Six Damn Fine Degrees #238: I have heard the Blood Music and I’ll never be the same

Alan Kuhl GrahamLeave a comment

Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!

Last week, Sam talked about the classic novels that were an essential part of an English curriculum, and I can well remember something similar from my school days. Those books that were seen as being the official, proper and right things for developing minds to read. However, they were not the only books out there. Alongside the worthy classics, there were popular reads that nonetheless bore the taint of scholarly respect. No teacher would be too angry with you if you were reading an Agatha Christie.

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: No hay pelicula! It is… an illusion.

MattLeave a comment

Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.

This year, we lost some of the greats – such as Gene Hackman, who starred in so many memorable films. One of the lesser known but equally deserving Hackman movies is the 1975 neo-noir Night Moves – a film all the more notable for how long it keeps its thriller plot on the back-burner, lulling its protagonist as much as its audience into a false sense of safety. Check out Matt’s thoughts on Night Moves here.

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A Damn Fine Cup of Culture Podcast #93: Lost Summer – David Lynch

The Barista CollectiveLeave a comment

This month’s podcast kicks off our summer series for 2025: the Lost Summer is all about what we’ve lost – directors, actors, films – and what this means to us. We’re starting with one that is very close to our heart at A Damn Fine Cup of Culture: in January, David Lynch died at the age of 78, so we’re taking this opportunity to talk about some of the films of his that meant the most to us. Join Alan, Sam and Matt as they talk about neo-noir mystery Blue Velvet (1986), much-reviled prequel Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992) and L.A. nightmare Mulholland Drive (2001). How did we discover Lynch’s work and these films in particular? What do they mean to us, and why? How do they fit into Lynch’s oeuvre? And what is the legacy that Lynch has left behind?

For more podcasts on David Lynch and Twin Peaks in particular, check out these classic episodes:

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Six Damn Fine Degrees #237: Never coming up for Eyre

samlinderLeave a comment

Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!

University reading lists as the one described in Matt’s latest post (and dare I mention I was one of his students to be on the receiving end of that particular list) can be a double-edged sword: There is a certain mechanical quality about ticking off titles one wouldn’t necessarily have chosen for personal reading, for sure. Yet gently forced exposure to such literature – if pre-selected well – can produce unexpected pleasures and open up new worlds and avenues for further reading. Starting out my English studies in the early 2000s as a slightly disoriented reader in the wide world of literature, the English department list (when diligently dealt with) certainly kept me busy, and struggling, for a while.

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Criterion Corner: Night Moves (#1255)

MattLeave a comment

When you think of Gene Hackman and neo-noir, what comes to mind? For most people – including me -, the answer is simple: The Conversation. And obviously there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that choice: Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 film is unarguably one of the best, most iconic paranoia thrillers of the 1970s and a great showcase of Hackman’s talents. But sometimes a film’s reputation can be so enormous, it eclipses other films that are also deserving of recognition.

Arguably, Night Moves (1975) is one of those films.

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: This post will self-destruct in five seconds (under the sheer weight of trailers)

MattLeave a comment

Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.

The novels of Thomas Hardy – in particular his last two, Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure – are the supreme downers, making you feel for their protagonists and then follow them on their descent into the kind of tragedy that would have made Antigone, Electra and Medea wince. And yet: these are beautifully written books, filled with sadness and anger at a society that chooses cruel judgment over mercy and empathy. Check out this week’s Six Damn Fine Degrees to find out why these books have proven to be so enduring for Matt.

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Stunning Hunts and cunning stunts: Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025)

MattLeave a comment

Is bigger always better? Arguably, that’s the main question the Mission: Impossible franchise has set out to answer, at least since reinventing itself in its current format with 2011’s Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, directed by Brad Bird. Once you get the Kremlin blown up and climb up the Burj Khalifa like a real-world Spider-Man, where do you go? Well, obviously, you ride a motorbike off a mountain in order to parachute through a window of the moving Orient Express. You try to escape a sunken submarine that’s rolling towards the abyss, while torpedoes come crashing from their enclosures to your left and right.

Is this one-upmanship impressive? Undoubtedly. Does it make for a good film? Let me get back to you on that one.

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Six Damn Fine Degrees #236: Hardy doesn’t begin to describe it

MattLeave a comment

Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!

Tom Hardy is probably most famous for his hardman roles, Michael “Charles Bronson” Peterson, Britain’s “most violent criminal”, being just one of them. Ask people which of Hardy’s roles they first think of, I’m pretty certain that The Dark Knight Rises‘ Bane will come up, or “Mad” Max Rockatansky (who, admittedly, isn’t half as hardass as that film’s Imperator Furiosa), or perhaps his characters from Peaky Blinders and Taboo. It makes sense: Hardy is nothing if not an imposing figure these days, a far cry from the evil-yet-slender Patrick Stewart clone he played way back in Star Trek: Nemesis (not a recommendation, even for Hardy fans – or Star Trek ones, for that matter).

Frankly, though, as much as I like Hardy when he’s working with good material, he’s not nearly as imposing as the O.G. Tom Hardy: Thomas Hardy, the literary pugilist of English Literature. There’s nothing quite like the world of pain that Hardy can put you in.

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: Are you watching them, or are they watching you?

MattLeave a comment

Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.

It’s not for the faint of heart, as Julie writes in this week’s Six Damn Fine Degrees entry, but Nicholas Windig Refn’s Bronson is worth a revisit.

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Who’s afraid of MI6: Black Bag (2025)

MattLeave a comment

Six couples – three men, three women, engaged in various sexual and romantic relationships – are seated around the dinner table. All of them work for British intelligence. One of them has been tasked with finding out which one of the other five is engaged in traitorous deeds. The food, while delicious, is spiked with a truth serum. What else is on the menu? Fun and games – that will end up with a steak knife being used for something quite different than its intended function. The words that are exchanged are just as sharp. And this is just the beginning.

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