Here’s The Thing… (Revisited)
Sean MurphyIn the late summer of 1982, two distinct entities from outer space infiltrated planet earth. One was a prehistoric creature with the ability to kill, then imitate its prey: it…
Essential Performance: Gene Hackman in ‘The Conversation’*
Harry Caul is a man less concerned with the answers to uneasy questions than the questions themselves. He is a well-regarded surveillance specialist; a self-employed spy who builds his own…
Celebrating Chinatown: The Ultimate Summer Movie (and the Perfect American Movie)
Chinatown does not usually make the short list of best American films. In fairness, it probably shouldn’t. It will have to settle for merely being the only perfect American film…
Remembering the USS Indianapolis, Robert Shaw and The Scene
On July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis, which had just delivered key components of the Hiroshima atomic bomb to the Pacific island of Tinian, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine.…
Remembering (and Celebrating) The Kids In The Hall
This weekend PopMatters is revisiting an outstanding feature from a couple of years ago: The Best of TV on DVD. Definitely worth checking out. My entry, below, was on the gone…
You See This Sign?: Appreciating ‘Five Easy Pieces’
MacMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest; Jake Gittes in Chinatown; Jack “Here’s Johnny!” Torrence in The Shining—these aren’t characters from famous movies, they are permanent fixtures of American…
Being the Ball: What We Talk About When We Talk About ‘Caddyshack’
Well…we’re waiting! Actually, you already read this review. You already wrote this review. You can easily recall, now, when it occurred to you, sometime between the fifth or fifteenth (or…
‘Walkabout’ Is the Rarest of Films That Will Change Your Life Again Every Time You Return to It
There are those special movies that change your life after you’ve seen them. Then there are the almost miraculous movies that stay inside you and then change your life again…
They Lived This Way Because Nobody Else Could
My vices protect me but they would assassinate you! That is from Mark Twain, a man who talked the talk, walked the walk, drank the drank and, for good measure, smoked the…
A Serious Mess
First off, full disclosure. I don't exactly have a love/hate relationship with the Coen Brothers, because there is too much gray area. Some of their movies I love without reservation (Raising…