James Garner's recent death left me thinking about some of my favorite films starring the low-key star. And one title, rarely mentioned today, leaped up immediately: Support Your Local Sheriff. That title pretty much guarantees that the movie would be forgotten. A topical joke in 1969 (a popular conservative bumper sticker of the day read … Continue reading James Garner and Some Forgotten Western Laughs
Category: Comedy
Rediscovering The Big Lebowski
I saw The Big Lebowski at the Pacific Film Archive Wednesday night--my first time seeing the cult favorite with an audience. Now I get it. I may be the last person to realize this, but on the big screen, with a room full of people, Lebowski is an exceptional comedy. The laughs are nearly constant. … Continue reading Rediscovering The Big Lebowski
A Classic Comedy and a Colombian Thriller: Sunday at the San Francisco International Film Festival
This year's San Francisco International Film Festival is beginning to wind down. Sunday was the last non-workday of the festival. I attended two events, and hit the jackpot both times. The Mel Novikoff Award Ceremony and The Lady Eve More than anyone else, Mel Novikoff helped bring repertory cinema to the Bay Area. The SFIFF's … Continue reading A Classic Comedy and a Colombian Thriller: Sunday at the San Francisco International Film Festival
Comedy and Popularity: Harold Lloyd’s The Freshman on Blu-ray
It might be possible to watch Harold Lloyd's 1925 masterpiece, The Freshman, without laughing, or without hoping that the protagonist will win the popularity he so deeply wants. But it wouldn't be easy. Every shot in this film is brilliantly designed to make you either laugh or care--or both. Lloyd's "glasses" character truly came into … Continue reading Comedy and Popularity: Harold Lloyd’s The Freshman on Blu-ray
The Producers & Take the Money and Run at the PFA
Friday night I saw a disappointing print of a great movie, and a great print of a disappointing movie. Guess what! I'd rather see a great movie than a great print. I attended a double bill of late 60's comedies by first-time American directors, both of whom would become major filmmakers--Mel Brooks and Woody Allen. … Continue reading The Producers & Take the Money and Run at the PFA
Duck Soup Revisited
I watched Duck Soup Sunday at the Pacific Film Archive. Great fun. I don't remember when I saw it last on a big screen with a real audience. Certainly more than 20 years ago. That's all very odd, because I just may have seen Duck Soup theatrically more often than any other movie. I first … Continue reading Duck Soup Revisited
Chaplin at the Castro: My Report on a Wonderful Day
On January 11, 1914, a Keystone movie crew drove to Venice--a beach town near Los Angeles--to improvise a comedy around an actual event of modest interest. Only one performer came with the crew--a young British Music Hall comedian recently signed with Keystone. The comic, Charlie Chaplin, quickly put together a costume and makeup, and created … Continue reading Chaplin at the Castro: My Report on a Wonderful Day
Music, Fame, and American Insanity: My Blu-ray review of Robert Altman’s Nashville
For an all-too-brief time in the 1970s, the Hollywood studios financed and released serious art. They greenlit films without likeable heroes, clearly-defined villains, or conventional, three-act plots. They even financed Robert Altman, who did his best work during that time. And Nashville was unquestionably one of his best. It's tragic, funny, thoughtful, and filled with … Continue reading Music, Fame, and American Insanity: My Blu-ray review of Robert Altman’s Nashville
Comic Perfection: My Blu-ray Review of City Lights
A great comedy seamlessly mixes a good story, an intelligent observation on the human condition, and a lot of laughs. Everything works together, and only on the third or fourth viewing do you become aware of how the filmmakers balanced all these ingredients, so that the gags and the emotional reality compliment each other instead … Continue reading Comic Perfection: My Blu-ray Review of City Lights
My Thoughts on Fargo
Saturday night, my wife and I showed Fargo to another couple. About half an hour in, immediately after the first set of grisly murders, one of our guests asked "Why are we watching this?" After it was over, she asked us why we thought it was a great film. I never thought I'd have to … Continue reading My Thoughts on Fargo
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