There are some film scores in which we see an image in our own lives, and we think of the composition.
When seeing a shark, we can’t help but not think of the pounding strings of John Williams score for Jaws, when we see a shower curtain, in our minds the screeching violins of Bernard Herrmann’s score for Psycho, and when we see gangsters, we think of the haunting brass notes of Nino Rota’s score for The Godfather.
During the last half century, one cannot see the open west…
Read MoreUNUSUAL MUSICAL #1: London Road (2015) directed by Rufus Norris
London Road bears the dubious distinction of being a film which absolutely nobody I’ve ever met has heard of – much less seen – despite the fact that it was released in theaters in the relatively recent past, received a majority of positive reviews, features two Academy Award-nominated or winning actors in Tom Hardy and Olivia Colman, and is, to my knowledge, totally unique. You might think there’s a…
Read MoreI have been vaguely hearing about this movie as being a thing that existed, but I was not even remotely interested in it. And I don’t mean I was like, “UGH! Why would I want to watch a movie about THOSE PEOPLE?!“ but more along the lines of, “That’s a thing that wasn’t made for me, moving on. Hey, In the Heights is coming soon!”Then, on the podcast Filmspotting, they didn’t do a full review, but Adam talked a bit about it, and how he had never heard of Sparks, but that it was a doc by Edgar Wright, and it was so interesting and cleverly made, and the music is great, and he came out going, “I must start listening to Sparks!” I thought, I think I want to experience this feeling, and…
Read MoreRita Moreno is, of course, a national treasure.
Every time I’ve ever seen her interviewed she is always so funny and such a raconteur, when I heard that they had made a documentary about her I was like, “Well, I certainly am going to see this!”
It does not disappoint.
However, she is not holding back on the difficulty…
Read MoreOne of the most rewarding experiences when watching a film is encountering an entirely unexpected performance. For all of the obvious reasons, most audience members go into a movie knowing who’s going to carry the lead roles. Such that, it’s not generally a surprise that a movie starring someone like Isabelle Huppert or Michael Caine, for example, is going to feature, at the very minimum, an engaging lead actor. (Fill in the blanks based on your own tastes and preference, of course. Maybe you’re a massive Jake Busey fan. I don’t know.) Of course, getting the very thing that you expect feels satisfying. That’s undeniable. But what happens when an actor appears in the role of a tertiary character
Read More“He was just some Joseph looking for a manger.” Those are the lyrics from Leonard Cohen’s melancholy song The Stranger Song, which sets up the equally melancholy masterpiece from Robert Altman McCabe & Mrs. Miller, because every character is looking for a place to call home.
The film that’s referred to as an anti-western is…
Read More“We had to assert our dignity in small ways. That’s why these napkins are beautiful. That’s why my mother’s gloves were beautiful. Little details that tell the world we are not invisible.”
I have been waiting for this movie for so long, and I had no intention of watching it on HBO Max, movies are back in the theatres, and that’s where I’m seeing them! So off to the AMC 16 we went.
Could it live up to the hype? Could it be as good as…
Read MoreFor 70 years, Mexico was ruled by The Institutional Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Institucional) or PRI, a center-right party known for corruption and repression. With a government that had little to no interest in putting a stop to the drug trade, the cartels flourished. In the year 2000, Vicente Fox was elected president, representing The National Action Party (Partido Acción Nacional) or PAN, a right-wing party rejecting a fundamental adherence to left- or right-wing policies. However, it was Felipe Calderón, also from the PAN Party, who kicked off the drug war when elected in 2006. He dispatched 6,500 Mexican Army soldiers…
Read More“The ray that destroyed the space station and knocked us off our course may have originated right here!”
“Oh come off it, how can a bunch of women invent a gizmo like that?”
“Sure, and even if they invented it, how could they aim it? You know how women drivers are!”
In the far off future of 1985…
Read MoreBeing a wife is some heavy sh*t. I in fact was raised to be a wife, an upper-middle class American Jewish wife, to be precise. Obviously this education proved a massive failure, but impressive and ongoing campaigns on the level of Hannibal's pachyderm army were employed…
For Memorial Day, I thought I would talk about the most Memorial Day kind of movie there is, as it’s about war and dying in battle, but it’s not sad or depressing. Production started on September 2, 1945, the exact day that the war ended, and is a tribute to all of the people who lost their lives in that terrible conflict, while also being about a man who refuses to accept his fate…
Read MoreGather round, children, and I will tell you a tale.
Back in the olden days, there was no streaming, no DVRs, no DVDs, no VCRs, no Roku, no cable channels beyond Z Channel, which was a local to LA premium cable channel before the term existed, and it didn’t matter anyway, because we didn’t have it at my house. There were just the broadcast stations ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, and the local stations KTLA, KTTV, KCAL, and KCOP…
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