A few months ago, I realized that I'd seen all but five Best Picture Oscar winners - three of them from the 1930s. So I set out to see all five. I saw Mrs. Miniver and Cimarron in FilmStruck's last weeks. Thanks to Netflix DVD, I recently saw the last two Oscar winners of the … Continue reading Movies I’ve Recently Seen: Logan, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Great Ziegfeld, Cavalcade
Category: Recently Seen
Movies I’ve Recently Seen: Ben is Back, Stalag 17, Vox Lux, The World Is Not Enough, Ready Player One
Another five movies I've seen since my last list, in order of quality: A Ben is Back (2018), Shattuck, one of their tiny, lousy theaters This excellent drama about drug addiction turns into a crime thriller, and amazingly, despite the change in tone, it works. A nice, small-town family has its Christmas plans blown when the … Continue reading Movies I’ve Recently Seen: Ben is Back, Stalag 17, Vox Lux, The World Is Not Enough, Ready Player One
Movies I’ve Recently Seen:A Star is Born, Crazy Rich Asians, Don’t Look Now, Mary Queen of Scots & 20th Century Women
Merry Christmas for those who celebrate it. Here are four films I've seen in the last week. A A Star is Born (2018), Elmwood downstairs The same old tragedy still carries that emotional punch. The man, a major star but an alcoholic, falls in love with a talented nobody. As his career self-implodes, his lover's fame … Continue reading Movies I’ve Recently Seen:A Star is Born, Crazy Rich Asians, Don’t Look Now, Mary Queen of Scots & 20th Century Women
Movies I’ve Recently Seen: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shoplifters, Green Book, & The Favourite
After all that FilmStruck binge watching, it was time to get back into movie theaters. A A Midsummer Night's Dream (1959), BAMPFA It's amazing how deeply puppets can emote, even with fixed, painted faces. It takes a great artist to those dolls into life, and the Czech animator Jirí Trnka fits the bill. His work here … Continue reading Movies I’ve Recently Seen: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shoplifters, Green Book, & The Favourite
Movies I’ve Recently Seen: More FilmStruck binge watching
With Thanksgiving finished, I had a chance to watch more movies before FilmStruck goes away. Only three more days left in the best streaming service ever. A Being There (1979), FilmStruck Peter Sellers gave the best performance of his life as Chance, the Gardener (AKA Chauncey Gardner), a mentally deficient TV addict who knows only about … Continue reading Movies I’ve Recently Seen: More FilmStruck binge watching
Movies I’ve Seen Recently: Lolita, A story from Chikamatsu, Cluny Brown, & The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Here are four more movies I've recently discovered or rediscovered. A Lolita (1962), FilmStruck I'm not sure if Kubrick's take on Nabokov is a very funny tragedy or a very sad comedy, but it's certainly about reprehensible people. James Mason carries the tragic vibe as the intellectual obsessed with a teenage girl but who cares only for himself. … Continue reading Movies I’ve Seen Recently: Lolita, A story from Chikamatsu, Cluny Brown, & The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Movies I’ve Recently Seen: FilmStruck binge watching
I'm not much of binge watcher (except in film festivals), but with FilmStruck closing in a little more than two weeks, I'm been watching a lot. A- The Lion in Winter (1968), FilmStruck An aging King Henry II (Peter O'Toole) has a very difficult Christmas with his bickering family in this medieval, humor-laced drama. Why … Continue reading Movies I’ve Recently Seen: FilmStruck binge watching
Movies I’ve Recently Seen: Mrs. Miniver, First Man, 9 to 5, & The Goldwyn Follies
Here are four more movies I've seen recently that don't fit into any other articles I've written. B+ Mrs. Miniver (1942), Filmstruck William Wyler's first Best Picture winner celebrates the British stiff upper lip during the early months of World War II. These are the sort of people who enjoy a flower show with death all … Continue reading Movies I’ve Recently Seen: Mrs. Miniver, First Man, 9 to 5, & The Goldwyn Follies
Movies I’ve Recently Seen: Searching, Desperately Seeking Susan, Heaven Can Wait, & Mr. Blandings’ Dream House
Four more movies that I saw simply because I wanted to see them (or revisit them): A- Searching (2018), Shattuck Yes, it's a gimmick, but it works. The entire film is played on screens within the story: computers, smartphones, television news, with people captured on the many cameras around them. The plot is a basic mystery … Continue reading Movies I’ve Recently Seen: Searching, Desperately Seeking Susan, Heaven Can Wait, & Mr. Blandings’ Dream House
Movies I’ve Recently Seen: BlacKkKlansman, Blindspotting, 49th Parallel, & Dark Victory
My current collection includes one film from Oakland which I saw in Canada, and one about Canada I saw at home in the East Bay. A BlacKkKlansman (2018), California Theatre (Berkeley) Until the very end, this is the most conventional Spike Lee Joint I've seen. But the normal approach was the right one for this very … Continue reading Movies I’ve Recently Seen: BlacKkKlansman, Blindspotting, 49th Parallel, & Dark Victory
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