#55 — Jean Hagen as Lina Lamont in Singin’ in the Rain (Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, 1952) When Adolph Green and Betty Comden wrote the script for Singin’ in the Rain, an MGM musical conceived as little more than a vehicle … Continue reading Greatish Performances #55
Decision to Leave (Park Chan-wook, 2022). Working from a script he co-wrote with Jeong Seo-kyeong, Park Chan-Wook meticulous crafts a sly modern noir. Jang Hae-jun (Park Hae-il) is a police detective with a keen dedication to his work and a … Continue reading Then Playing — Decision to Leave; The Wonder; Fun with Dick and Jane
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson, 2022). It’s seem a fine idea for Guillermo del Toro to channel his enduring fascinating for grim fairy tales into a stop-motion animation take on the little wooden boy created … Continue reading Then Playing — Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio; Violent Night; The Fabelmans
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. Sometimes I think my first real lessons in the intense power an image can hold came from … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — Close Encounters of the Third Kind movie poster
Saturdays are when I use my little corner of the digital world to excitedly redirect eyes to the recent writing of others. As the year comes to a close, I’ll offer encore hyperlinks to the following six pieces, presented more … Continue reading Outside Reading — Six from 2022
She Said (Maria Schrader, 2022). This journalism procedural is adapted from Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey’s book of the same name which recounted their pursuit of the blockbuster New York Times story that exposed years of sexual predation by producer … Continue reading Then Playing — She Said; The Corn Is Green; Aftersun
I truly believe Rian Johnson has found the character he could writer and direct exclusively for the remainder of his days and be satsisfied all the way. Johnson’s 2019 feature, Knives Out, introduced Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), a master detective … Continue reading Now Playing — Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Sometimes comedy illuminates hard truths with a pointed urgency that other means can’t quite achieve. Sometimes comedy is just funny. This series of posts is mostly about the former instances, but the latter is valuable, too. As a companion to … Continue reading Laughing Matters — Starring Kurt Russell Laughing His Ass Off
Dementia 13 (Francis Ford Coppola, 1963). The first feature directed by Francis Ford Coppola is miles away from the elegant import of The Godfather and other more esteemed entries on his filmography. Made within the confines of Roger Corman’s scrappy … Continue reading Then Playing — Dementia 13; Emily the Criminal; Goodbye Again
The Sheepman (George Marshall, 1958). This Western stars Glenn Ford as Jason Sweet, a deceptively genial schemer who shows up in a ranching town with a herd of sheep he plans to graze on public land, much to the consternation … Continue reading Then Playing — The Sheepman; Hangmen Also Die!; Don’t Worry Darling
