The term landmark is often thrown around to describe certain movies.
While some of the films might be great, we may not think of it as a time before, or after they were released. But if there was one film within the last few decades that I would think of as a landmark, it’s Hayao Miyazaki’s animated masterpiece, Spirited Away, which…
Read More1969 was the end of a tumultuous decade, the likes of which had not been seen before. So much happened in those 10 years: assassinations, war, the rise of youth culture, Black power, gay pride, the women’s movement. Many marginalized groups rose up to assert their dignity. And the capper of the decade was Woodstock, three days of peace and music on Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, NY. Woodstock grew to embody not only 1969, but the 1960s entire…
Read MoreWhen film historians recall Elia Kazan, the titles that often come up are his Oscar winning classics such as A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, and East of Eden. A film of his that’s often overlooked, that was also neglected upon its release, but still has social currency more than half a century later, is his 1960 masterpiece Wild River…
Read MoreThis past Saturday, we had our largest audience since COVID attend a 35mm double bill of David Lynch’s Eraserhead and Mulholland Drive at the Million Dollar Theater. Although I’m often exhausted these days between our newest baby daughter (we love you Pamela Aida!) and the rigors of working to grow Secret Movie Club post-pandemic, I had to plop myself down in a seat and watch ERASERHEAD in all its 35mm glory. Sleep be damned!
Watching these shadowy dreamy silvery phantasmagoric images on the screen…
Read MoreThe Hitman‘s Bodyguard was a movie that I planned to see, the trailer looked really good, but I never got around to it. Now there’s the sequel, The Hitman‘s Wife’s Bodyguard, which I also planned to see, and the trailer looks really good, and I did, in fact, get around to it. The question was, though, was I going to watch the first movie beforehand?
It got to be the day before we were going…
Read MoreThere 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…
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