CATCHING UP WITH FILM - FILM CRITICISM WITH AN EYE ON A PERSONAL CANON

In honor of one of the few American female filmmakers that regular people could name, I will be watching all of the works of Penny Marshall, who passed away in late 2018, for January 2019. Renaissance Man This is decidedly a much more modest follow-up to Marshall’s wildly successful A League of Their Own. Danny DeVito plays a former businessman who gets a short-term gig instructing a group of Army soldiers at a boot camp. Of course, these soldiers are the colorful and academi

This year, I am going to try to get through the whole oeuvre of Nicolas Cage because my fascination with this man and his contradictions is endless. God help me. Birdy (1984) The mid-80’s sees Nicolas Cage on the cusp of stardom. While these two movies aren’t super memorable, we see him in lead performances in which either the plot revolves around him or he is a major catalyst for the plot. Birdy was apparently a difficult work to adapt since the original novel was mostly int

Inspired by having seen Stan & Ollie, I will be trying to fill in a blind spot with the films of Laurel and Hardy, artists I had absolutely no familiarity with before seeing the movie. This is yet another film in which Laurel and Hardy are a pseudo-married couple, decidedly pre-Code. The two share a bed with each other and their dog, Laughing Gravy (fantastic name for a dog by the way), is their adopted child. The landlord is not tolerant to dogs, and maybe he is opposed to t

In honor of one of the few American female filmmakers that regular people could name, I will be watching all of the works of Penny Marshall, who passed away in late 2018, for January 2019. It takes a lot of hard work to make a movie this effortlessly feel-good and entertaining. Penny Marshall made sure that all the actresses could convincingly play baseball. Lori Petty threw more pitches than most Major League players and apparently all bruises or injuries you see in the film

This post was originally scheduled for Sunday, but the Academy Award nominations dropped today, and I found them more out of touch than usual. The two most problematic big movies of 2018 were nominated for Best Picture (Bohemian Rhapsody and Green Book). Ethan Hawke was snubbed big time for one of the most lauded performances of the year. South Korea remains without a single nomination even as Burning was so widely acclaimed. But the biggest snub would have to be the lack of

The best lesson I learned from last year’s resolution to watch works from more women filmmakers (half of all movies watched to be exact) was that women filmmakers and their works are hardly monolithic. There are certainly patterns that could distinguish women filmmakers: women are better, more complex characters, stories often revolve around women’s status in society, etc. However, I could name exceptions to any sort of rule one could lay down, and that is what made this reso

This year, I am going to try to get through the whole oeuvre of Nicolas Cage because my fascination with this man and his contradictions is endless. God help me. Racing with the Moon (1984) It’s difficult to reconcile modern Sean Penn and Nicolas Cage with their young, boisterous men that they are here, but I found this coming-of-age film, set weeks before both will be shipped out to fight in World War II, quite affecting. While the romance especially between Sean Penn’s char

Inspired by having seen Stan & Ollie, I will be trying to fill in a blind spot with the films of Laurel and Hardy, artists I had absolutely no familiarity with before seeing the movie. You can’t help but to think of Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times when you see this film. But while Chaplin had the benefit of a relatively mammoth budget compared to this short, Busy Bodies is predictably smaller in scope as it is in scale. The focus is much more on personal inadequacies rather th

In honor of one of the few American female filmmakers that regular people could name, I will be watching all of the works of Penny Marshall, who passed away in late 2018, for January 2019. 1990 was the year of Goodfellas vs. Dances with the Wolves at the Academy Awards, the latter winning apparently all the awards. Awakenings was also up for Best Picture. Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams) gets a job as a neurologist at a mental hospital in the Bronx, and, quite against his s

This year, I am going to try to get through the whole oeuvre of Nicolas Cage because my fascination with this man and his contradictions is endless. God help me. Valley Girl (1983) I definitely liked this movie more the second time around, mainly because I stopped focusing on the silly and, I still think, unconvincing romance at the center involving Deborah Foreman’s titular valley girl Julie and the punk from the wrong side of the tracks Randy played by the Cage (going by hi