Archive for the ‘Film’ Category

December 9th, 2011

Adolescence includes aches (loneliness, alienation from adults, sexual longing) and joys (first love, treasured friendship and music). Few films have portrayed both classes of teenage experience as warmly and intelligently as the 1991 Australian film “Flirting”. Due to an execrable U.S. advertising campaign, which misrepresented the film as a sniggering teen sex comedy from “those [...]

December 7th, 2011

Christopher Howse has written a hilariously cranky, quintessentially British indictment of “Poet’s Corner” in Westminster Abbey. There, the humble great lie forever next to the mediocre, many of whom had crass, fame-seeking survivors. Although in truth, they don’t even all lie there as some of the slabs are just memorials to people buried in whole [...]

December 2nd, 2011

Following the success of his low-budget films “That Sinking Feeling” and “Gregory’s Girl”, Scottish film maker Bill Forsyth had the adjective “quirky” hung on him by critics, and it stuck. But there’s a nicer way to describe this talented writer-director’s output: Sweet, original and offbeat. For me, no film in Forsyth’s career better illustrates those [...]

November 25th, 2011

British film director John “Frenzy” Mackenzie passed away a few months ago, so honor the man and enjoy yourself at the same time by watching his best film: 1980′s thrilling, brutal “The Long Good Friday”. Many American viewers struggle with the opening scenes of this film about organized crime in London because the slang comes [...]

November 19th, 2011

Filmmakers Steve James and Peter Gilbert started with the idea of making a 30 minute TV show about kids playing basketball at an urban playground. Instead they got pulled into the lives of two remarkable families and you will be too by the astounding 1994 documentary “Hoop Dreams”. The film follows two African-American basketball players [...]

November 11th, 2011

This star vehicle for Peter O’Toole (playing a drunken, rakish movie star reminiscent of Peter O’Toole) delivers big laughs as well as some acute observations on the nature of fame. The movie also opens a window into the world of 1950s live television comedy and the people who made it happen. The supporting cast is [...]

November 4th, 2011

Steve McQueen had an incredible run of hits in the 1960s, which put him in position to start his own production company. Solar Production’s original six film deal with Warner Brothers eventually fell apart and only resulted in one film, but *what* a film: Bullitt. The first time through, what stays with most people about [...]

September 24th, 2011

Actors are called upon to do a wide range of accents, which is more challenging than many people appreciate. Even a highly skilled actor such as Tom Hanks can drop an adopted accent amidst the demands of playing a complex scene (see, e.g., his intermittent Bostonian voicing in Catch Me if You Can). Other actors [...]

September 16th, 2011

Robert Montgomery (father of Elizabeth of Bewitched fame) earned his place in film noir heaven with “Ride the Pink Horse”. The “disillusioned, rootless ex-GI” is the ultimate film noir protagonist (though the cynical, hard drinking private eye vies for the distinction) and Lucky Gagin is the apotheosis of the type. I wish I knew more [...]

September 14th, 2011

My preferred airline now has a channel of “classic films”, which included the Bond outing “