SUMMER TO THE RESCUE, SORT OF: 13 MAY-AUGUST MOVIES I WANT TO SEE
Summer is upon us. That is, summer as defined by movie studios which, in the 40 years since Star Wars was released,…

Summer is upon us. That is, summer as defined by movie studios which, in the 40 years since Star Wars was released,…

The pomp and circumstance of Felix Mendelssohn’s “War March of the Priests,” as played on a grand pipe organ by a hooded…

Just back from the 2017 TCM Classic Movie Festival with a few thoughts and thoughts about thoughts. I certainly held my reservations…

“It’s the most wonderful time/Of the year…” – Andy Williams Well, yes and no. There is, after all, still about a week…

A few years ago, in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the death of influential film critic Pauline Kael, I wrote the…

In 1997 there came a little movie called Trainspotting, adapted by director Danny Boyle and scenarist John Hodge from Scottish writer Irvine…

So, going into the final stretch before the Oscars are announced, I have a question: if you like—no, love this year’s front-running…

One of the most unusual, and unusually moving swansongs in cinema history, Josef Von Sternberg’s Anatahan (a.k.a. The Saga of Anatahan) returns…

Nostalgia just ain’t what it used to be. When the poster for American Graffiti (1973) asked the question “Where were you in…

Even when you live in Los Angeles, as I do, if you’re not in the network of critics groups and press screening…

2016: the reviews are in! And they have been for quite some time, actually. If you keep up even a distracted presence…

I’m guessing that you, just like most of us, have always had seasonal favorites when it comes to movies that attempt to…

Much has been said and written about the receiving and processing of music as a spiritual experience, either in the religious sense,…

Thanksgiving. After the past year of tumult, anger and divisiveness we’ve experienced in this country and around the world, to say nothing…

From the first time I saw it until this moment, two days before what might just be the most important, potentially resonant…

Yesterday, amid a crush of sweaty people desperate for last-minute props, I visited a local Halloween superstore with my daughter, looking for…

Ten years ago I attended the Lone Pine Film Festival for the first time. It was the 17th annual celebration in 2006…

Vin Scully, the voice of the Dodgers, is calling it a career this weekend after 67 years in the booth. If you…

This fall semester I started taking an Italian language class two evenings a week with my daughter, and Thursday night I was…

GENE WILDER 1933 -2016 In all likelihood, the events of this past week probably didn’t offer any more or less sadness and…

11 DRIVE-IN MOVIE MOVIES (in alphabetical order): Blue Thunder (1983) One key sequence in this thriller about a high-tech urban surveillance helicopter…

Of all the companies that produced pictures primarily for the drive-in market, none did so with as much brio or thrived because…

It might seem that celebrating the drive-in movie season during the dog days of August is a celebration that is coming about…

The sound of an electric pencil sharpener masks the crack of a shot that initiates what might have been the perfect murder…

I’ve been back from my Oregon vacation for a couple of weeks now, and though the getaway was a good and necessary…

In the hierarchy of significance in what made news this past week, the sudden availability of the entirety of Albert Brooks’ output…