Category: Film
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Halloween (1978) – Review
In addition to “devil” movies, another type of horror movie I tend not to be fond of are slasher movies. Part of the reason is they tend to go for excessive gore, and while I don’t mind violence in movies, I do mind what I think is gratuitous violence, or violence where it seems as…
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The Accidental Tourist (1988) – Review
This was originally written on Facebook as a post in talking about my favorite movies released in the U.S. in 1988. As I’ve been writing these reviews, you might have noticed how I’ve tried to bring up the ways even movies I love may have issues in how they deal with issues that have come…
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Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) – Review
Whenever Claude and I have talked about movies that were made during the Hays Code Era – specifically, movies made before and during World War II – we’ve always mentioned whenever those movies indulged in racial stereotypes that were ignored at the time but are offensive to watch today (to be sure, there were plenty…
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Shelley Duvall and Robert Altman
There’s been a lot written about the great director/actress relationships, ranging from the seven movies Marlene Dietrich did for Josef von Sternberg to all the movies Ingmar Bergman did with many different actresses, including Bibi Andersson, Ingrid Thulin, and Liv Ullmann. One of the stronger actress/director pairings in America was director Robert Altman and actress…
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The Long Good Friday (1982) – Review
One of the best scenes in The Godfather is when Don Corleone (Marlon Brando) goes to a meeting with the heads of the other Five Families (as well as mobsters from other parts of the country), and they, led by Don Barzini (Richard Conte), try to convince him to take the deal he had rejected…
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Thief (1981) – Review
The following review was originally written in August of 2012 as part of a blogathon for TCM’s “Summer Under the Stars”. Anyone who follows movie history in general, and Hollywood history in particular, know it takes a combination of factors to become a star, most of all luck. But once you reach that level, there…
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The Claim (2000) – Review
Thomas Hardy, who wrote poetry and fiction, wrote detailed stories full of richly drawn characters struggling against society and fate. While they would seem to be the type of novels that could be made into successful movies, that hasn’t always been the case. Director Michael Winterbottom, for example, has made three movie adaptations of Hardy…
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McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) – Review
On the surface, Robert Altman’s McCabe& Mrs. Miller may sound like your traditional Western film. The title character, John McCabe (Warren Beatty), is a gambler with a mysterious past who comes to town to set up a business, and he partners up with people in the town, including a saloon owner (Sheehan, played by…
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R.I.P., Robert Towne
As those who have suffered through a broadcast of an Academy Awards ceremony know, the acceptance speeches can all sound the same, with people thanking, in no particular order, the people who worked on the film with them, their families, God, and so on. However, every once in a while, you get an unexpected element…
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Getting Social
Sean usually rattles off where we can be found on the Social Media, but I thought it’d be helpful to get it all into one place. You can email us here. The show is on the Book of Face here. The show’s Instagram feed. The show’s Xitter feed (yeah, we still post there, mostly announcements…