It is hard to imagine a better, more stirring and heartfelt tribute to the military spirit than John Ford's sublime, lovingly rendered She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. It is a love letter to the uniformed military man, and especially to the frontier men of
The 39 Steps is a fascinating early film from Alfred Hitchcock, made five years before he left Britain to begin making films in America. It's a loose, free-spirited thriller, ragged around the edges, sloppily plotted, and often unevenly paced, but the
The Tall T is a crisp, economically made and structured Western, director Budd Boetticher's second collaboration with star Randolph Scott. It's a taut thriller for much of its short length, but Boetticher builds up to it slowly. The rambling, laidback
Quite by accident I happened upon a movie called "Premium" while channel surfing on cable. It was described as a film in the vein of "Hollywood Shuffle". I didn't really get that, the only thing that seemed to be a commonality was that the central character
Last year I put out a list of the 10 Worst Black Films Of 2007. I really wanted to do the 10 best, but couldn't think of 10. This year, sadly, is not much different, but I don't want to seem whiny about how much is so wrong and nothing is right about
Ok, I'm a bit of a Scrooge about Xmas. I just think most of it is kinda ridiculous, and I do my best to stay out of the way. But I do take full advantage of the aspect of folks going into complete slack mode, hence-my lack of posting. I will be back
A new monthly film club has been born, founded by three of my favorite bloggers: Jonathan at Cinema Styles, Marilyn at Ferdy On Films, and Rick at Coosa Creek. The idea is simple:The Oldest Established Really Important Film Club is neither old nor important
The sound films of Yasujiro Ozu are almost all cut from the same cloth, sharing similar plotlines, characters, and aesthetics, making it difficult to single out one film as his finest work. Nevertheless, Equinox Flower is my personal favorite mainly
Sorry I haven't posted in a minute, but Mama's been taking care of some serious bidness the past 2 weeks. I want to say thank you to the new folks that are following my blog...I have found some very interesting reads through the blogs that you have.
The fine folks at the Criterion Forum have an ongoing "lists project" intended to compile a series of best-of lists for each decade in cinematic history. These lists are invariably interesting and educational, with a much more varied and well-rounded
If most of the films of David Lynch might be described as a journey into the strangeness beneath the thin outer skin of ordinary reality, The Elephant Man essentially reverses the director's usual preoccupation: the film locates the ordinary and the
First off, enlarge the above image and read the comic strip.Interesting, no?This was called to my attention by comic critic Tom Crippen at the blog The Hooded Utilitarian. Alison Bechdel is a feminist comic writer/artist who is perhaps best known for
Ermanno Olmi's I Fidanzati is a deceptively simple film that is stunning in its effect. Its minimal story concerns the construction worker Giovanni (Carlo Cabrini), who is forced to leave behind his home town and his fiancée Liliana (Anna Canzi) in order
