Blog
These stories have been around a long time. Some of them I have updated. Many of them I haven’t. This started out when blogs were like, new!
“God’s Pocket” Is A Fictitious City And John Slattery’s Movie
Directed and co-written by John Slattery, who plays Roger on Mad Men, God's Pocket (2014) is about city crime, violence and despair in a past decade. Some of what happens is so crazily grotesque that it has elements of comedy, and yet the film ends up being a mite...
The Work Of Sirk: “Imitation Of Life”
The 1959 Douglas Sirk film, Imitation of Life, is being shown for a while in New York City and was called by Charles Taylor in The Village Voice an "American masterpiece." To me, not quite. The movie's flaws, such as Annie's overwrought death scene, are glaring. But...
Cecil De Mille’s “The Ten Commandments”: Still Very Watchable
The good words about freedom, not slavery, and the pop-song romantic ardor of Nefretiri (Anne Baxter) for Moses (Charleton Heston) make The Ten Commandments (1956) seem more modern than ancient and possibly imply that God is alive at all times. A strikingly long...
Trying To Get Real In “The Big Steal” (The Films Of Don Siegel #1)
Robert Mitchum pursues a fellow serviceman who stole a lot of Army funds lest he himself be arrested for the crime in Don Siegel's The Big Steal (1949). Director Siegel generally pushed for as much plain realism as he could get in his studio-system entertainments,...
Bowie’s Modern Love “Slightly Mocks Religion”?
One of the songs on the soundtrack of Frances Ha (reviewed above) is David Bowie's "Modern Love." In its review of Frances Ha, the evangelical Christian website Movieguide.org affirms that the song's lyrics seem to "slightly mock religion and confession while...
Ah, “Ha”! The “Frances Ha” Movie
On Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha (2013): A close friendship ceases to be what it was previously. The dream of becoming a professional dancer all but deflates. The friendship and the dream belong to Frances Halliday (Greta Gerwig), she who becomes acquainted with...
Me And “Cinderella” (The 2015 Movie)
It is remarkable how advanced cinematography and production design are these days, and how much beauty can be put into costumes. Go see Kenneth Branagh's Cinderella (2015) and you'll agree with me. Better, the film is as innocent as it is enchanting, leaving irony...
A Future Rat Packer In “Good News” (1947)
Peter Lawford is an inadequate singer but a spirited performer in the 1947 version of the movie musical, Good News, which co-stars June Allyson with her husky charm and splendid voice. A show about college life, the flick is emphatically social with fine ensemble...
It’s 1971, And Western Movies Ain’t Dead Yet: “Hannie Caulder”
In Old West mythology--and not, perhaps, in the actual Old West---it is necessary for a greenhorn to learn how to shoot a gun. The greenhorn in Hannie Caulder (1971) is a woman (Raquel Welch's Hannie Caulder) who is expertly taught by a bounty hunter played by Robert...
