Dedicated to movie nerdom, nostalgia, and the occasional escape. In the late 90s, I worked at Blockbuster Video, where they let me take home two free movies a day. I caught up on the classics and reviewed theatrical releases for Denver 'burbs newspapers and magazines. While raising two young, beautiful daughters with my amazing wife, I look forward to anything rated R and not Bluey. Comments and dialogue encouraged!
While attempting a chic perspective on progressive egotism and its hopeful resolve to humility, Challengers pleasures itself with unbridled Gen-Z horniness. The outcome is both refreshing and monotonous, like Luca Guadagnino's style-before-substance directing and superfluous timeline toying. There’s a sports movie in here too, but that mainly consists of flash cuts, closeups, and occasional lines... Continue Reading →
Theatrical movie releases at the beginning of the year are predictably rancid. Only a colossal sandworm can devour the memory of The Beekeeper, Mean Girls, and Argylle. Thankfully, that worm arrived on February 29 to represent the second part of Director Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of the Dune universe. And, like his first effort nearly three... Continue Reading →
I certainly had more favorite movies to choose from this year than last. I'm not sure if you will agree with me, but the quality, diversity, and creativity went up a level in 2023. Still, I’m well aware of a current transformation I’m experiencing as the eccentric, polemic indies I once adored now annoy me,... Continue Reading →
“But it’s good. It’s my life.” -Becky (Juliette Lewis) from What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) It’s good. It’s my list. It was an absolute joy reflecting on 50 formative movie favorites of mine, recalling who I saw them with, and realizing how much the 1980s complete me (fourteen titles from that whacky decade made my... Continue Reading →
I cherish my memory of seeing Amadeus (1984) for the first time with my dad when I was in the 6th grade. He would imitate Tom Hulce’s shriek of a laugh as I quickly put the second VHS tape in the VCR to continue watching the madness of a musical genius fall just as fast... Continue Reading →
The chronological journey goes like this: During the summer of 1999, I saw the teaser trailer to Magnolia at the Movie Tavern in Aurora, CO. This was the shorter, ambiguous trailer that featured a woman shooting a stray warning bullet through the apartment window, only to coincidentally hit a body that was falling past the... Continue Reading →
I am only 5 years old, running aimlessly around the neighborhood cul de sac like any 5-year-old would do. “Poltergeist is playing, Poltergeist is playing!” yells “Deedoo,” my next-door neighbor who is one year younger than me. I have no idea what “Poltergeist” is. Is it a TV show maybe having something to do with... Continue Reading →
In my lifetime as a Gen Xer, there are movies before Pulp Fiction, and there are movies after Pulp Fiction. I've always considered 1994 the year my passion for movie analysis began, and it’s all because of Pulp Fiction. There is no doubt Quentin Tarantino belongs to the Greatest American Film Directors Club, and Scorsese,... Continue Reading →
As a boy who grew up in 1980s America, Star Wars was included in my DNA. Some proof of my passion for the George Lucas-inspired space opera franchise can be found in my childhood sandbox where my middle brother and I buried all of our action figures. We didn’t know any better at the time... Continue Reading →
The original is not always the superior movie when compared to its successor. True, it introduced the characters arcs, motifs, and overall tone, but when given a second chance, the sequel is born out of cleaner execution, unexpected risks, and an added ethical dilemma for the viewer’s conscience. Take The Godfather: Part II (1974). Every... Continue Reading →
“I have you scheduled for 6pm. What name should I put it under?” "Bernie, like in Weekend at Bernie's." (Today, there is a 50/50 chance the person on the other line knows what I’m talking about. If they do, they always say, “Oh, I love that movie!” If they don't, there's always a good awkward... Continue Reading →
"There has been too much violence, too much pain. None here are without sin, but I have an honorable compromise. Just walk away. Leave the pump, the oil, the gasoline, and the whole compound, and I spare your lives. Just walk away. I will give you safe passage in the wasteland. Just walk away, and... Continue Reading →
I thought that maybe after marrying a wonderful wife who was raised on Disney and having two beautiful daughters who watch Bluey, my guilty pleasure allure to the mob life in Scorsese’s Goodfellas would temper down a bit. I thought wrong. Even today, after Ray Liotta says, “I always wanted to be a gangster,” and... Continue Reading →
Before the corniness of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, teeny-boppers of Twilight, The Lost Boys of the ‘80s, sexy interviews with Tom and Brad, and the cliché of Dracula himself, there was an insufferable, disease-bearing beast that crept through the dark forests of the Carpathian Mountains. The Romanians of the late 19th century called him Nosferatu,... Continue Reading →
To me, no other movie portrays, captures, embraces, forgives, and, most importantly, empathizes a human being more than Ed Harris’s auteuristic gift in Pollock. I have seen the film from its birth in the theatre in 2000 up to 15 more times, and I am still in awe at how much it continues to be... Continue Reading →
Otis? Did you even read the book? Yes... no. Kicking and Screaming (1995) is a brainy indie flick from the 90s that places wit above rom-com and Gen X-subject chatter before semblance of plot. Calling it a “talky” François Truffaut-influenced study of yuppy slackerdom is fair, but dismissing the likability of each character isn’t humane.... Continue Reading →
Jaws (1975), Alien (1979), and Rosemary’s Baby (1968) are so mind-numbingly effective because we, the audience, never get to see the very thing causing the horror until the end. Our own minds do the wandering and second-guessing, and once the suspense reaches a breaking point—BAM!—you’re gonna need a bigger boat, the alien ends up having... Continue Reading →
With some of my favorite movies, I don't quite know what I'm watching when I first see them. I first saw Fargo in 1996 via HBO channel at a hotel with my parents while scoping out Gonzaga University for my future college. We laughed at Frances McDormand's “yah, you betchas” and cringed at pathetically nervous... Continue Reading →
There are the extraordinary off-screen credentials of Orson Welles as co-writer, producer, director, and star at the ripe age of 25. Then, there is the on-screen execution of cinematic artistry that trailblazed everything we use today: matte cutting, boom mic sound, mise en scène, chroma key layering, pristine cinematography, MacGuffin, flashback sequence, wide-angle/deep focus lenses,... Continue Reading →
I’m a sucker for the found footage horror genre. Yes, there were prototypes and hybrids before 1999, but the origin of the now exploited device started with a witch in the woods caught on tape. (Or, was she?) I was privileged to be in one of the first audiences for the premiere of The Blair... Continue Reading →
A message in a bottle from 1966 washed ashore on today’s comedic beat. Yes, Africa is noted as “primitive,” and social norms are run on 1960s glib, but there is viable respect here—respect for the beaches (which may be non-existent today), the indigenous people, and the ocean. This is a typical point-and-shoot documentary, but with... Continue Reading →
For me, Back to the Future (1985) is more innate than nostalgic. The audible memory recall is crystal clear: Hello? Hello? Anybody home? Huh? Are you telling me that you built a time machine... out of a DeLorean? Even the car horn and gas station dings that match the beat to "Mr. Sandman" upon Marty... Continue Reading →
For twelve years, you've been living on borrowed time and trapped in another man’s memories. Freshman year (1997) at Gonzaga University and a visit to Videoland on Hamilton Street brought me to the black VHS cover box to a movie I had never heard of. Robert De Niro was in it and some actor name... Continue Reading →
What if the guise and artistic direction of a movie was entirely dependent on the face of its lead actress? Stripped down to its most minimalistic form, that is The Passion of Joan of Arc. And, with each long-held close-up of Renée Jeanne Falconetti's face as she portrays Joan in agony, you do not need... Continue Reading →
With the crisp coolness of fall in the air, I figured it was time to dig out my Goonies CD. (Not the amazing soundtrack with Cyndi Lauper, mind you, but the Dave Grusin film score.) Without a doubt, the “Fratelli Chase” scene is the most inspiring, uplifting film motif of my life. (You have heard... Continue Reading →
Choose your future. Choose life. But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin' else. ‘70s pop, Iggy pop, and Britpop are what the lust for life sounds like while heroin is playing in the background. There is an impalpable sense of contradistinction in... Continue Reading →
In one corner, you have the defending champion, Billy Mitchell, a restauranteur who sports a mullet so grotesque, the 80s feel shame. In the other corner, you have an out-of-work engineer, Steve Wiebe, who has likable underdog written all over his face. The competition? Nothing else but achieving the high score record for the 1981... Continue Reading →
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) perfected the adventure movie and broke new ground on the relic hunting culture we see on our screens today. Let’s face it: Without Raiders, there would be no Dora the Explorer, National Treasure, Nathan Drake, or even Animal Crossing! The hunt for the holy relic is in our blood,... Continue Reading →
When I was a little kid, my mom made it a tradition to watch movies with a blanket on the carpet near the coffee table to emulate a “picnic” setting in front of the tv screen. Today, as a new dad, I realize it was a brilliant, multi-purpose move for comfortable viewing and a simple... Continue Reading →
25 down, 25 to go. It has been an absolute joy reflecting on the formulative movies of my life and the people I saw them with. To be honest, I have found it impossible to keep my list from evolving as I gradually release it one movie at a time. There are just too many... Continue Reading →
Following the lead of the greatest crime documentary ever made—Errol Morris’s The Thin Blue Line (1988)—the Paradise Lost trilogy dove so deep in its murder investigation of three wrongfully accused, nonconformist boys that it helped free them from prison and bring to light the corruption of forced confessions, the awareness of mental illness, and a... Continue Reading →
Film School 101. Alfred Hitchcock’s pièce de résistance. The Bates Motel. The shower scene. The shrieking strings in Bernard Herrmann's score. The Hershey’s chocolate syrup used for the blood. Norman Bates as the most terrifying mama’s boy. The iconic shot. Psycho is the black-and-white classic we turn to for horror movie reference without realizing it’s... Continue Reading →
Some of the movies on my list represent time capsules in my life. During my most vulnerable and insecure years in late high school through the beginning of college, Swingers became my remedy for the pain after a breakup with a girlfriend, or when I needed that cheering up Mikey gets from his buddies in... Continue Reading →
If you could blend the macho machismo of Commando (1985) with the Austrian accented one-liners of Predator (1987) and dab on top the sci-fi action of Total Recall (1990), you’d get the amalgamation of Arnold Schwarzenegger and all the magical ingredients it took to create his role in the baddest movie sequel ever made. All... Continue Reading →
At first, all we see are blurred images and sporadic darkness. Then, we realize we are looking through the eye of a man who is coming out of a coma. We hear his thoughts, vaguely see the frantic doctors and nurses observing him, and realize that he (we) cannot speak. We cannot move. This first-person... Continue Reading →
No time like the present, man. I remember when my high school buddy asked me, "Do you want to see a movie where all they do is talk?" It was my sophomore year, and such a question intrigued me because I've always had an inclination toward minimalism in movies. With a fair share of campy... Continue Reading →
Not the original, mind you. I always thought the mother culprit twist at the end was anticlimactic and cheap. I preferred my “bad guy” to be Jason Voorhees, and Part 2 had Jason (impossibly but movie-plausibly) hiding out in the woods, wearing a burlap sack over his gross, deformed face. The hockey mask didn’t come... Continue Reading →
I remember the first time I saw a movie set in a place that was obviously not America. I was just a little tyke when my mom popped A Hard Day’s Night into the VCR, and I saw motor vehicles half the size of ours, policemen wearing big, black Bobby helmets, and a humble looking... Continue Reading →
I still remember seeing the trailer with my dad at the now gone Southbridge Theatre in Littleton, Colorado. A man with long, intimidating scissors for hands is welcomed into a neighborhood, falls in love with Winona Ryder, and tries not to slice the locals during the introductory handshake. After the preview, my dad was quick... Continue Reading →
Oh, what a big hug of a movie. I cry at the end every time as Randy Newman’s warm-hearted score also sobs in the background. Here is a dramedy portrayal of your typical (meaning: dysfunctional) American family that covers the gamut in household wins and losses: supportive marriage, anxiety disorder, love at first sight, premarital... Continue Reading →
Commendably rising above biopic banality and staying true to trademark nonlinearity tendencies, Writer/Director Christopher Nolan is only missing Hans Zimmer and an intermission. By alternating between black-and-white objective and the subjective in color, we experience a JFK-like injunction in which viewer interpretation is just as captivating as the controversial focus. In this case, we’re talking... Continue Reading →
If you run, the beast catches you; if you stay, the beast eats you. City of God is a jaw-dropping study of an entirely different category of violence than what we might see in a Scorsese or Tarantino film. Calling it gang violence is too soft; socio-economic violence, too safe. This is honor violence. And,... Continue Reading →
Never have I been so deep-seated in a journey through the shrapnel-infested bloodshed of war and my theatre chair at the same time. I blame it all on the camera work. As British soldiers Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) and Schofield (George MacKay) deliver a message to higher authority to end an invasion against a retreating German... Continue Reading →
No director can get inside your head like Darren Aronofsky. He pushes his actors and actresses to physical and psychological extremes and challenges his viewers to accept both the real and the imaginary as truths. In Black Swan, Natalie Portman threw all self-preservation to the wind, trained for 8 hours a day, 6 days a... Continue Reading →
Would you tell Picasso to sell his guitars?! Love him or hate him, Jack Black exudes a ferocious passion for rock music that is so infectious, it’ll make your grandma pick up a guitar and shred. Put him up in front of a classroom of fifth graders, and it’s just too easy—like kids in a... Continue Reading →
I have seen Groundhog Day (1993) over a dozen of times and each viewing has never felt like Groundhog Day. Despite its premise about a day that repeats itself thousands of times from Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You Babe” at 6:00am to the next flip clock rotation 24 hours later, Groundhog Day remains innovative... Continue Reading →
For me, all of David Lynch’s oddities offer an evocative perspective on the American dream turned nightmare, the ‘burbs behind locked doors, and the mystery of rabbits. None of it makes sense narratively or chronologically, and Lynch is notorious for not providing explanations. Yet, if you dig his noirish style and peeping tom pace, the... Continue Reading →
In a capsule review, this is an immaculate novel-to-screen adaptation, breathing life through portraits made out of shots, spontaneity made out of performances, and a score made out of melancholy. Its only flaw is found in an overabundance of voiceovers—a redundancy, given the visual spell of talented Director Barry Jenkins of Moonlight (2016). However, I... Continue Reading →
Even though I adore a classic like The Wizard of Oz (1939) or The Sound of Music (1965), commend Les Miserables (2012) for its groundbreaking technical achievements, and praise postmodern movie musical revivals like The Phantom of the Opera (2004) or Rent (2005), I have probably seen The Greatest Showman more than any of these... Continue Reading →
Something must be said about the over-the-top goofy dad. That’s my dad. And, he kind of looked like Chevy Chase back in the 80s. Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold possesses an unrestrained enthusiasm for his family and their road trip to Wally World—a fictional adventure park that supposedly brings solutions to parental challenges and reward... Continue Reading →
Reely Bernie 