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Before Birds of Prey there was Æon Flux
All hail Cathy Yan – the writer-director of 2018’s Dead Pigs and just announced to helm Birds of Prey, D.C.’s spin-off of their box…
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CineSavant
The Virgin Suicides
Sofia Coppola's first feature film is a head-swirling poetic essay about adolescent angst and terminal self-destruction in suburbia, where some families are…
CineSavant
Bombshell, The Hedy Lamarr Story
The pretty faces that give Hollywood its glamour eventually fade, but Alexandra Hall's documentary reveals a remarkable woman who parlayed her beauty…
CineSavant
The Vampire (1957)
CineSavant reaches back one year to pick up a notable low-key horror from the team of Levy-Gardner-Laven and good old United Artists.…
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Semper Fi – R. Lee Ermey
R. Lee Ermey acted in three of my films and was a good friend. Sad to lose him so young. He was…
Fear of the Velvet Curtain
WEEKEND MENAGERIE: A BULL, A BUNNY AND A GO-RILLA
“Walt Whitman once said, ‘I see great things in baseball. It’s our game, the American game. It will repair our losses and…
CineSavant
Along Came Jones
Big star Gary Cooper kids his screen image as an infallible hero in a western that almost plays as a screwball comedy,…
CineSavant
Les Girls
The curtain is falling on the MGM musical, and Gene Kelly's final song and dance at the studio is for a Paris-set…
CineSavant
Five on the Black Hand Side
This quirky family comedy conceived as an antidote to blaxploitation pictures was adapted from a play that claims no goal beyond feel-good…
CineSavant
The Maze (3-D)
It was a promising project for Allied Artists: William Cameron Menzies does a spooky horror movie in 3-D! Something creepy's going on…
CineSavant
Gumshoe
When is a private eye parody not a parody? Stephen Frears' first feature strikes a delicate balance -- its nearly absurd hardboiled…
CineSavant
Sleeping Dogs
Director Roger Donaldson has enjoyed a rewarding Hollywood career, but he began in New Zealand where this fantasy mini-epic about resistance to…
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The Awful Truth
Thanks to Louis Armstrong and his fellow geniuses, the Jazz Age transformed a generation and dominated pop culture for close to two…
CineSavant
Don’t Bother to Knock
"Wash your face, brush your teeth, and say your PRAYERS." Marilyn Monroe's first plunge into a dramatic starring role casts her as…
CineSavant
Danger Signal
Ah romance! A handsome stranger takes a room in your house, lets you feed him and doesn't pay the rent -- of…
CineSavant
The Age of Innocence
Martin Scorsese commands the screen without a single profane word or gunshot to the head. His adaptation of Edith Wharton's 1920 novel…
CineSavant
3 Video Nasties from Region B
Guest reviewer Lee Broughton covers a trio of grisly horrors. The Toolbox Murders, Blood Harvest and A Cat in the Brain each…
CineSavant
Red Planet Mars
It's a review. No, it's a rant. Stop, you're both right. CineSavant's overt mission is to demonstrate that old movies, especially old…
CineSavant
While the City Sleeps & Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
Fritz Lang’s final American films. The amazingly creative Fritz Lang almost singlehandedly pioneered a number of key genres: the fantasy epic, the…
CineSavant
Joan of Arc (1948)
Does every great actress see Joan of Arc as the ultimate serious role? Ingrid Bergman ran into serious career trouble while this…
CineSavant
Hotel Berlin
"Grand Hotel. Nazis come. Nazis go. Nothing ever happens." That's a paraphrase from 1932's Grand Hotel, indicating that the hallowed halls once…
Fear of the Velvet Curtain
The Scarlet Empress
The Scarlet Empress (1934), starring Marlene Dietrich, John Lodge, Sam Jaffe, Louise Dresser and “a supporting cast of 1,000 players,” is director…
CineSavant
An Actor’s Revenge
From Twelfth Night to Homicidal, casting calls for cross-dressers are a Hollywood tradition. The stories are alike in their differences; Katherine Hepburn…
CineSavant
The New Centurions
Joseph Wambaugh's breakthrough novel went through a blender to fit George C. Scott into the narrative, but it's still a great cop…
CineSavant
The Black Scorpion
Wow! Prime stop-motion animation from the heyday of monstrous science fiction, in a new restoration that puts a brilliant shine on those…