Tag: cinema
The best films, performers, and other talent of 2016 thus far
Critics sure do love our year-end best-of lists. It’s kind of what we live for. I love them too, but I don’t wait until year’s end. No – that’s not how I roll. I prefer to write them at the end of August. Sure, it leaves out four months – four pretty important months if…
Mental Illness and ‘King of Hearts’: A Rumination
It finally may be time for me to put away childish things. The estimable editor of CURNBLOG, James Curnow, recently offered up on Twitter an intriguing hashtag, #7childhoodfilms, that generated a large number of responses from folks all over the Internet—including me. The aim was to cite films one liked in childhood and still revere…
The 60th Anniversary of Forbidden Planet: From Shakespeare to Star Trek
With Star Trek now celebrating its fiftieth Anniversary, and with yet another Star Trek feature released earlier this summer that pays further tribute to Gene Roddenberry’s vision and legacy (as well as the cherished memory of the original Mr. Spock, the late, great Leonard Nimoy, and the young and tragically ill-fated new Chekov, Anton Yelchin),…
Who Wore It Better: A Cinematic Smackdown
News flash: Hollywood is derivative. I’ll pause here to let that sink in. I know it must come as quite a shock. So I suppose if I’m a producer and I’m plunking down 50 mill on two hours of fantasy, I’d want as much assurance as possible that an audience would actually come see the…
Folksy ‘Pete’s Dragon’ charms with homespun feel
The original Pete’s Dragon was a 70s family musical produced by a different Disney in a different era, complete with singing villagers, a lighthouse, Helen Reddy and a cartoon gentle giant dragon spliced into the landscape of a live action film (taking a page from the Mary Poppins playbook). The film has a fan base…