It’s kind of a shock to realize a zany movie that came out when you were a teenager is now considered one of the great enduring cinema classics. That’s particularly true when said movie is
What a surprise and joy it is to watch an animated movie, and even more, a Christmas animated movie, that’s charming, funny, heartwarming, and entirely original. 2019’s Klaus is an alternative origin for the myth of Santa Claus but never
You know how some sci-fi cheapies from the 50s and 60s are so ineptly made they turn out to be wildly entertaining? The 1960 space-opera confusion, Assignment: Outer Space is not one of those. This
Joan Crawford was a rarity among Hollywood’s glamorous Golden Age stars. She wasn’t afraid to play, well, shall we say, aggressive characters. You know, calculating, two-faced characters. Hypocritical, double-dealing characters. Okay, I’ll just say it. She wasn’t afraid
I was in the mood for a wacky comedy, so I chose 1997’s spoof, George of the Jungle. While sticking closely to the “throw in any joke you can think of” sensibility of the original 1967
I’m not much of a comic fan so, consequently, film adaptations with comic book characters don’t do much for me. That being said, I really liked 2008’s Batman epic The Dark Knight, maybe because it comes
Do you ever watch a movie and spend the entire time wondering what genre it’s supposed to be? Is it intended to be a comedy or a drama or a thriller or just what exactly?
I think a lot of people have avoided Boogie Nights because they think it’s about something other than it actually is. Released in 1997, the story focuses on a young man from an abusive family who escapes
Screwball comedy is a fragile genre. If you have wacky characters, you need a realistic scenario, and vice versa. If both the characters and the story are bizarre, there’s nothing for the audience to cling
Seeing any backstage drama that later became public knowledge makes us all feel like insiders. Being the Ricardos, from 2021, places us smack in the middle of both the production of a legendary TV series and
As an experiment, one year I watched only holiday movies between Thanksgiving and Christmas (Except for one. I really need a frickin’ break … from all that … frickin’ joy). A new one to me
In the 1950s producers of less-expensive, lower budget horror films (yes, I mean the below B-grade cheapies) used ingenious gimmicks to sell tickets. Probably the most famous was 1959’s The Tingler. No, it’s not about a
2012’s warped comedy, Small Apartments, is about as delightfully weird as any movie I’ve ever seen. Star Matt Lucas, from the brilliantly funny sketch-comedy series Little Britain, is the glue that holds the preposterous premise together and makes
It was a night for another made-it-this-far-without-seeing-it-before movie, the 1949 film version of the Broadway hit On the Town, directed by Gene Kelly (who also choreographed and played one of the leads) and Stanley Donen. While just fine, even quite good
Sometimes while watching an older film you’ve never heard of, like 1932’s drama Hell’s House, you don’t expect a lot, but then you’re wowed by an incredibly well-made and riveting film. Although a young Bette Davis and Pat O’Brien,
So how is it possible I hadn’t seen The Magnificent Seven before? This 1960 epic is widely considered to be one of the greatest westerns of all time (but then, I’m not a huge western fan, so
I loved the fascinating documentary, Made You Look: A True Story about Fake Art that tells the story of a prestigious art gallery in New York that, over the course of fifteen years, sold a lot
I love strange and bizarre movies (probably not a surprise to you), and 2015’s Look Who’s Back (Er ist wieder da) may be one of the oddest I’ve ever seen. Based on a best selling German novel by Timur
Frank Capra, one of Golden Age Hollywood’s finest directors, helmed a fantastic film version of the stage hit Arsenic and Old Lace in 1942, however Warner Brothers had agreed to not release the film until the comedy had
I binged all five episodes of the dramatic-bio series Halston in one sitting, which, I guess, should tell you I liked it enough to keep pushing forward. And I certainly did. The Netflix miniseries, exploring the famed fashion designer’s
Woody Allen’s 1972 satire Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) may be vintage Woody, but most of it isn’t classic Woody. Based on David Reuben’s famous (and scholarly) 1969 sex manual of the
When I sat down to watch 1964’s The Earth Dies Screaming I naturally thought I was going to see a schlocky sci-fi stinker. Surprisingly, this British production is stylish, atmospheric, and spooky, even thought provoking, despite a
Rewatching director John Huston’s 1951 masterpiece, The African Queen, which I hadn’t seen in a very long time, I discovered it not only holds up, but looks like it could have been filmed yesterday. Almost nothing about it
Funny and touching, 2012’s comedy-drama Quartet examines the challenges met by aging artists as their lives appear to have less and less meaning. Although somewhat uneven in tone, the story of elderly opera singers in a retirement
Looking for an engaging, classic Christmas movie? How about the delightful, if eccentric, 1934 musical comedy Babes in Toyland (aka March of the Wooden Soldiers). It stars the iconic comedy team of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy as toy makers who muck
Spike Lee’s spectacular filming of the Broadway production of David Byrne’s American Utopia is the perfect argument for Byrne’s genius status. While he is clearly the main draw here, performing songs from both his days with the ground-breaking New-Wave band The
They tried to do it in the unfortunate Halloween franchise reboot, and they tried to do it again with 2014’s Dracula Untold. This origin story of the famous vampire commits the unforgivable sin of attempting to make one of
Every Halloween season I try to watch one classic silent horror film I’ve never seen before, so it was only a matter of time before I got to The Golem: How He Came into the World (Der
A film doesn’t always have to be earth-shattering or cutting-edge or industry-changing, and the 2022 remake of Death on the Nile certainly isn’t. It’s old-fashioned to a fault, however that’s one of its immense charms. Director/Star Kenneth Branagh returns
A rainy afternoon means it’s classic movie time. Today it was the Marx Brothers starring in 1933’s zany and biting Duck Soup. Many people consider this to be the brilliant comedy team’s finest film, and I certainly
Talk about a disaster. The 1980 direct-hit-to-the-iceberg Raise the Titanic lost so much money on its original release, producer Lou Grade famously said, “It would’ve been cheaper to lower the Atlantic.“ I can understand why. The ridiculously improbable plot has
The 2013 documentary I am Divine, is a fascinating dissection of the life and death of actor, recording artist, drag performer, gay icon and unlikely superstar Divine. Harris Glenn Milstead, who transformed into the outrageous
It had been a long work week, so I thought I’d look for a movie that was mindless, stupid, and maybe a little inept. I found it … in spades. The Lost Missile from 1958 may
Black Comedy requires a very fragile balance of the macabre and the hilarious. 1966’s British romp, The Wrong Box, finds the perfect equilibrium. Two elderly brothers, in cahoots with their immediate families, try to murder
Sometimes when a movie is utterly original, and executed with an abundance of affection and fun, it becomes irresistible. 2019’s romance-comedy-fantasy-musical, Yesterday is one of those movies. An unsuccessful musician experiences a bizarre blip in
Considered the last of the great Universal horror films, the moist 1954 classic Creature from the Black Lagoon, originally filmed in 3-D, involves scientists exploring a swamp, a romantic triangle amongst those explorers, and the mysterious
The Second World War is one of those conflicts where being on the winning side can give you a sense of moral victory. And with good reason. The Nazis perpetrated the Holocaust, invaded most of
I decided to catch up with almost everybody else in the world and watched all six seasons of Downton Abbey in a span of two months. I think my overall reaction is my own fault,
I’ve always loved kaiju (giant monster) films, and when I was a teenager King Kong vs. Godzilla was one of my absolute favorite movies in any genre. I can’t tell you how often I saw
Can the complete and total annihilation of Earth and every living being on it ever be funny? Netflix’s Don’t Look Up proves it can be hilarious, albeit in an unsettling way. It sits firmly in
You know those movies you’ve wanted to see for years but for whatever reason you can’t find them, and then when you finally do, you’re terribly disappointed? That is not the case with 1955’s The
I hadn’t seen it since I sat in a theatre in 1986, so I figured why not? Rewatching Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, I was surprised I found it less laugh-out-loud funny than I remembered, but
