Before Jason Voorhees of the Friday the 13th series and Freddy Krueger of the Nightmare on Elm Street entries, Halloween’s Michael Myers epitomized the American slasher film and haunted the autumn leaf-covered suburbs with that silly but terrifying Captain Kirk mask. “Slasher” might be an impertinent descriptor, however. Yes, there is a lot of slashing... Continue Reading →
Back to the Movie Theatre: Back to the Future
Back to the movie theatre, back to the popcorn (we ended up just getting Twizzlers to be safe), back to the big screen in the dark, and Back to the Future. For me, Back to the Future (1985) is more innate than nostalgic, but nothing beats watching it in the most nostalgic of places. I’m... Continue Reading →
Rear Window (1954): A Timely Feature
Quarantine. Lockdown. Shelter in place. No one would have guessed such dystopian, sci-fi concepts would become a reality for the last three months of our lives. L.B. “Jeff” Jefferies could empathize. He broke his leg and has been wheelchair-ridden in his small, quaint New York City apartment for six weeks. The once renowned freelance photojournalist... Continue Reading →
Flashback: Fargo (1996)
There’s a twisted part of me that recognizes Fargo (1996) as a comedy. I don’t think the Coen Brothers would contest this. In fact, I think they were going for comedy all along. Internet Movie Database (imdb.com) and Letterboxd have Fargo labeled under the genres of Drama, Crime, and Thriller. But, when I first... Continue Reading →
Flashback: Interstellar (2014)
Nothing can ever replace my experience of seeing Interstellar for the first time in the theatre. The perplexities of time warp in galaxial black holes, Hans Zimmer’s glorious pipe organ-centered score, and the state-of-the-art cinematography both on a dust bowl dying Earth and a gravity defying galaxy were truly extraordinary encounters embedded forever in my... Continue Reading →
Magnolia: How do you make God laugh?
As much as I want to discuss the ending to Magnolia, I am also ecstatic for the human being who has yet to see this remarkable film (and that extraordinary ending). I promise I am not giving anything away when I say that the ending has a lot to do with what is happening to... Continue Reading →
1917 Breaks Ground on the War Epic
1917 is a miracle in filmmaking. 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. The camera puts you right there. As British soldiers Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) and Schofield (George MacKay) deliver a... Continue Reading →
Best Second Movies in a Series
se – quel noun a published, broadcast, or recorded work that continues the story or develops the theme of an earlier one. Okay, so technically, Return of the Jedi (1983), The Godfather: Part III (1990), and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), are all “sequels.” Well, this blog post is... Continue Reading →
Poltergeist: My First Horror
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’s one year younger than me. I have no idea what “Poltergeist” is. Is it a tv show maybe having something to do with Star Wars because... Continue Reading →