April 2021 – Tremble…Sigh…Wonder…

Wobbly, Spinning Plates: FOCUS in Focus

Everything wrong with modern cinema explained here succinctly!

IN PRAISE OF BOLDER WOMEN: Raquel Welch in 1972’s Western HANNIE CAULDER

Raquel Welch and Robert Culp make for a brilliant team in the Humpback Movie HANNIE CAULDER.

An Actor’s Nightmare: Al Pacino faces The Humbling

Discussing one of Al Pacino’s obscure but good performances of the twenty-first century.

Sleazy and Clever: Jack’s Back !

The best special effect is a good actor. James Spader isn’t messing around in the underrated American giallo JACK’S BACK.

The Outsider: Why We Love Andrew McCarthy and Dig His New Book

Andrew McCarthy was our surrogate in the Brat Pack, and has written a good book about those heady years.

Manners, Morals, and Romantic Confusion: Whit Stillman’s Kind Satire returns in LOVE & FRIENDSHIP

Whit Stillman directs interesting films and writes rather good novels.

In Praise Of Matthew Modine: Firm, Enduring, Simple and Modest.

I like Matthew Modine, as do all of us.

Movie Crush: A Review of MOMENTUM and an Appreciation of Olga Kurylenko

Olga Kurylenko, My Movie Crush.

PART TWO OF THE “ZABU” CHRONICLES: GOING DEEP ON THE UNDERGROUND CLASSIC

I previously talked to Neil Cohen about making the glorious, nutty CHIEF ZABU in some detail. Here I talk to him andco-conspirator Zack Norman (co-star of ROMANCING THE STONE and CADILLAC MAN) in further depth in celebration of the film’s Streaming release. The loose, zanily charming CHIEF ZABU, a comedy about real estate, ambition, sexContinue reading “PART TWO OF THE “ZABU” CHRONICLES: GOING DEEP ON THE UNDERGROUND CLASSIC”

Does Anyone Remember THE BAG MAN with John Cusack and Robert De Niro? I Do!

David Grovic’s The Bag Man is a delayed entry in the Quentin Tarantino- David Lynch wannabe sweepstakes, when late 1990s filmgoers were bombarded with lousy, self-conscious, pseudohip films filled with violence and pubertal weirdness (see Dark Backward, Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead, Mad Dog Time, Big City Blues, and a lot of others). ManyContinue reading “Does Anyone Remember THE BAG MAN with John Cusack and Robert De Niro? I Do!”