The Forty-Year-Old Version movie: Not to be confused with Judd Apatow’s directorial debut The Forty-Year-Old Virgin, filmmaker and actress Radha Blank’s feature film debut depicts a New Yorker’s unusual midlife…
Movie Genres
Nazi movies: “Third Reich” propaganda films were often disguised as comedies, dramas, and musicals promoting the German ethos and “way of life.” Curiously – or rather, eerily – these Nazi…
Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe: Husband and wife from 1956 to 1961, the Broadway playwright and the Hollywood star collaborated on one major project, the ill-fated modern-day Western The Misfits…
2020 Venice Film Festival Awards: Nomadland, with Frances McDormand, wins Golden Lion. If recent history is any indication, Chloé Zhao’s low-budget socio-psychological road movie is about to become a North…
Belfast movie: Kenneth Branagh has begun shooting the semiautobiographical indie drama – “my most personal film,” as per the screenwriter-director – set in the turbulent Northern Ireland of the late…
Robert Pattinson in The Batman: COVID-19 scare. Pattinson’s positive result has halted filming of the latest reboot of DC Comics’ Batman, created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, and first…
Playwright Arthur Miller vs. Red Scare Hysteria: The Crucible Demythologizes American Exceptionalism
Playwright Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible (1953) – about the witchcraft trials held in late-17th-century Salem – as a political allegory against the HUAC hearings held in mid-20th-century Washington, D.C.…
Morris Engel: Little Fugitive filmmaker. Influenced by Italian neorealism, naturalistic documentaries/docudramas, and late silent era releases like Paul Fejos’ Lonesome, Morris Engel’s no-star, no-plot, no-frills Little Fugitive remains one of…
Arthur Miller movies include adaptations of All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, and A View from the Bridge. One of the most influential 20th-century American playwrights, Miller…
Virginia Mayo: The honey-blonde – at times red-haired – heroine of Technicolor fare like Wonder Man, The Flame and the Arrow, and Painting the Clouds with Sunshine, Virginia Mayo was…
Frank and Ava movie stars Rico Simonini as Frank Sinatra and Emily Elicia Low as Ava Gardner: The explosive real-life relationship between the two temperamental Hollywood stars is the focus…
Actress Sandra Dee was a hugely popular – and curious – cross between wholesome teen Deanna Durbin and tormented teen James Dean, going to school, catching waves, falling in love,…
Carol Lynley movies: In her heyday, the Blue Denim, Bunny Lake Is Missing, and The Poseidon Adventure actress was often cast as dreamy girl-next-door types who were ready, willing, and…
Ann Sothern: Although never a superstar, throughout her unusual and unusually long Hollywood career – after a long apprenticeship, she enjoyed two career peaks – Ann Sothern was billed above…
Lena Horne. Lena Horne movies: Velvety-voiced singer generally relegated to specialty numbers during heyday of the Hollywood musical Had things been different, it’s anybody’s guess whether or not three-time Grammy…