No other filmmaker has ever better understood and better captured the experience of being a teenager in America than John Hughes. The teen films he made in the… Read more “Don’t You Forget: A Review of Kirk Honeycutt’s John Hughes: A Life in Film”
Tag: Classic Film
The Problematic Wonder of The Lost World and King Kong
Both the 1925 silent classic The Lost World and the 1933 classic King Kong were groundbreaking in their use of stop-motion special effects, which we’ll look at more… Read more “The Problematic Wonder of The Lost World and King Kong”
Beat Up Men, Beat Up Machines: Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)
Sam Peckinpah’s underappreciated 1974 classic Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is as ’70s as a movie gets. It’s dirty, grimy, sleazy, violent, and pessimistic, and… Read more “Beat Up Men, Beat Up Machines: Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)”
To Be Good Is Not Enough: Falling Short of Genius in Five Easy Pieces
So far in our Third Floor Film Series we’ve watched Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 film Vertigo, the groundbreaking 1967 Bonnie and Clyde directed by Arthur Penn, and Elia Kazan’s steaming… Read more “To Be Good Is Not Enough: Falling Short of Genius in Five Easy Pieces”
A Review Marilyn Monroe Day by Day: A Timeline of People, Places, and Events by Carl Rollyson
Over half a century after her untimely death at age thirty-six Marilyn Monroe still captivates screen audiences and intrigues the curious. Who – and what – was… Read more “A Review Marilyn Monroe Day by Day: A Timeline of People, Places, and Events by Carl Rollyson”
Single-Car Runaway Trains: Broken Lives in A Streetcar Named Desire
There is not a single emotionally healthy adult to be found in Elia Kazan’s steamy 1951 hothouse drama A Streetcar Named Desire. Every player in this story is… Read more “Single-Car Runaway Trains: Broken Lives in A Streetcar Named Desire”
Zabriskie Point (1970)
Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1970 film Zabriskie Point was a dismal failure both financially and critically. The second of three English language films the Italian master of existential languish… Read more “Zabriskie Point (1970)”
Roger Ebert, Teacher
I own a lot of books, and I own a lot of movies. It would be hard to say which passion has owned more of me, but… Read more “Roger Ebert, Teacher”
Duel (1971)
I’m neither a Steven Spielberg hater nor a Steven Spielberg apologist, but I can certainly say unequivocally the man is a craftsman. His precision and control with… Read more “Duel (1971)”
More Thoughts on Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
I’ve been thinking recently about Arthur Penn’s 1967 brushfire of a film Bonnie and Clyde. I wrote about the film some here in preparation for leading a screening and… Read more “More Thoughts on Bonnie and Clyde (1967)”
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