Au Revoir les Enfants movie review: Set at a Catholic boarding school for boys in Vichy France, Louis Malle’s poignant Holocaust-themed coming-of-age drama is possibly his best film.
Bad Education movie review:
Directed and written by Pedro Almodóvar, this brazenly subversive 2004 ‘gay film noir’ starring Gael García Bernal is one of the most daring exemplars of the genre.The Forty-Year-Old Version movie review: Actress-filmmaker Radha Blank makes a smart feature film debut with this semi-autobiographical midlife-crisis tale.
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…
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…
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…
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…
Howard Keel in Dallas with Donna Reed: late 20th-century mainstream resurgence of two former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer stars. On Season 8 (1984–1985) of CBS’s hit TV soap Dallas (1978–1991), 1950s MGM contract…
The Music Man with Robert Preston and Shirley Jones: Independence Day movies. Numerous Hollywood musicals have attempted to capture that elusive, reality-averse quality known as “Americana-ness” – e.g., Yankee Doodle…
John Paul Jones with Robert Stack: 4th of July movies. Although every sign indicates that 2019 is the new 1984, those in the U.S. shouldn’t fret: TCM’s 4th of July…
Howard Keel MGM musicals: Texas Carnival publicity shot with Esther Williams. In his MGM musicals of the 1950s, Howard Keel was almost always paired with small, girl-like leading ladies –…
Howard Keel musicals at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer: Box office roller-coaster ride. Brought to Hollywood in 1948 to star in MGM’s then popular musicals, stage performer Howard Keel seemed poised to reach major…
Howard Keel publicity shot ca. 1950. A prominent name in Hollywood musicals in the first half of the 1950s, Howard Keel was seen – and heard – as baritone-voiced, larger-than-life…
Solo: A Star Wars Story with Alden Ehrenreich. The 10th live-action feature in the now 41-year-old Star Wars movie franchise, Solo: A Star Wars Story attempts to explain the background…
Black Panther movie with Chadwick Boseman. Directed and co-written by Ryan Coogler, Disney/Marvel’s Black Panther is the first big-budget release centering on a black superhero – played by Marshall and…
Trouble Is My Business with Brittney Powell. Co-written by actor/voice actor Tom Konkle, who also directed, and Xena: Warrior Princess actress Brittney Powell, Trouble Is My Business is a humorous…
Ronald Colman: Turner Classic Movies’ Star of the Month in two major 1930s classics Updated: Turner Classic Movies’ July 2017 Star of the Month is Ronald Colman, one of the…
Crime novel The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding. While her husband is away during World War II, housewife Lucia Holley – the sort of “Everywoman” who looks great in…
Roy Rogers, Singing Cowboy of 1940s and 1950s Hollywood. Known for his affable characterizations and, both on and off screen, “traditional values” stance, the King of the Cowboys – step…
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…
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.…
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…
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…
Howard Keel at the height of his career in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, with Jane Powell. In his autobiography, Only Make Believe: My Life in Show Business, Howard Keel…
The Women remake with Meg Ryan. In the old Margalo Gilmore (on Broadway, 1936), Norma Shearer (1939), and June Allyson (1956) role, 1990s Hollywood Sweetheart Meg Ryan plays a materially…
Detroit movie street riot scene: The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty director Kathryn Bigelow tackles the 1967 Detroit riots in “horribly real” and “deeply self-serving” 2017 release marketed as…