As part of his starring role in the 1974 caper flick 11 Harrowhouse, Charles Grodin provides the narration. His character is introduced while sitting glumly in a posh waiting area. Grodin’s distinctive voice flatly states: “That’s me there. I don’t … Continue reading Charles Grodin, 1935 – 2021
Pieces of a Woman (Kornél Mundruczó, 2020). Pieces of Woman is meant to be a real gut punch of drama. It depicts the repercussions on a marriage when a home birth ends in tragedy. Martha (Vanessa Kirby) is Martha, a … Continue reading Then Playing — Pieces of a Woman; 9to5: The Story of a Movement; The Witches of the Orient
When I devoted myself wholeheartedly to the television series St. Elsewhere, I didn’t know that the actor who donned Dr. Daniel Auschlander’s white coat brought practically the whole history of Hollywood with him. I just knew the performance was flinty … Continue reading Norman Lloyd, 1914 – 2021
Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie: The oral history by Adam Carston The big-screen iteration of Mystery Science Theater 3000 hardly seems to have enough significance to merit a lengthy oral history on the occasion of its anniversary, but I’m … Continue reading Outside Reading — This Island Earth Doesn’t Shine for Me Anymore
Belushi (R.J. Cutler, 2020). This documentary about the short life of John Belushi makes a valiant effort at capturing his boisterous charisms and fiery comic genius. Director R.J. Cutler relies on audio of interviews Tanner Colby conducted for a biography … Continue reading Then Playing — Belushi; The Father; The Man Who Knew Too Much
If nothing else, the anticlimactic end to last night’s Academy Awards ceremony proves definitively that the accounts who tabulate the votes aren’t tipping off the ceremony’s producers about the winners. The shift of the Best Picture category to take place … Continue reading Oscarland
In this Oscar year with a calendar that has been understandably scrambled, it’s been especially difficult to undertake my usual process of selecting the twenty performances I would submit to the Academy were I gifted with an Actors Branch nominating … Continue reading Twenty Performances, or Precious Metal
I fully understand the wisdom in adjusting expectations ahead of a viewing of Godzilla vs. Kong. No matter how gleefully retrospective analyzers of film can employ weighty themes of nuclear proliferation and malicious colonialism onto the inaugural screen appearance of … Continue reading Now Playing — Godzilla vs. Kong
If Y2K-Era Movie Theater Carpets Could Talk by Foster Kamer Now this is the sort of narrow-niche article that I crave. Writing for the blog of independent film distributor A24, Foster Kamer offers an appreciation for the garish aesthetic of … Continue reading Outside Reading — Tripping Halls edition
As Kirsten Johnson watched as her beloved father’s mind slip away, she decided to grapple with the welling sorrow in the way that felt most natural and apt to her. She did it through her art. After years shooting documentaries, … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2020 — Number One
Coffee for Two 