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If you have a particular aversion to Stealers Wheel's 70's classic "Stuck In The Middle With You," chances are it's because of Michael Madsen's deliciously psychotic performance as Mr. Blonde in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs. In fact, throughout the 1990's, Madsen made a name for himself as a prolific hard case in the Hollywood scene, and his resume will attest to this fact, whether he likes it or not. Though funny enough, it looks like he really doesn't like it, or at the very least he doesn't like how it's handled on the popular movie database, IMDb. That's because he believes the site makes him look bad by listing him as being a part of multiple random projects that he in actuality has nothing to do with. In the latest installment of The Av Club's Random Roles series, Madsen was interviewed about a random sample of performances from his career,...

Tweet Of The Day | The Gatsby Factor | NPR's American Icons | Counterpoint | The First Time

All 256 two-minute episodes of new birdsong programme Tweet Of The Day (weekdays, 5.58am, Radio 4) will be kept online forever. This is the way all broadcasting is going, whether the programme-makers like it or not. You wonder how the above title will play 10 years from now, when the word tweet will be approximately as resonant as the word Betamax.

All access forever means you can compare The Gatsby Factor (Thursday, 11.30am, Radio 4), Sarah Churchwell's exploration of the enduring allure of Fitzgerald's novel, which appears in anticipation of Baz Luhrmann's hip-hop-inflamed movie version, with the programme Kurt Anderson made for NPR's American Icons series in 2010 and lives online (studio360.org). Neither has seen the new film. Consequently, Churchwell leads you to believe that The Great Gatsby is essentially unfilmable, because the elements of the story that...

Ryan Lambie Jul 28, 2016

What do Bambi, The Dark Knight and Seven all have in common? Some powerful moments of off-screen violence...

Nb: The following contains spoilers for Seven (1995) and The Witch (2015)

The seminal moment in the history of cinema came at the turn of the 20th century, when the medium began to move away from the storytelling language of the theatre. Filmmakers like Edwin S Porter began to realise that the camera could do so much more than simply record what was in front of it; such techniques as close-ups and edits to different angles or locations could be used to create drama.

It’s these filmmaking techniques that the masters of cinema use to create suspense and feelings of dread. And while there’s nothing wrong with jabs of violence of gore in movies, it remains the case that anticipation or suggestion of a violent act is more effective than seeing the moment itself.

What do Bambi, The Dark Knight and Seven all have in common? Spectacular moments of off-screen violence, obviously. Here’s a list of a few other favourites…

Exploding heads are great, obviously. And there are some action and horror films that simply wouldn’t be the same without copious bloodletting, broken limbs and flying eyeballs. So while we’ve nothing against cinematic excess, it’s also the case that truly horrific violence can be implied rather than explicitly shown.

To this end, here’s a list of a few particularly noteworthy moments of implied nastiness in cinema. Needless to say, there are dozens upon dozens that we’ve failed to remember, so feel free to chip in with your own favourite moments of off-screen menace in the comments section.

M (1931)

“Just you wait, the nasty man in black will come,” is the first line uttered in Fritz Lang’s unforgettably disturbing 1931 thriller,...

Critics' Choice |Movie Awards |Critics' Choice Video |Celebrity News If you’ve ever been struck with paralyzing unease while listening to an easy listening station, you probably have a Quentin Tarantino film to thank for that. Tonight Tarantino received the Music + Film Award at the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, a new award that fits perfectly with the director’s creepy, fun, always ingenious melding of film and song. Prior to Quentin receiving the award, Maroon 5’s Adam Levine serenaded the crowd with The Stealers Wheel’s “Stuck In The Middle With You,” forever linked in our mind with Reservoir Dogs, and Keri Hilson brought it home with Dusty Springfield’s “Son Of A Preacher Man,” featured in Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. Reservoir Dogs’ Tim Roth presented his former boss with the award and his skill with a soundtrack. “It’s the rhythm of the film, and tonight we celebrate...

London, Jan 5 – Scottish singer and songwriter Gerry Rafferty, best known for the 1970s hits like ‘Baker Street’ and ‘Stuck In The Middle With You’, has died after years of battling alcoholism. He was 63.

His daughter Martha said on Tuesday that Rafferty passed away peacefully at his home surrounded by family, reports the Scotsman.

The Paisley-born musician had been admitted to Bournemouth Hospital in last November with liver failure.

After.

Today is March 15. Also known as the Ides of March on the Roman calendar. The day is significant because it's the same day Julius Caesar was cut down on the floor of the Roman Senate, in 44 BC. It was a public assassination spearheaded by Caesar's supposed supporter Marcus Junius Brutus -- hence the famous line from Shakespeare's play, "Et tu, Brute?" -- and participated in by many of those present that day. Now, more than 2,000 years later, and thanks largely to the aforementioned playwright, people still know to "Beware the Ides of March!"

Hollywood fiction is rife with double-crosses. Some of the best films in history hinge on a sudden reversal of loyalty. Let's face it: double-talk and surprise twists make for good storytelling. And there's little that's more surprising than a dude who you thought was a good guy turning around and shooting the hero in the face. Or more likely,...