A Week of Americana. Part Five: Chinatown
Sean MurphyChinatown 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…
Jean Stapleton, R.I.P.
This one hurts, especially for any of us who came of age (or were alive, period) in the '70s. If you were alive in the '70s, you knew about Jean…
The Ballad of Bonnie & Clyde or, Art Improving Upon Life (Revisited)
ON THIS DAY On May 23, 1934, bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were shot to death in a police ambush as they were driving a stolen Ford Deluxe…
3.14 and Interfacing with the Infinite
If you've never seen Pi, Darren Aronofsky's first (and best) movie, I strongly encourage you to check it out. (Hint: it's not just a number; it's a concept of existence.…
Coal Mines, Unions, Big Business and (of course) George Orwell (Revisited)
Watching coal-miners at work, you realize momentarily what different universes people inhabit. --George Orwell Quite by chance (no, really), I saw an old classic that had been languishing in my…
Marlon Brando, Pocahontas and Me (Revisited)
And the Oscar goes to... Who cares? Okay, okay: I'll resist the urge to be a sourpuss and let it suffice that I express my indifference to the pompous and…
Dr. Strangelove, A Half-Century (Almost) Later
Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove was released 49 years ago, today. In a longer piece entitled "Making the Case for Kubrick", I assessed his remarkable career (find that HERE). Here is some…
Human Connections, Missed Connections, Chance Connections: ‘Three Colors: Blue, White, Red’ (Revisited)*
Words need not be minced here: the Criterion Collection treatment of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s trilogy is an essential, if overdue cultural event. The high-definition digital restorations are reason enough to rejoice;…
Snow Miser vs. Heat Miser
So it's that time of year. I don't remember the last time I watched the entire 60 minutes of The Year Without a Santa Claus, but I did the other…
Serpico and Turning Black Friday into Good Friday
Look at that dude. Pacino, clean-shaven and short-haired as the movie begins, sports the best 'stache of the decade, then goes goatee, then gets full facial (hair and head), all…