California Suite (Herbert Ross, 1978). Adapted by Neil Simon from his 1976 play of the same name (a sequel to the 1968 hit Plaza Suite), this comedy sets a posh Los Angeles hotel as its home base. A series of … Continue reading Then Playing — California Suite; Good Time; Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
Stillwater (Tom McCarthy, 2021). Stillwater is a fascinating hybrid. It begins and ends like a more realistic, sober-minded riff on one of Liam Neeson’s Taken or Taken-adjacent movies, with a Oklahoma roughneck in place of a well-trained oak tree with … Continue reading Then Playing — Stillwater; Platoon; Freebie and the Bean
The Slumber Party Massacre (Amy Holden Jones, 1982). Released in the heady days after John Carpenter’s Halloween made studios decide that the surest bet for quick cash was conveyor-belting out films featuring weapon-wielding maniac picking off teens one by one, … Continue reading Then Playing — The Slumber Party Massacre; The Fog; Barbarian
Friday Foster (Arthur Marks, 1975). Based on a comic strip written by Jim Lawrence and drawn by Jorge Longarón that ran in the first half of the nineteen-seventies, Friday Foster features Pam Grier in the title role, a photojournalist who … Continue reading Then Playing — Friday Foster; Tokyo Joe; The Return of Doctor X
Cronos (Guillermo del Toro, 1993). If Guillermo del Toro isn’t exactly a fully formed filmmaker with his feature debut, Cronos, it’s still remarkable how much of his careerlong creative voice is present from the very beginning. Most distinctly, he brings … Continue reading Then Playing — Cronos; Duel at Diablo; Time Without Pity
Girlfriends (Claudia Weill, 1978). This agreeably scrappy independent feature is an ancestor of Nicole Holofcener’s Walking and Talking and Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha in its wry astuteness as it considers the complications of holding on to female friendship as romantic … Continue reading Then Playing — Girlfriends; Johnny Eager; Chain Lightning
Hannie Caulder (Burt Kennedy, 1971). Raquel Welch stars in this Western as Hannie Caulder, a woman who is widowed and raped by three bank robbing brothers fleeing their latest stick up (Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam, and Strother Martin, Western movie … Continue reading Then Playing — Hannie Caulder; War of the Planets; Top Gun: Maverick
Fuzz (Richard A. Colla, 1972). Fuzz can be slotted in with the spate of films from the first half of the nineteen-seventies, such as Across 110th Street and The Super Cops, that depict big-city police work as nonstop chaos, an … Continue reading Then Playing — Fuzz; Prey; Broken Strings
Murder By Death (Robert Moore, 1976). There’s always a risk in watching an adored movie from childhood, especially if the feature in question is a comedy that relies in part on some painful stereotypes. Murder By Death was a favorite … Continue reading Then Playing — Murder By Death; The Purchase Price; The Gold Rush
Red-Headed Woman (Jack Conway, 1932). Of all the pre-Code movies I’ve seen, Red-Headed Woman might be the pre-Codiest. The film’s protagonist, Lil Andrews (Jean Harlow), operates with a level of ruthless amorality that would give the gruffest nineteen-seventies antihero pause … Continue reading Then Playing — Red-Headed Woman; The Sunshine Boys; Very Annie Mary
Coffee for Two 