Wars series has been bitterly divisive, with fairly clear lines drawn between aficionados of Rian Johnson‘s Last Jedi and those who prefer J.J. Abrams’ far more traditional riff on the franchise. The Last Jedi was praise by many for its rejection of the themes that had traditionally driven its predecessors.
"OK, Boomer:" How ARTHUR CHRISTMAS Predicted Our Inter-generational Conflict
2011’s underrated animated Christmas film Arthur Christmas (co-directed by Sarah Smith and Barry Cook) is a fun holiday comedy that tells the absurd story of how Santa’s clumsy, naive youngest son takes over the family business. But there is so much more to this film. The delightful ensemble cast features the voices of James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Bill Nighy, and Jim Broadbent as four generations of the Santa dynasty, each of whom have a competing vision for the role.
How BLINDED BY THE LIGHT Illuminates the Politics Of Race & Class
To be sure, I am probably the target demographic of Gurinder Chadha’s 2019 film Blinded By the Light. Like the film’s protagonist, Javed (Viveik Kalra), I come from a distinctly working class background that left me excluded from much of the culture around me. When he was 32, my father suffered a heart attack working at a steel mill and went to work while suffering from it for a week as he was afraid of losing his job, doing irreparable damage to his heart.
How THE BIG SLEEP Made Detectives Postmodern
I doubt I’ll ever forget the first time I saw Howard Hawks‘ classic 1946 film The Big Sleep, starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. I was attending a tiny religious college that offered little to do on the weekends. A nearby college (a rather elite one) showed free movies on its campus so I would frequently sneak in and lose myself in the forbidden fruit of cinema for a couple of hours. This remains the largest part of my education that actually stuck.
A SERIOUS MAN At 10: A Prophetic Warning Against "Facts & Logic"
The Coen Brothers have made a career of making mainstream movie audiences accept the weird and the quirky. Almost as remarkable as the quality of their films is the fact that they are also generally popular. Fargo, The Big Lebowski, and No Country For Old Men are each genuinely strange movies, and it is a considerable marvel that they each have dedicated popular fan bases. Even their less massively popular films, like Miller’s Crossing, have devoted fans beyond stuffy academia and #FilmTwitter.
Werewolves & Lobsters: How I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF Explains Jordan Peterson's Appeal
It’s a campy, low-budget drive-in flick, but director Gene Fowler’s 1957 magnum opus I Was A Teenage Werewolf remains a lot of fun. Before Bonanza and Highway To Heaven, young Michael Landon does his best James Dean impression in this tale of an “Angry Young Man” trying to improve his attitude but who becomes a lycanthrope instead. This movie does not aspire to be “Great Cinema”. It is a teen exploitation film with a low budget that was a massive drive-in theater hit in 1957.
How John Brahm's Trilogy Of Psychological Noir Help Us Understand The Nature Of Evil
In Silence of the Lambs, Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter quotes Marcus Aurelius in an attempt to help Jodie Foster’s novice FBI agent Clarice Starling catch Buffalo Bill. Lecter asks, “Of each particular thing, ask: What is it in itself?
BETTER OFF DEAD: A Fantastic, Horrifying Masterpiece Of Offensiveness
Recently John Cusack found himself trending on Twitter for all the wrong reasons. The iconic 80’s actor retweeted (inadvertently or not) an antisemitic meme and the social media platform descended on him. For someone so closely connected to 1980s nostalgia, Cusack is weirdly not a particularly beloved figure. He still works regularly of course, but Hot Tub Time Machine seems a bit slight given the outsized role Cusack occupies in Gen X’s collective imagination.
How The Horror Films of Michael Dougherty Subvert Christianity
Godzilla: King of Monsters, the latest installment of Legendary Entertainment’s “MonsterVerse” franchise, is in the wind-down phase of its theatrical release, to a fairly mixed critical response. Now that the buzz has subsided, it’s a good time to reflect on one distinct feature of the growing body of horror films by the movie’s director, Michael Dougherty.
JOHN WICK: Capitalism Dressed In Religious Clothes
The John Wick franchise is more than the story of a boy and his dog. Starring action hero Keanu Reeves and famous for its epic scenes of stylized violence, the series’ spectacular killings are meticulously orchestrated as if part of a grand ballet. The aesthetic thrill the murders produce comes from their precise choreography in perfect syncopation with the films’ soundtracks.
Cultivating an Awareness of God
It’s Christmas time again, and if you go to church, you will probably hear the story about how Jesus came into the world as a baby, and they called him Emmanuel which means God with us. (Matthew 1:22, 23) The good news is all about how a person can experience the presence of God in their life right now, not just after they die. God being with us and even dwelling inside of a believer is meant as a source of comfort, strength, courage, wisdom and peace throughout Scripture.
Danny Keith Anderson, former Orofino resident, 60
Dan used to share how much fun Orofino was as he grew up in the late 60s and 70s with muscle cars cruising up and down Johnson Ave, riding dirt bikes in the woods, and days spent swimming in the Clearwater and North Fork with friends. He enjoyed almost anything outdoors to include hunting, fishing, gold panning, camping and getting firewood. He loved listening to and making country western and gospel music by way of six string guitar.
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