Fear of the Velvet Curtain
O.J: MADE IN AMERICA
In one of those strange confluences of life, death and documentary art, last week the world lost Muhammad Ali, humanitarian, devout Muslim…
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Fear of the Velvet Curtain
MARQUEE MOVIE: MATINEE
“We used to go to the movies. Now we want the movies to come to us, on our televisions, tablets and phones,…
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Shield for Murder
Dirty cops were a movie vogue in 1954, and Edmond O'Brien scores as a real dastard in this overachieving United Artists thriller.…
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They Were Expendable
John Ford's best war movie does a flip-flop on the propaganda norm. It's about men that must hold the line in defeat…
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Dr. Strangelove
Criterion's special edition of Stanley Kubrick's doomsday comedy is more powerful than ever in a 4K remaster; and it even comes with…
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The Wave
Norway gets the old-fashioned disaster film genre up on its feet again with a well-made, scary story set in a Northern fjord,…
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Hello, My Name is Doris
Sally Field bounces back in this story of mismatched love - or a romantic delusion... that is 3/4 charm and 1/4 wishful…
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Here Comes Mr. Jordan
Here's a sterling example of what Hollywood excelled at back in the golden age: Robert Montgomery, Evelyn Keyes, Claude Rains and Edward…
Fear of the Velvet Curtain
The Outfit
John Flynn‘s The Outfit (1974), a brutally efficient bit of business based glancingly on Richard Stark’s procedurally inquisitive and poetic crime novel of the…
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Le amiche (The Girlfriends)
Michelangelo Antonioni's pre-international breakthrough drama is as good as anything he's done, a flawlessly acted and directed story of complex relationships --…
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She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
John Ford puts a Technicolor sheen on Monument Valley in this second cavalry picture with John Wayne, who does some of his…
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Antonia’s Line
Marleen Gorris' sightly absurdist, slightly magic realist movie about a strong woman who takes charge in a rural Dutch community is a…
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The Whip Hand
I guess Howard Hughes had a soft spot for Minnesota Nazis. William Cameron Menzies directs a Cold War thriller about an insidious…
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The Angry Hills
Robert Mitchum all but snoozes through this promising war-espionage thriller that pits lazy Gestapo agents against clueless partisans in occupied Greece. It's…
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Fellini’s City of Women
That naughty boy Federico Fellini goes all out with this essay-hallucination about women, a surreal odyssey that hurls Marcello Mastroianni into a…
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The Player
Robert Altman's murder tale reeks of insider access and Hollywood hipster BS; its main claim to greatness is its fifty-plus star cameos.…
Fear of the Velvet Curtain
HUDSON HAWK at 25
If there is a reliable truism that can coexist alongside the American film industry’s dance of death with economically insane budgets that…
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Cat Ballou
This breakout hit comedy western gave a lift to star Jane Fonda and especially to Lee Marvin, in an unexpected comedy role…
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Hail, Caesar!
Not funny enough, or too hip for the house? I found the Coen Bros.' send-up of old-fashioned movie madness good fun, with…
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Dark Passage
Bogie's back and Bacall's got him! Or, at least she's got his voice, and a bundle of bandages. A David Goodis hardboiled…
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Journey to Space IMAX
3-D IMAX goes back to outer space for a repeat of some space shuttle material and an extended CGI look at how…
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Blood Bath
This four-feature set is the weirdest cinematic treasure box of the year, a sort of anti-matter film school. Three of the films…
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Woman on the Run
What in the world -- an A + top-rank film noir gem hiding under the radar, and rescued (most literally) by the…
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The King and Four Queens
Clark Gable is still sufficiently frisky in this late career western to attract four well-chosen frontier women -- who in this case…
Fear of the Velvet Curtain
PEEKABOO! THE MOVIES OF 2016 AT HALFTIME
Nearing the halfway mark of the movie year and teetering, as we all are, on the edge of another summer movie abyss…