There’s an odd recurring trope in noir movies where a reporter takes the initiative to do the kind of investigations it seems police should be handling.  In 1952’s The Turning Point, William Holden plays a newspaper reporter who, for whatever reason, keeps doing what should be his friend’s job, namely that of special prosecutor. That […]

I am not religious.  I am not Black.  And yet I feel a strong attraction to gospel music. Admittedly, the kind of gospel I prefer is gritty, lo-fi and from the 60’s and early 70’s—much like the majority of the garage rock I like.  I don’t believe I enjoy this music in a patronizing way, […]

I was a weird kid.  I don’t know why my elementary school had a copy of George Orwell’s 1984 in its library but, when I first saw it there, I knew I had to read this enigmatic paperback.  Not sure why such a book was expected to appeal to kids in the first through fifth […]

I’ll confess: I have been holding a bias against Jerry Lewis without actually watching any of his movies. I’m afraid his legend precedes him.  The clips I have seen of him shamelessly mugging.  The way we look down on the French for how much they supposedly love him.  His notoriety for being one of the […]

I try to not notice the wires that are inevitably visible in the effects in 50’s science fiction.  So here was something that shocked me: not only did I not once accidentally see wires suspending George Pal’s spaceships in War of the Worlds, I couldn’t even find them when I started looking for them.  As […]

I have always struggled with the albums and films that resulted from The Beatles sessions first released as the album Let It Be. The making of the previous album The Beatles (everybody calls it The White Album) was nearly their undoing, as they largely recorded as four solo performers.  The idea behind the Let It […]

There’s so little I can say about 2022’s Significant Other, it feels almost pointless to write about it.  I’m worried that whatever I choose to single out from it may provide too many clues for new viewers.  And, yet, I’m going to give it my best shot.  We open on a static shot of a […]

“Copyblancas”: that’s the word I finally came up with for all the films that try and fail to recapture the magic of Casablanca.  1949’s Rope of Sand has that film’s Paul Henreid, Claude Rains and Peter Lorre.  It is also set in Africa; albeit, in South Africa this time.  Quite a bit of the action […]

As soon as there’s an “us”, there’s a “them”.  The 1947 UK film Frieda is ostensibly about a German girl who weds an Englishman and faces the scorn of a great many common folk, each of whom probably believes they don’t have any biases.  Even those who acknowledge this bias within them seem to believe […]

It is telling that nuclear holocaust films seemed to have been produced in the greatest number in the 50s and the 80s, two eras when the world felt especially close to that becoming a reality. 1955’s Five is, I believe, the earliest of this type of picture.  The core group of this is four, and […]

Here is the description of 1936’s The Petrified Forest from IMDB: “A waitress, a hobo and a bank robber get mixed up at a lonely diner in the desert”.  That sounds like the start of some tired old joke.  If there was such a joke, I would probably enjoy it more than I did this […]

I’ll keep it short for a change. 2020’s Kindred is a British thriller that is largely a variation on the setup of Rosemary’s Baby. That’s not to say this film is derivative—more like it will appeal to those who like that type of movie. Tamara Lawrence is a pregnant woman imprisoned in the house of […]

I remember commercials for Brainstorm when I was a kid and wanting to see it.  I’m not sure why I wasn’t able to drag my parents to take me to a screening, nor why I never bothered to look for it in the intervening decades. But now I have seen it, and I’m glad I […]

The Outwaters is, as of this writing, the latest found footage sensation.  It was written by, directed by and starring Robbie Banfitch, with his brother Scott co-starring.  Here is how I imagine the conversation went between them as they decided to make this film… Robbie: “Waaaasuuuuup!” Scott: “ Waaaaasuuuuuuup!” “Dude, I have this bitchin’ idea!” […]

I love Futurama, and one of my most favorite scenes in the series involves a character asking a giant, diabolical, floating brain questions only an eternal being can answer.  One question is “what really killed the dinosaurs?”, in reply to which the brain bellows “MEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”.  Cut to giant floating brains zapping dinosaurs with lightning bolts. […]