Clik here to view.
The (Original) Walking Dead!
I’m all kinds of excited about the new AMC miniseries THE WALKING DEAD, adapted by Frank Darabont from the Image Comics graphic novel first published in 2003. Yeah, I know that through overexposure...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hey, down in front!
The welcome unveiling of Flicker Alley’s superb CHAPLIN AT KEYSTONE set offers me an opportunity to get up on a particular soapbox. I’ve always admired KID AUTO RACES AT VENICE as a vital entry in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Magnificent Seven: 50th Anniversary
The 33rd Stars Denver Film Festival still has a week to go. It offers up hundreds of films that were divided this year into 16 different programs, some of which are festival staples (such as Red Carpet...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Eddie Cantor, Ali Baba, and the New Deal: Reading History in Film
Last Saturday morning, I spoke before a small crowd at Oakton Community College, advocating the teaching of media literacy to high-school and middle-school students. Among the many reasons for teaching...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Stanley Donen’s Double Bill: Movie Movie (1978)
The Film Society at Lincoln Center is wrapping up its superb Stanley Donen retrospective this week, and beyond the established masterpieces like Singin’ In the Rain lie charming curiosities like 1978′s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Remembering Jill Clayburgh
The passing a few days ago of actress Jill Clayburgh really strikes a blow into the hearts of women of a certain age, for whom Ms. Clayburgh was almost an avatar, living out different lives that we...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Missing Mad Men?
Like a lot of people, I’m a big fan of the AMC series MAD MEN and ever since the fourth season of the show came to an end a few weeks ago I’ve been eagerly awaiting season five. MAD MEN is one of the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Current events
Barbra Streisand turned me on to this movie. In 1939, Boris Karloff ended his decade-long run as the Frankenstein Monster, hanging up his neck bolts with SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (1939). When the actor...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Is there no room for heroes?
Just look at this man. Has there ever been a movie star more iconic? But what does that icon stand for? Depends on your age, to some extent. For Americans of a certain generation, John Wayne was the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hooked on a Feeling…
…and that feeling is so dark, deep and numb it shouldn’t be disturbed. Among the slew of Hollywood movies that followed in the final days of the Vietnam War, ROLLING THUNDER (1977) is a fascinating...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hooray for Jacksonville!
TCM’s original documentary series Moguls and Movie Stars continues tonight with Episode 3, “The Dream Merchants,” which chronicles the rise of the major studios in the 1920s—the so-called Silver Age of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Physical Evidence: White Material
White Material opens with a shot of dogs crossing a headlight-lit road, followed by flashlights illuminating the well-appointed interior of an abandoned bourgeois home. The sequence ends with the image...
View ArticleClik here to view.
In Praise of Pee-wee
Probably everybody’s heard by now about the resurgence of Pee-wee Herman, actor Paul Reubens’ singular creation, who’s now enjoying a joyous renaissance on the Broadway stage after wowing audiences in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bogart & Lorre: A Match Made In Movie Heaven
The cast of PASSAGE TO MARSEILLES (1943) PASSAGE TO MARSEILLES isn’t the type of film that normally sparks my interest. I have an aversion to propaganda films and I’m not particularly fond of prison...
View ArticleClik here to view.
I am a junk drawer
I don’t mean that subject header as an iconic rip on the 1951 John van Druten play I Am a Camera but rather intend it as a literal metaphor for my state of mind at any given time. Recent attempts to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Luck of the Drew
Lillian Travers (Edith Story) makes a surprise visit to her boyfriend Dr. Cassadene (Sidney Drew). But the surprise is on her when she catches him in what sure seems like a comprising position with a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
We are such stuff as dreams are made on…
Three months ago we lost a major talent in the world of animation. Satoshi Kon was only 46-years-old when he died of pancreatic cancer. He was the Japanese anime director behind Perfect Blue (1998),...
View ArticleClik here to view.
When Ya Comin’ Back, Will Rogers?
“There should be a moratorium on candidates’ speeches. They have both called each other everything in the world they can think of. From now on, they are just talking themselves out of votes.” This...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Flickers of the Week (on DVD): Escape from Zahrain and He Who Gets Slapped
The wheezing, rickety looking vehicle you see above, silently mocked by the parallel oil pipeline, is desperately straining up the incline, hoping to reach the space outside the CinemaScope frame. Why...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Giving Thanks
When did “Thank You” become so hard to say? I’m constantly amazed by the surprised looks and unexpected smiles I get from strangers every time I utter those words. It often seems as if I’m speaking...
View Article