Great Movies
TV/Streaming
Home Entertainment Guide: December 2021, Special Editions
The final Blu-ray guide of the year highlights 10 special edition and 4K releases, everything from The Wolf of Wall Street to Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge.
The final Blu-ray guide of the year highlights 10 special edition and 4K releases, everything from The Wolf of Wall Street to Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge.
A tribute to the late Oscar-winning actor, Martin Landau.
Roger's Favorites: Mira Nair, director of "Salaam Bombay!"
An analysis of Lawrence Michael Levine's "Wild Canaries" and its ties to classic rom-com capers.
Happy birthday Udo Kier; Reflections on "All That Jazz"; 10 essential Nicolas Roeg films; The abortion conversation we need to have; I just can't watch "Marry Me."
Writer, director, and producer Paul Mazursky dies at 84.
"The Wes Anderson Collection" continues with a video essay on "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou," probably Anderson's most widely disliked feature, and MZS's personal favorite.
"Rainer on Film: Thirty Years of Film Writing in a Turbulent and Transformative Era" is a remarkable collection of reviews and essays from critic Peter Rainer. This essay on film noir and neo-noir is excerpted from the book.
Marie writes: yet again, we have intrepid club member Sandy Kahn to thank for the following find. She sent me some links devoted to automata and how I ultimately discovered the amazing work of artist Keith Newstead...
Lesson for the day: How to have fun while wasting time... Marie writes: welcome to DRAW A STICK MAN, a delightful Flash-based site prompting viewers to draw a simple stick figure which then comes to life! Ie: the program animates it. You're given instructions about what to draw and when, which your dude uses to interact with objects onscreen. Thanks go to club member Sandy Kahn who heard about it from her pal Lauren, in Portland Oregon.Note: here's a screen-cap of what I drew; I've named him Pumpkin Head.
"I love music so much and I had such ambition that I was willing to go way beyond what the hell they paid me for. I wanted people to look at the artwork and hear the music." - Alex Steinweiss
Marie writes: Gone fishing...aka: in the past 48 hrs, Movable Type was down so I couldn't work, my friend Siri came over with belated birthday presents, and I built a custom mesh screen for my kitchen window in advance of expected hot weather. So this week's Newsletter is a bit lighter than usual.
Marie writes: Why a picture is often worth a thousand words...Production still of Harold Lloyd in "An Eastern Westerner" (1920)
Spending almost two hours with the relentlessly drunk character is not a pleasant thing at all, and it is also not easy to watch the man who chooses to abandon himself to his own hell. He is almost near at the bottom. All he can do is moving further to the final destination he has been reaching for. He still has some fancy about getting out of his torment, but it only reminds him that he has already crossed the line. He screams out of frustration near the end of the movie, "It's not possible -- not in this world!"
John Huston's "Under the Volcano"(1984) poignantly looks at one of the bleakest states of mind. This is a sad portrayal of a man struggling with his addiction and the agonizing contradiction resulting from it. As one character in the movie says, no one can live without love, but he cannot accept it even if he has desperately yearned for.
The movie is mainly about one unfortunate day of the former British consul Geoffrey Firmin (Albert Finney) who has been stuck in Cuernavaca, Mexico. According to him, he resigned his post for himself, but that may be not true considering his present state. He is a drunkard going through the final stages of alcoholism where the drinking is necessary for getting "sober." He says he can deal with his addiction ("Surely you appreciate the fine balance I must strike between, uh, the shake of too little and, uh, the abyss of too much"), but his abstinence is just the brief moment of looking at his glass. His body soon craves for alcohol, he frantically searches for the bottle, and, after satisfying the need, he passes out.
HOLLYWOOD -- There's joy in Middle-earth tonight. "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" led the 76th annual Academy Awards with a record-tying 11 Oscars, including best picture and director. Vanquishing all opposition like the forces of Sauron, it won every category for which it was was nominated.
Q. Re: the gambling movie "Owning Mahoney," you said, "At least Seymour Hoffman was playing interesting games--unlike video poker and slots, like Bill Bennett." Although Bill Bennett lost over $8 million and no doubt was a fool who I have lost a great deal of respect for, your statement could not be more incorrect. Although 99.9% or more gamblers will lose money over the long term, I and many others like me have been playing video poker for many years, and some games (which pay over 100% return) can be played for profit IF one is willing to memorize and learn the proper cards to hold based on the overall payout that the machine offers for various hands. I personally have played almost 10 million hands at video poker and have never had a losing year gambling. Video poker as far as I am concerned is by far the most "interesting" game and can be the most profitable. You need only ask other professional gamblers about this to verify it. (Larry M., Las Vegas, NV)
CANNES, France -- Spike Lee's "Summer Of Sam" has the right title. It isn't a film about David Berkowitz, the serial killer who named himself Son of Sam - but about the summer of 1977, when his bloody string of murders coincided with a heat wave and skirmishes in the ongoing American cultural war.
I'm analyzing Jack Nicholson's career for him. He's frowning behind a cloud of cigarette smoke and trying to look interested. We're sitting in a room at the Excelsior Hotel at the Venice Film Festival, the day after the premiere of "The Crossing Guard," his new movie which was directed by his pal Sean Penn. Nicholson plays a man who wants to kill the drunk driver who ran over his little girl. The irony is, he's a drunk, too. It's a very serious picture.
"Dances with Wolves," a story about a friendship between a Sioux tribe and a lone U.S. cavalryman in the 1860s, swept the list of nominations Wednesday for the 63rd annual Academy Awards.
Jim Thompson has been dead for 15 years now, and he never got much notice when he was alive, but all of his books are in print again--with covers showing the broads with low necklines, the desperate guys with their cigarettes and three-day beards, and always in the foreground the bottle of booze.
