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Extruded plastic dingus, for kids
Last week I posted here some embarrassing anecdotes about my experiences as a color timer in the early 1990s—and I’d intended to immediately follow it up with a sequel. The first post was about Even...
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Movie Geography: When the White House is in Shreveport and Miami Doubles for...
Last week, actor Dylan McDermott dropped by Ringling College to mingle with students and to speak to an audience of students, staff, and local residents. The latter event was the last in Ringling’s...
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The Cahn Film Festival
As May approaches, the film world turns its eyes to the Cannes Film Festival, which will host world premiere screenings from the likes of Jia Zhangke and Alexander Payne at its Grand Théâtre Lumière....
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Cinema is under assault… or not.
Recently, on April 27th, director Steven Soderbergh gave a speech at the San Francisco International Film Festival about the state of cinema. In it, he discusses the changes in cinema that have...
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GUN AND SWORD: An Encyclopedia of Japanese Gangster Films 1955-1980
I first became familiar with Chris D.’s (Dejardins) writing in the early 90s thanks to his work for a small-press magazine (or zine) called Asian Trash Cinema. At the time I was utterly obsessed with...
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The Name of the Game is Kill on DVD!
If I remember correctly I first heard about THE NAME OF THE GAME IS KILL (1968) in Michael J. Weldon’s The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film, where Mike tagged it as “a weird one.” (He said more, but...
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Me vs. Capra
Last week I noted that The Hudsucker Proxy is based on Frank Capra’s Meet John Doe. But I simply said that, flatly, and added no additional color commentary on that connection. That was because my...
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Now That’s Support I Could Use!
When people talk about a great supporting character, the character can be good or bad. The character of Mr. Potter in Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life is a great supporting character brought to...
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Burt, Bogle, and Big Screens: Notes from the TCM Classic Film Festival
Once again, I attended the TCM Classic Film Festival as a civilian; that is, a regular fan who went for the movies, the stars, and the camaraderie. The festival was held at the end of April this year,...
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Paradise Lost: Top of the Lake
Approximately every English-language publication in existence has run an “Is Television Better than the Movies” piece over the past few years. I will bravely buck the whims of headline writers and...
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The Very Definition of Cinema
I shouldn’t do this, I really shouldn’t. I’m leaving on a long trip today, heading out for a couple of days to retrieve my stepdaughter from college and bring her back home. What little free time...
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Personal Passions: Alain Delon
Alain Delon visits the White House (from Life Magazine Feb. 1964) Today TCM in celebrating the French actor Alain Delon and showing a batch of films he appeared in so I thought I’d join in the fun and...
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The body count movie, its killer kith ‘n’ kin
We all know the drill: a mad killer, a disparate collection of potential victims, the first murder, then the second, a third follows, usually a fourth… and before you can say Jack Robinson the Ripper...
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Harold vs. the Clock
Later this month, TCM is unveiling a package of Harold Lloyd films, which will include debut screenings of some rarities from the early end of his career. I was asked to contribute some material to the...
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TARZAN FINDS A SON! (And Jane Becomes a Mom)
I wrapped up the TCM Classic Film Festival two weeks ago. It was their fourth fest and my first time there. I’ve been attending Telluride and Sundance for over 20 years, added SXSW to the roster about...
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Mike Gray: Filmmaker as Activist
Filmmaker Mike Gray died on April 30. I had met and worked with Mike a few years ago when Facets Multi-Media, my former employer, released two of his documentaries onto DVD. Gray has been called an...
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Delving Into Delmer Daves
Delmer Daves is having a moment. The Criterion Collection, the closest thing the U.S. has to a cultural gatekeeper, just released 3:10 To Yuma (1957) and Jubal (1956) on DVD and Blu-Ray, while the...
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Period Story, Present Day Look
The movies are now and have always been eager to please. They want you to like them, even if they’re giving you a bit of history along with the entertainment. They want you to know they have you in...
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Derelict Dancers: Gerard Depardieu vs. Roman Polanski
I’m fond of mysteries that evolve through conversation and unravel in small spaces such as Alfred Hitchcock’s ROPE (1948) and Robert Hosseins DOUBLE AGENTS (1959). The claustrophobia they evoke seems...
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I sometimes fear…
… that guys in movies will never again wear top hats. And I don’t mean in a Baz Luhrmanny “It’s the 19th Century! Let’s wear top hats and listen to disco!” way that deconstructs top hat-wearing but...
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