Great Movies
MZS
Roger Corman's Greatest Legacy Was Giving So Many People Their Big Break
A brief (yet still incredibly long) list of people who were given their first big break in the film business by the late Roger Corman.
A brief (yet still incredibly long) list of people who were given their first big break in the film business by the late Roger Corman.
On the use of music in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets, which just turned 50.
A brief look at next month's Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, including a tribute to Russell Crowe.
A review of "Backdraft," the first film this critic ever reviewed professionally.
The latest and greatest on Blu-ray and DVD, including Tenet, The Irishman, Possessor, The Dark and the Wicked, and special edition releases of Total Recall, The Lord of the Rings, and Tremors.
A great movie star and versatile actor, the once and future Bond was also an icon of primordial masculinity, for better and worse.
Far Flung Correspondent Gerardo Valero reviews Martin Scorsese's "The Irishman."
An overview of twelve films in the 2019 Venice Film Festival that get my thumbs-up vote.
A brief consideration of "Taxi Driver," still Scorsese's masterpiece.
A piece about The Alloy Orchestra in light of their Ebertfest presentation of "The Son of the Sheik".
An appreciation of the actor's perseverance through age 63 despite depression.
An interview with Nicolas Winding Refn, director of "Valhalla Rising," "Drive" and "Only God Forgives," among other films. Simon Abrams talks to the filmmaker about midnight movies, meeting Alejandro Jodorowsky, and the possibility that he might day make a Wonder Woman movie.
Dedicated to memories of Roger Ebert, for the simple reason that talking about movies is so thrilling. He did not like lists, but I love his lists.
I'm fairly certain most Martin Scorsese fans prefer his Robert DeNiro period to the current one with Leonardo DiCaprio. The later entries may include the film that won him the Academy Award for Best Picture ("The Departed") and they've surely displayed signs of greatness, but I don't think any of them can be discussed as pinnacle achievements like his earlier ones.
The key strength of David O. Russell's "Silver Linings Playbook" (2012) is that the acting is so strong that we forget we are watching the movie. In those moments that the plot guides us, it takes us in some directions familiar, some directions frightening, and some directions fun. In a year that has given us a compassionate story about addiction in "Flight," we also have this equally tender film about mental illness. I want to see this movie again, if at least because it is so happy, even though it did not have to be.
