I just re-watched Never Cry Wolf the other week, so Brian Dennehy’s ability to fully inhabit characters was fresh in my mind. Sadly, Brian Dennehy has passed away at the age of 81. One of the nice things about his work was that his characters were perfectly at ease with who they were, be it an alien, a corrupt sheriff, or entrepreneurial pilot. If he turned out to be a villain, his character would metaphorically…
A towering presence in cinema –literal and figurative– has died. Max von Sydow, an actor we’ve seen on screens since the 1950s, has died at the age of 90. You can read (and listen) to accounts in the BBC, Variety, and NPR among many others. What struck many of us moviegoers was the wide range of parts he would play… and could play with such quiet conviction. Here is a man who played the Son…
Back on March 1st, 2015, I re-entered the web world with a personal website, something I really hadn’t had since the 90s, which in Internet terms is ancient history. Perhaps because March 1st doesn’t correspond with any other anniversaries in my life, I keep on meaning to do an annual retrospective about posts and such on the blog, but keep on forgetting. This year, however, I made sure to set a reminder for myself. As…
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) does a wonderful remembrance of the film artists we lost in the past year. I’ve mentioned it before, but it always makes me wistful and reminds me to rewatch a movie or three. I thought this year’s was especially good, perhaps because of the many quotes from the people they used. Check it out when you’re ready to be verklempt.
I finished up my rewatch of seasons 1-3 of The Expanse this past weekend and it was just as good the second time. If you don’t know this hard sci-fi series, the original trailer isn’t a bad way to gauge whether you’re interested or not: There is a running theory that SyFy will cancel any series you love, like Lucy pulling away the football from Charlie Brown. SyFy did not disappoint, even as The Expanse…
Modern fandom is a tricky thing. Geek culture is ascendant in so many ways, often in service of mining intellectual property (IP) to find that latest multi-billion dollar franchise. And corporations appear so risk averse towards the potential market downside of new ideas that they will bet on IP, any IP, over people. At least, based on what I read in trade news about how studios are hungry for any known quantity, my premise is…
This past weekend, there were numerous celebrations and commemorations of the Apollo 11 moon landing. I was lucky enough to be able to go to the National Mall where they had a special presentation –including a projection onto the Washington Monument itself– celebrating the achievement. I posted on social media then that no video or pictures could do it justice (and for people to try and make it to the later showings that night or…
It feels like it’s been too long, but really, it’s only been two years since my last 50 Favorite Films. This is my biennial tradition that, honestly, I’ve been doing offline for about 30 years, but now is available for online navel gazing. You can check out the 2012, 2014, and 2016 editions should you care to. For those who are interesting in how I sort films based on criteria of quality, watchability, and personal…
I mean, yes, they’re biased, but 20th Century Fox knows their back catalog of movies and they know Die Hard is a Christmas movie. Behold! Admit it, you’ll watch this before you break open the myrrh.
The holiday season is upon us and, since it’s an even year, it’s almost time for the biennial ranking of my 50 Favorite Films. For those of you obsessed with processes or those of you waiting for an appointment and have exhausted old magazines in a waiting room, read on! I’m a lifelong movie buff and have watched literally thousands of movies. Not all of them are good. Some of the good films are, nonetheless,…