Quentin Tarantino, 60, has said that The Movie Critic will be his last directing effort because he doesn’t want to succumb to a gradual decline period, which tends to happen, he believes, when directors get into their 60s. Yes, Alfred Hitchcock went into a slow decline after The Birds (Marnie is abundant proof of that) … Read more
“Inside the ‘Blood Sport’ of Oscars Campaigns,” a N.Y. Times piece by Irina Aleksander, appeared this morning at 10:55 am. It covers a realm that HE is deeply familiar with, but rather than post a sweeping assessment here are four or five stand-out portions of the article, and in most instances my reactions to same: … Read more
The Oscars have been withering on the vine for the last six or seven years due to woke politics and are pretty much all but toast, but in the view of the Los Angeles Times editorial board and an editorial they posted on 12.27, they’re not toasty enough. “Let’s really stick a fork in this … Read more
An article in the January 2023 issue of Empire dishes about de-aging tech used for the still-untitled Indy 5 flick, which stars the 80 year-old Harrison Ford in the title role. The slam-bam prelude opening is set in 1944 — six years after the events in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade took place in … Read more
Speaking as a longtime honorary (i.e,. self-proclaimed) member of “the tribe”, I’m semi-astonished that within the community of decent, well-brought-up Americans (i.e., outside the realm of MAGA lunatics) that even a shred of anti-Semitism still circulates in the bloodstream of this nation. Ken Burns‘ The U.S. and the Holocaust reminded that anti-Semitism was an unmistakable … Read more
All hail the truth-telling, no-holds-barred, non-ass-kissing Scott Mantz…a movie-obsessed Colossus of Rhodes among men! Mantz #1: “WAKANDA FOREVER isn’t as good as BLACK PANTHER (I mean, how could it be?), but even so, it’s still a mixed bag. The first half is slow, hard to follow and lacks focus, but it gets better as it … Read more
The only film I felt completely elevated by at the ’22 Telluride Film Festival was Sam Mendes‘ Empire of Light (Searchlight, 12.9). I was actually amazed that I fell for it as I was more than somewhat skeptical going in. Empire is set roughly 42 years ago in rural England (it was shot in Margate) … Read more
Matt Walsh to the recently voiced complaint by race hustler Lisa Bond that “white men have had 400 years to do something about racism”, but haven’t done zip: “Who exactly was fighting against racism 400 years ago? [Bond] says ‘400 years ago’ because she’s a mindless disciple of the 1619 Project, and [apparently] believes that … Read more
Apparently Kenneth Branagh‘s Death on the Nile (20th Century, 2.11) is (a) fairly mediocre but (b) not bad enough to be regarded as an albatross around Branagh’s neck. It won’t get in the way of his Best Picture and Best Director Oscar campaigns, I mean. As we speak Nile has a Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes … Read more
If there’s no surrendering to a movie…if there’s no world to submit to and believe in…if there’s no belief in any “movie world” on the part of the filmmakers or the actors or the audience then what what the hell are we doing, man? Movies are always about slipping into a rabbit hole and swallowing … Read more
HE to Kino Video regarding upcoming Touch of Evil 4K Bluray (streeting on 2.22.22): As you guys presumably recall, England’s Masters of Cinema / Eureka Video released two versions of a Touch of Evil Bluray in two aspect ratios — 1.85 and 1.37 — roughly a decade ago. A Kino Lorber spokesperson has confirmed that … Read more
“‘When Douglas Sirk retired from American filmmaking and returned to Europe at the end of the 1950s, his reputation was that of a director who simply churned out glossy Hollywood weepies. But after a major critical reappraisal, spurred by the critics of Cahiers du Cinema, the German-born filmmaker was reclaimed as an auteur with a … Read more