Director Darren Aronofsky’s stark look at the subculture of low-level professional wrestling builds to an impressive and ambitious character study that looks to be equal parts Requiem For A Heavyweight (1962) and The Set-Up (1949) before a predictable, cliched, cop-out
9:30pm PST – Double Indemnity (1944) – An insurance salesman gets seduced into plotting a client’s death. Cast: Porter Hall , Fred MacMurray , Edward G. Robinson , Barbara Stanwyck Dir: Billy Wilder BW-108 mins, TV-PG Generally, these daily recommendations
[youtube imxqup1_G9Q nolink] The clip is from the otherwise forgettable Esther Williams musical, Fiesta (1947). According to IMDB you’re watching Montalban’s American film debut. He was 26 at the time and would work steady for another sixty years. That gorgeous
My colleague Joe Lima, has written an extensive and intelligent deconstruction of Steven Soderbergh’s “Che.” There’s not a word there anyone interested in truth or human rights could argue with. For Joe, and for many, Soderbergh’s film does not transcend
5pm PST – Hunchback Of Notre Dame, The (1939) – A deformed bell ringer rescues a gypsy girl falsely accused of witchcraft and murder. Cast: Cedric Hardwicke , Charles Laughton , Thomas Mitchell , Edmond O’Brien Dir: William Dieterle BW-117
7:15am PST – The Good Earth (1937) – Epic adaptation of the Pearl Buck classic about Chinese farmers battling the elements. Cast: Walter Connolly , Tilly Losch , Paul Muni , Luise Rainer Dir: Sidney Franklin BW-138 mins, TV-PG Not
A list of dance numbers would be too easy with an Astaire or Kelly or the barn-raising sequence from Seven Brides For Seven Brothers. We’ll save those for another list. These are the deep cuts, hidden gems that make you
1pm PST – Alfie (1966) – A British womanizer refuses to grow up until tragedy strikes. Cast: Michael Caine , Julia Foster , Millicent Martin , Shelley Winters Dir: Lewis Gilbert C-114 mins, TV-14 Jude Law’s painful 2004 remake didn’t
Tonight at 9pm and midnight ET, the Fox News Channel airs a one-hour video diary of Gary Sinise thanking our troops in Iraq. The L.A. Times has more: The actor will be featured in “On the Road in Iraq with
Clint Eastwood’s hinted that Gran Torino might be his last turn in front of the camera. If that’s true, he could not have chose for himself a more fitting farewell. Without a hint of the self-referential, Torino touches on the
5:00pm PST – Dinner At Eight (1933) – A high-society dinner party masks a hotbed of scandal and intrigue. Cast: John Barrymore , Lionel Barrymore , Marie Dressler , Jean Harlow Dir: George Cukor BW-111 mins, TV-PG In his post,
4:30am – PST King Creole (1958) – A singer with a criminal past gets drawn back into the mob. Cast: Carolyn Jones , Walter Matthau , Elvis Presley Dir: Michael Curtiz BW-116 mins, TV-PG There were a few years, pre-Army,
[youtube 5bKwsUnd2F0 nolink] This clip is from a 1953 film called Small Town Girl. The dancer, and he was a marvelous dancer, is Bobby Van. Had Van been been born in 1918 instead of 1928 he’d probably be a household
[youtube fBBoQxLQ9Rk] My Sister Eileen – (1955) – Two sisters from Ohio, one pretty, one witty, plot to take New York City by storm. Director: Richard Quine Cast: Janet Leigh, Jack Lemmon C-107 mins, TV-G One of those big budget,
Let’s celebrate Big Hollywood’s opening day with opening scenes, the memorable ones that set the tone and sweep us into the story. 1. Touch of Evil (1958) – Not only did director Orson Welles set up most of his story
Until the very end of his storied career, Jack Lemmon could still be heard whispering, It’s magic time, to himself before the filming of each new scene. More than our political views, and regardless of which part of the pop
Revolutionary Road opens its story just after the conclusion of a disastrous community theatre production of The Petrified Forest where, on a small, suburban public school stage, April Wheeler (Kate Winslet) has suffered more than just humiliation, her self image
As documented here, here, and here, through the portrayal of the sympathetic child molester, the onscreen hyper-sexualization of young girls, and child characters liberated through sexual behavior, for a number of years now the film industry has waged a drip-drip
In his first film aimed directly at the holiday younger set, Bedtime Stories firmly remains an Adam Sandler picture even though, save for Booger Monster-type humor, all but gone are the gross-out gags and inner-rage which defines Sandler’s most famous
Jim Carrey’s problem isn’t that he lacks in talent or energy, his problem is that those traits he’s so gifted with made him a superstar and now he doesn’t lack for power over his own career. With the demise of
Everything about The Day The Earth Stood Still is disjointed – doesn’t connect, doesn’t compute, doesn’t resonate. The story, character relationships, and even the special effects lack the cohesion necessary to grab hold of for the ride. Things happen to
There’s no denying the actual Sideways is well made, acted, directed… So okay, fine, technically and by any objective standard of filmmaking there’s little to criticize, and much to tout – you got me there. But there’s an ugliness to
The great irony no one will speak of with respect to Gus Van Sant’s biopic of slain gay-rights leader Harvey Milk is that the last and most famous fight of Milk’s life was defeating Proposition 6, an indefensible 1978 California
Nearly two and a half hours pass before The Curious Case of Benjamin Button hits you with any real warmth or poignancy and that’s an awfully long row to hoe in order to finally feel the way the lush trailer
Baz Luhrmann’s Australia deserves credit for attempting to bring back the old-fashioned, slow-burn romance set within Big Historical Events, but the narrative is such an unfocused mess and so overwhelms what works that you can’t ever grasp hold of the
