Robin and the 7 Hoods is the final Rat Pack movie, it is a movie starring Frank Sinatra, it is a musical, it is a comedy updating of Robin Hood, it is all of these things, but can you guess which of these facts is the reason I saw this movie?
If you answered none of the above, you are correct, because the actual reason is…
Read MoreSo, Cinematic Void, after the end of January Giallo, is extending their Monday night residency at American Cinematheque, programming vampire movies in February, and for Valentines Day they showed good old Fright Night. The original and far better version.
For my entire childhood, and beyond, Roddy McDowall always was my favorite…
Read MoreLook, obviously, this isn’t a good movie. If I’m defining good as beyond merely entertaining. It’s the kind of movie that you watch because you woke up before you wanted to, can’t get back to sleep, and are resigned to do something extremely non-taxing until it’s appropriate to formally begin the day. The benefit of watching a movie like this…
Read MoreFord was an ornery, complicated man. To say the least. Very few folks could gain his respect to actually “manage” him if that’s the right word. But two who seemingly figured out how to get the best out of Jack Ford while checking Ford’s indulgences were…
Read MoreLast year, when I was doing my 365 Films in 365 Days Project, I started doing little tributes when people died. I would watch and review a film of the decedent, preferably one that I had never seen before like O’Hara‘s Wife for Ed Asner, although sometimes it would be a film that I just adored and hadn’t seen in years, like Heaven Can Wait for Charles Grodin.
Well, there were so many deaths in January 2022, that I decided to do a subsection of these reviews, and I’m calling it Passings.
I am not doing them in order of said passing, and thus am starting with the most recent, Howard Hesseman, who died last week. Now, he didn’t do tons of films…
Read MoreAlmost any conversation about movies will eventually find its way into a game of comparisons: “What’s the best fight scene?” “Best documentary?” “Best Nicolas Cage movie?” (The correct answers to those questions are, of course, all of The Raid: Redemption, Hands on a Hardbody, and Raising Arizona. Direct any complaints to the editor.) Now suppose you were asked the question, “What movie has the best opening?” For me, the answer is immediate – Sullivan’s Travels. The first seven minutes…
Read MoreWe recently screened two of mercurial filmmaker Sam Peckinpah’s greatest movies: The Wild Bunch (usually cited as his masterpiece) and the unsettling Dustin Hoffman starring home invasion movie Straw Dogs.
Watching the movies, I was struck by several things.
One-Sam Peckinpah and his editors cut some of the best edited American sequences of the last sixty years.
Two-Sam Peckinpah is a filmmaker of both problematic and perfect sequences.
Three-Peckinpah’s explorations into the nature of violence…
Read MoreHappy New Year! Yeah, I know it’s February, but I took January off, so this is my first 2022 post, so I’m allowed to say happy new year to you, I’m grandfathered in.
Cinematic Void via the American Cinemateque currently residing at the Los Feliz 3 in Los Angeles does a great annual Giallo January, and I’m both a big Giallo fan and also haven’t seen that many films, so I went to all but one, and the last one was this pretty rare film…
Read MoreThe success of any concert film is heavily dependent on whether the audience enjoys the music of the performer. I suppose that it’s possible to admire the technical aspects of the filmmaking alone but if the music doesn’t connect, it’s highly unlikely that one is going to remember it as a great film. Conversely, for those already familiar with and a fan of the artist, the performance can overcome uninspired filmmaking. I only mention this as an upfront admission of bias when discussing Storefront Hitchcock, Jonathan Demme’s concert film of Robyn Hitchcock, whose name is almost always paired with “English” and “eccentric”. To any reader asking themselves…
Read MoreFred Rogers once remarked, “I feel so strongly that deep and simple is far more essential
than shallow and complex.” Throughout film history…
Read MoreI’ve always wavered on weather the term “character actor” is the highest compliment or a kind of back-handed misunderstanding of some of moviedom’s greatest talents.
Gene Hackman once said something to the effect that he much preferred…
Read MoreHis name most likely won’t ring a bell and even seeing his face in the accompanying photograph here might not help, either. Wesley Addy never played the lead in any of the twenty feature films in which he appeared between 1955 and 1996, including some well-known titles such as Kiss Me Deadly, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, and The Verdict. His career, which also encompasses decades on the stage and dozens of television roles, has him frequently lodged at a third or fourth billing tier.
His name isn’t typically…
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