“Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic. The taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems is in dispute.”
I have a long and storied association with Star Wars, just like everyone else.
Every generation finds Star Wars in their own way, and I…
Read More“Film is a battleground. Love, hate, violence, action, death… In a word, emotion.”
Those words uttered by writer director Samuel Fuller, are words on filmmaking that could only be said by someone who’s experienced combat. His career consisted of many war films such as Fixed Bayonets!, China Gate, Verboten!, Merrill’s Marauders, and The Big Red One, but perhaps the greatest of them is his 1951 film, The Steel Helmet.
With a career that…
Read More“For six hundred years our ninja have brought peace to the world. But times have changed. I need Warriors like you to become the future of the clan. Join us. This is your destiny.”
When I first saw the trailer for this I was like, “This looks great! This looks terrible exciting! I love any movie where someone says portentously, ‘For SIX HUNDRED YEARS…
Read MoreEach year, we’d pick a new amazing director and devote that year to as thorough a deep dive and celebration of their work as possible.
Interestingly, when we began programming the movies of German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder this past month, it was only because we love his movies so much and found we could get them on 35mm.
Then, organically, through the side door, the way many great ideas come, we realized HERE was our director for 2021…
Read MoreSo, the other day a bunch of Olympics movies appeared on the TCM app, and when I was looking for information about one of them I saw that it was also on the Criterion Channel. Then I looked and saw that what Criterion had was all of the same films that were on TCM, plus way more!
Criterion has a collection of 53 films about various Olympic Games from 1912-2012…
Read MoreThe films of Eric Rohmer capture a slow, meditative examination on the smaller moments of daily life, that are often cut out of most movies in favor of life’s key events. Many of his films often explore their main characters on vacation, with his relaxed style, and his love of nature, he perfectly captures the feeling of being on vacation, in which we try to escape from the hecticness of our work lives, into an exotic area. Not only to escape, but also to confront the internal conflicts of our lives…
Read MoreThe 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…
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