Stars and stuff on the silver screen.
Each year at this time, the Grady McPhailey Foundation releases a list of the annual recipients of the McPhailey Foundation Scholarship Grant, popularly known as the ‘Grady Train’. Mr. McPhailey, heir to the McPhailey Ear Shortener fortune, spent his 72 years on Earth attempting to be a poet. Although he …
LARGEST FINANCIAL COMPENSATIONS I HAVE RECEIVED FOR WRITING THIS BLOG 1. $280,750 from Henry Kissinger: for keeping my mouth shut 2. $55,000 from Paragon Electrical Sex-Novelties of Daegu, South Korea: for dropping the lawsuit 3. $1,000 per week for the duration of the blog from Raymond “Benzino” Scott: for continuing …
Charles Mingus is wrong, you see. Mingus is the first (and the greatest, though he’ll have some stiff competition) jazz musician we see, idly coaxing some low mournful notes out of his upright bass in the spacious London loft of jazz aficionado Rod Hamilton (played with maximum glad-handing by Richard …
Recently, a number of seemingly unconnected cultural conversations took place which seemed to me to have a common thread running through them. While I don’t necessarily think they add up to any grand indictment of the Way We Live Today (I’m always distrustful of anyone who cherry-picks a few isolated …
Of the 100 films that have made the most money in the United States over the last decade – almost all of which have made more than $200 million — the protagonists and their primary relationships are as follows. – A young wizard and his magical friends (x6). – A …
ALTERNATE INSTITUTIONS SEN. JOSEPH McCARTHY HAD CONSIDERED CLAIMING WERE HEAVILY INFILTRATED BY COMMUNISTS BEFORE SETTLING ON THE ARMY, THE STATE DEPARTMENT AND HOLLYWOOD 1. The National Forest Service 2. Ventriloquists 3. The cement industry 4. The Idaho Department of Weights & Measures 5. Bozeman, MT LITTLE-KNOWN ROMAN GODS 1. Capitata …
Ever since the dark days of the Second World War, the controversial figure of Adolf Hitler has been a rich vein of Hollywood portrayal. While the judgment of history on this remarkable man — misunderstood genius? political visionary? overly effective patriot? — is still pending, it cannot be denied that …
The recent death of Dennis Farina led me to watch Michael Mann’s Manhunter for the first time in years, and from thence Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs. Thanks to time, tide, and certain mores of the Internet Age, the former is now often trumpeted as the truly great Hannibal Lecter …
“Your hair is very nitid by the candlelight, Rebecca Moraine.” “Uh…thank you.” “Did you know that your surname indicates an accumulation of earth and stones carried and finally deposited by a glacier?” “No. It’s French, I think.” “Are you enjoying your crustacean meal?” “Not really.” “What is the matter? Has …
“You can’t tell me this shit can’t get done without people beatin’ on each other, killin’ each other, doin’ each other like dogs — and without all that, you ain’t got Five-0 down here on our backs every five minutes, throwin’ us around and shit. You think Five-0 care about …
The first of an occasional series of posts about crime, both in its real-world manifestations and its portrayal in popular culture. The title of the series comes from the great 1950 noir The Asphalt Jungle, in which the moneyman Roland Emmerich describes crime as “a left-handed form of human endeavor”. *** …
Regular readers of this site — hey, you three! — will know that I regularly feature long-form film criticism of movies both old and new. You may not know, however, that I see about ten movies for every one I write about, and time simply doesn’t permit, nor quality …
Sofia Coppola, after an initial period of wunderkind delight, seems to have settled into the role of a director that people want to like more than they actually like her. She followed up the very good The Virgin Suicides with the great Lost in Translation, but that was chased by the problematic Marie Antoinette …
Dealing with the death of famous people is an emotionally thorny proposition. No matter how much you might have cared for their work, you didn’t really know them, and it seems almost intrusive to mourn them the way you would a friend or a family member. And, of course, death comes …
For someone who loves crime drama, downbeat ’70s cinema, and stories of doomed losers as much as I do, it took me an inexplicably long time to get around to seeing Peter Yates’ foundational tale of a bottom-feeding Boston mob hanger-on. The Friends of Eddie Coyle never seemed to crop …
