Conversations on 20th century cinema and (slightly) beyond. đź“Ľ Words by Jeremy Burgess.
Dust On The VCR Vol. 2 Issue 5 | I’ve Been Thinking About That One Scene From In The Heat Of The Night (1967) a Lot Lately
About three months ago, Roy Wood Jr.—a native of my hometown Birmingham—dropped a new comedy special. It’s very good, but one bit in particular has lived in my mind ever since I saw it. It’s a great joke about “evil white actors in civil rights movies”
Dust On The VCR Vol. 2 Issue 2 | The Mummy (1999) is, in Many Ways, a Little Bit of Everything
Hello, Jeremy here again. Welcome to the second week of Mummy Month! If you missed last week, my copywriting comrade Audi Barnes kicked it off with an excellent examination of Brendan Fraser’s off-screen persona. This week, we’re graced with the talents of a former copywriting comrade of mine, T...
Dust On The VCR Vol. 2 Issue 1 | Brendan Fraser is a Hero, and I Don’t Just Mean in The Mummy (1999)
Hey folks! Jeremy here. Welcome to Mummy Month over at Dust On The VCR! Throughout the month of January, I’m leaning into my curiosity about The Mummy’s exalted status among people younger than me by featuring four guest writers who all truly love this film. First up is Audi Barnes, a fellow cop...
Dust On The VCR Vol. 1 Issue 29 | Animal Horror Movies Like Shakma (1990) Kinda Rule, But at What Cost?
The first horror movie I can remember watching is Cujo. I think maybe my parents thought it had cultural value as a Stephen King property. So one day, as we were perusing the shelves of Movie Madness*, the tiny video store just a couple blocks away, they let me snag that tape off the shelf. (There w...
Dust On The VCR Vol. 1 Issue 21 | Predicting the Future in Film is Hard, But Akira (1988) Did a Pretty Good Job
One of my favorite things is when artists try to predict the future. It’s always so fascinating, even when it’s wildly inaccurate (or perhaps especially when it’s wildly inaccurate). Take Soylent Green, for example, which I wrote about back in May. Soylent Green
Dust On The VCR Vol. 1 Issue 13 | Marty McFly Didn’t Aim High Enough in Back to the Future Part II (1989)
Time-travel movies are a tricky thing to pull off. The main reason is the most obvious one: Anyone writing a novel, play, or screenplay about time travel is dealing with a pseudoscience, one where the “rules” are all made up, and yet there are certain unwritten laws of the genre by which we must...
Dust On The VCR Vol. 1 Issue 11 | On Michelle Pfeiffer as a High School Feminist Icon in Grease 2 (1982)
This film was requested by Courtney LeSueur, a musical aficionado and a talented graphic designer. Want to request a film for a future issue? Subscribe to the paid version! I don’t dream a whole lot. And it’s even rarer that I dream about real people. But I had a dream about Michelle Pfeiffer on...
Dust On The VCR Vol. 1 Issue 9 | Why Did We Allow Jon Voight to Play a Paraguayan Man in Anaconda (1997)?
You’ve probably seen Anaconda, right? It’s just one of those movies that everybody has seen, somehow some way. A friend’s house, basic cable, maybe even a theater trip. It’s one of those movies that is extremely 90s, especially as it was released during a time when major studios had the tech...
Dust On The VCR Vol. 1 Issue 8 | Was Rereleasing Oliver & Company (1988) the Pettiest Studio Move of All Time?
When my editor invited me on his podcast a couple months ago to discuss Oliver & Company, I was fairly certain that I’d seen this film before. It had been almost a quarter century since I’d seen it, and I had almost no memory of it beyond a dog wearing sunglasses or whatever. But I had a faint m...
Dust On The VCR Vol. 1 Issue 7 | Body Bags (1993) Might Actually Be Mark Hamill’s Best Performance
Note: This piece contains spoilers about the third segment of Body Bags. It’s a good movie and I think you should watch it (or at least the third segment), so if you’re averse to spoilers, please watch it first and then come back. Mark Hamill has always been a fascinating figure to me.
Dust On The VCR Vol. 1 Issue 6 | The Black Hole (1979) Shows Us That Disney Used to Be a Lot More Metal
Note: This piece contains spoilers about The Black Hole. It’s a good movie and I think you should watch it, so if you’re averse to spoilers, please watch it first and then come back. Disney is the biggest film company in the world for a reason. It’s because they’re smart, and they’ve ident...
Dust On The VCR Vol. 1 Issue 5 | What Yankees Game Did Juror #7 Have Tickets to in 12 Angry Men (1957)?
Baseball season is upon us! Congrats to all those who celebrate. It’s still early, and your team is still in it. What a thrill. In honor of baseball season, I want to discuss a very particular thing about one of my favorite baseball movies: 12 Angry Men
Dust On The VCR Vol. 1 Issue 4 | We Simply Must Discuss Cary Grant’s Hunting Trophies in The Philadelphia Story (1940)
The Philadelphia Story is rather delightful, isn’t it? It’s a classic film starring three Hollywood titans in Katherine Hepburn, Jimmy Stewart, and Cary Grant. It’s full of romance, comedy, and intrigue. It also features drunk driving, ass-pinching, and a hint of casual racism, but I suppose w...
Dust On The VCR Vol. 1 Issue 3 | The High School Coach in Above the Rim (1994) is Incredibly Irresponsible
Note: This piece contains major spoilers about Above the Rim. It’s a good movie and I think you should watch it, so if you’re averse to spoilers, watch it first and then come back. March Madness is officially upon us, and it’s a good time to be a Hoya. (Shouts out to the legend Patrick Ewing a...
Dust On The VCR Vol. 1 Issue 2 | Steve McQueen was Far Too Old to Play a Teenager in The Blob (1958)
The Blob is a lot of things. Most of us would agree that it’s a cheap B-movie—it is, after all, a film about a giant alien blob destroying (consuming?) a small town in Pennsylvania—but it’s also in the Criterion Collection. (Kind of an odd choice for the esteemed preservationists of classic ...
Dust On The VCR Vol. 1 Issue 1 | The Muppet Movie (1979) is a Southern-Fried Culinary Nightmare
The Muppets have been in the news recently, mostly because Donald Trump Jr. doesn’t know how anything works. There is one person, though, who actually tried to cancel the Muppets. One person whose scheme would’ve permanently derailed the gang’s origin story and prevented this delightful film a...
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