Thursday, December 14, 2023
173. 'Withnail & I' (1987)
One of the most quotable and iconic of British films, born out of writer/director Bruce Robinson's personal experiences and shepherded to the big scre...
Thursday, November 30, 2023
172. 'The French Connection' (1971)
Billy Friedkin's iconic 1971 game-changing NYC police procedural/car chase classic 'The French Connection' has a fascinating backstory and making-of h...
Thursday, November 9, 2023
171. 'The Friends of Eddie Coyle' (1973)
Peter Yates was quietly one of the most interesting film directors of his time. His seminal 1967 British train-robbery film 'Robbery' got him noticed ...
Thursday, October 26, 2023
170. Lily Gladstone, Robert DeNiro, and Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorcese's 'Killers of the Flower Moon'
Martin Scorcese's new film 'Killers of the Flower Moon' is in many ways his magnum opus; it's a film carefully wrought with all of his and his product...
Thursday, October 12, 2023
169. Phone Call Scenes In Movies
A particular interest of mine is phone calls in movies. I'm interested in them as plot devices, as examples of good or indifferent screenwriting, as o...
Thursday, October 5, 2023
168. All of Phillip Seymour Hoffman's Scenes in 'Charlie Wilson's War'
An appreciation of Phillip Seymour Hoffman and his brilliant portrayal of real-life CIA Most Interesting Man Gust Avrokotos in Mike Nichols' final fil...
Tuesday, September 26, 2023
167. Albert Brooks & Julie Hagerty in 'Lost In America' (1985)
'Lost In America' was Albert Brooks' 3rd film as a writer/director/star and remains probably the most broadly-appealing of his films. It's one of two...
Wednesday, September 13, 2023
166. 'Across 110th Street' (1972), the Film and Song
'Across 110th Street' is a 1972 Harlem crime film that contains many of the tropes of the exploitation films of the era...but it also contains incredi...
Tuesday, August 29, 2023
165. The Michael Keaton Ray Nicolette Cinematic Universe
Elmore Leonard's cocky, energetic ATF Agent Ray Nicolet is a key protagonist in his book 'Rum Punch'. For Quentin Tarantino's film adaptation of 'Rum...
Friday, August 25, 2023
164. 'Jackie Brown' (1997)
Quentin Tarantino surprised fans with the release of his third film, 'Jackie Brown' coming as it did on the heels of the global phenomenon that was 'P...
Thursday, August 17, 2023
163. 'To Live and Die in LA' (1985)
Billy Friedkin, maybe the weirdest (in a good way) major American director of his generation, almost doesn't make sense on paper; wait...the same guy ...
Tuesday, August 8, 2023
162. 'Barbie' (2023)
A deep-dive into the semiotics of 'Barbie' and its post-feminist critique of corporate capitalism and American mores. Just kidding, I went and saw 'Ba...