In our daily lives we’reLegendary film critic Pauline Kael once remarked, “Movies are so rarely great art that if we cannot appreciate great trash, we have very little reason to be interested in them.” While there are many unpopular opinions of Kael’s I would disagree with, this is one that I’ve grown to agree with.
Read MoreAt the end of 2021 I decided my project for the year would be to watch the entire output of one actor, that actor being Hugh Grant. An Oevre-view, if I may brazenly steal the term from Filmspotting. It is now mid-May and the whole “of the year” thing of this project seems to be wildly optimistic on my part, but if I start this second, perhaps I won’t have to slop too much into 2023. Perhaps. He’s been kind of prolific, has our Hugh.
Read MoreThe first short film that I remember understanding as a standalone piece of cinema was the 1982 Academy Award winning Best Animated Short Film, Tango, from Polish director, Zbigniew Rybczyński. Though, “animated” is a bit misleading.
Read MoreI am part of a monthly online movie-watching group called Bollywood Club. My friend Amber is a huge fan of Bollywood and for her birthday she invited a group of us to watch a Bollywood movie together. I decided to do it because she is my friend, not because I had the slightest interest Bollywood, but by the time the film was over, all of us newbies were raging fans. Bollywood will do that, it is magic!
Read MoreIn our daily lives we’re often bogged down by things that don’t matter such as cynicism, worry, consumerism, gossip, and fear. In Celine Sciamma’s latest film Petite Maman she reminds us of the childlike innocence we inherit in our early years before we’re ruined by…
Read MoreLast June I went to a sneak preview of The Northman, and signed one million things saying that I would not let a single word regarding this film pass my locked lips until it opened, and now it finally has!
Of course, I am writing this having seen it again, what with the fact that I…
Read MoreWhen people discuss the best Japanese film directors, the three names that often come up the most are Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu, and Kenji Mizoguchi.
Kurosawa is of course a foundational figure in the world of film, and Ozu is one of the key names in art house circles, but the one that gets overshadowed among the three is Mizoguchi, which is unfortunate, because he’s maybe…
Read MoreSo, a couple of weeks ago, Morbius opened, which I wanted to see through morbid curiosity (pun intended), but Blake, my movie-going pal, did not. “Aw, c’mon, there is nothing else opening!” “I don’t believe you.” “Well, there’s a Macedonian film about witches…” “I’ll take it!”
So the only reason I saw this movie right away on opening weekend was because Blake wouldn’t be seen dead at Morbius (pun unintended that time), and I’m very glad I did, because…
Read MoreAt this years Oscar ceremony, there were many major moments that were discussed, one moment in particular that if you go on the internet that you can’t possibly escape. But there was one moment during the show that has been overlooked, and that was the 50th anniversary tribute to The Godfather.
I’m not talking about the moment…
Read MoreWriter and director Pedro Almodovar once said, “The characters in my films are assassins, rapists and so on, but I don’t treat them as criminals, I talk about their humanity.” Rarely is this as true than in…
Read MoreThe past two weeks have seen a number of “experience” movies grace the screen here at the Secret Movie Club Theater. Movies like the 1970 documentary Woodstock, the Who’s rock opera Tommy directed by British maximalist Ken Russell, Pink Floyd’s The Wall directed by Alan Parker, and even David Lowery’s A Ghost Story all employ music in service of narratives that are meant to be more like “journeys” or “trips” then straight ahead storytelling.
You know the experience movie even if…
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