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German born emigre director Ernst Lubitsch is rightly considered one of the brightest stars in the classic Hollywood filmmaking firmament.

He had such an innate sense of the intrinsic qualities of cinema that he became Paramount's head of production in the mid 1930's WHILE still directing movies (though he was fired a year later because he couldn't delegate). Lubitsch was a wunderkind like Irving Thalberg or Steven Spielberg or Alfred Hitchcock or Stanley Kubrick. A savant of cinema.

One of his proteges, world class moviemaker Billy Wilder…

In some strange way, the question of relevancy in pop culture has been rendered irrelevant.

We live in beyond the looking glass times where concerted efforts appear to be made to make us all discouraged, confused, disheartened, disoriented in the surrealism of the current moment.

But, as always, even those factors have to …

Like our review of Jason Reitman's SATURDAY NIGHT, Edward Berger's meticulous, engrossing CONCLAVE, about a fictitious election of a new pope beset by mystery, scandal, and intrigue, is a kind of cinematic comfort food.

And again, that's not a bad thing. CONCLAVE is an excellent movie that smuggles in intriguing ideas under the cloak of a 70's style Alan J Pakula (ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN, KLUTE) thriller.

It's also …

The movie follows beleaguered but determined SNL creator/producer Lorne Michaels (a surprisingly agile Gabrielle LaBelle) as he fights battles on numerous fronts to willpower his show to air at 11:30pm live on television despite everyone and everything saying it can't be done.

The movie is at once…

As we gather ‘round the cinema family table for Thanksgiving 2024, we find a cinematic family in flux.

Some at the table say the family has disbanded. Some say the family will never die. Some say viva the family! Each feels the truth of what they say in their hearts. Who’s right? Is everyone right? Is everyone wrong?

Will this Cinematic Thanksgiving devolve into tense family squabbling? Will the cinematic Turkey be dry and overcooked? I hate an overcooked cinematic Turkey!

Well, I’m gonna stop the extended allegory train before it crashes and focus it down.

I’d like to offer a little Cinematic Thanksgiving prayer if I could.

Thank you …

DISCLAIMER is a worthy, interesting, pointed work. It is full of committed performances, incredible technique and craft, and important themes. And yet, in some ways, it feels like a missed opportunity.

Alfonso Cuaron is one of the most talented and daring of the current crop of world cinema masters. Each new movie is a cause for celebration. Each new work is an experiment in genre, form, narrative. Yet each movie coheres to a continuum of Cuaron concerns…

No one knows who wrote folk classic, “Wayfaring Stranger.” It emerges from history fully formed as if the wanderer has always been lost, always singing of his journey home. Hundreds of years later and thousands of miles away, the song plays out of a car speaker before a crash… 

Titane opens with …

Some films are like a punch to the face. It’s a good feeling. Rarely does, a project come along that hits all over your body for the entire duration. This is frenzied filmmaking, held together through sustained energy. Tetsuo: The Iron Man is like driving through an hour-long carwash full of fists, an assault on the senses that doesn’t let up. This would be trying if the approach wasn’t so electric. 

Tetsuo: The Iron Man uses…

It's hard to tell where the hilarious satire/dark comedy of BODIES BODIES BODIES ends and the self-conscious drive to be a movie of the moment begins.

The two herk and jerk in awkward dance movements throughout. But still, in the final analysis, the movie is mostly a fun, interesting take on the excesses of current American culture and thinking through the metaphoric lens of black comedy and horror.

A group of ...