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…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
The Great Wall movie with Matt Damon: Awkward-accented British mercenary fights the Taotie in costly Chinese-American collaboration. ‘The Great Wall’ movie: Zhang Yimou-Matt Damon collaboration evidence that – for better…
‘Ben-Hur’ 2016 trailer with Jack Huston: Deadly chariot race in religious epic for the CGI-loving crowd. ‘Ben-Hur’ 2016 trailer: ‘Gladiator’ meets ‘Fast Seven’ meets ‘Star Wars’ meets… Paramount Pictures and…
Jack Huston. Jack Huston cast in ‘Ben-Hur’ remake? ‘Boardwalk Empire’ actor to follow in the footsteps of Ramon Novarro and Charlton Heston Jack Huston, best known for playing World War…
Inside Llewyn Davis with Oscar Isaac as “the last folk singer who didn’t make it.” Written and directed by veterans Joel and Ethan Coen (Blood Simple, Raising Arizona), Inside Llewyn…
Ben-Hur 1925 with Ramon Novarro: The chariot race. ‘Ben-Hur’ 1925: Fast & furious epic Los Angeles screening Directed by Fred Niblo and starring Ramon Novarro, the 1925 Ben-Hur, a.k.a. Ben-Hur:…
The Great Gatsby characters: Leonardo DiCaprio is the latest incarnation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jay Gatsby. ‘The Great Gatsby’ characters still popular after all these years: Leonardo DiCaprio’s second-biggest opening…
The Great Gatsby 2013 with Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby. The Great Gatsby 2013: Solid Leonardo DiCaprio; ‘small, sad truths’ lost in the glitz Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby is…
Les Misérables with Eddie Redmayne and Amanda Seyfried. In Tom Hooper’s film version of the international stage musical hit based on Victor Hugo’s early-19th-century-set classic novel about the long &…
Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln: Daniel Day-Lewis for Oscar 2013? Ever since it was announced that Steven Spielberg was going to direct an Abraham Lincoln biopic, film pundits, bloggers,…