Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy

NEW AND NOTABLE BOOKS NOVEMBER 2024

Books November 11, 2024

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ZEPPO: THE RELUCTANT MARX BROTHER by Robert S. Bader (Applause) This is a revelatory book, achieved through painstaking research (see: Four of the Three Musketeers: The Marx Brothers on Stage by the same author) and the participation of Zeppo Marx’s two sons and other family members and friends who were close to him. Getting close to Zeppo was no easy task, as we quickly learn. The youngest of the celebrated Marx Brothers, he was shoehorned into their vaudeville act against his will, put on salary instead of earning a share of their ever-rising salary and given thankless roles in their first five movies. After deciding to leave the act in 1934 he determined not only to make good but to outdo his siblings in every way—especially when…

BOGART: LIFE COMES IN FLASHES

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews November 11, 2024

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My all time favorite film is Casablanca, so it shouldn’t come as a complete surprise that my favorite actor from Hollywood’s golden age is Humphrey Bogart. A new feature length documentary is about to debut called Bogart: Life comes in Flashes and while it has no startling revelations it does view him through a different lens than usual: the women in his life, beginning with his domineering mother, the highly successful illustrator Maud Humphrey and continuing through his marriages to actresses Helen Menken, Mary Philips and the fractious Mayo Methot. His personality and worldview were at least in part a reflection of these women. He only found true satisfaction and happiness with his fourth and last wife, Lauren Bacall, who was unworldly and twenty-five years…

‘CONCLAVE’ IS GRIPPING

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews October 27, 2024

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The election of a new pope is one of the world’s most recognizable rituals. Conclave spins its tale with confidence because director Edward Berger and screenwriter Peter Straughan (adapting Robert Harris’s novel) know that we in the world outside the Vatican don’t have a clue as to what conversations go on before we see white smoke rise into the air. Can it be that the men in the college of cardinals are just human beings, subject to fits of jealousy and spite like the rest of us mere mortals? Conclave responds with a resounding “yes” and weaves its serpentine story with vivid character portraits enacted by the likes of Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and (in a minor but welcome supporting role) Isabella Rossellini. The narrative, with elements…

NEW ON DVD/BLU-RAY/4K DVD IN OCTOBER

Blu-Ray/DVD October 27, 2024

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The following article was written by my friend and colleague Alonso Duralde. You can learn more about him HERE. NEW ON DVD/BLU-RAY/4K DVD IN OCTOBER: ROBOT DREAMS, ABOUT DRY GRASSES, TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE, AND MORE! NEW RELEASE WALL Robot Dreams (Decal Neon): This Oscar-nominated animated feature makes for a delightful watch for the whole family, although different generations will come away with their own takes – for kids, it’s a charming tale of a lonely dog who befriends a robot, and of how their relationship changes over the years. Adult viewers, however, are likely to be left sobbing by this tale of a close bond and how it weathers (and doesn’t weather) changes over the years, and how every relationship changes us, breaks us, and…

ANORA: THE LATEST FROM SEAN BAKER

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews October 19, 2024

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Sean Baker is one of the brightest and most original filmmakers of his generation. He rates a place in cinematic history for being the first professional to shoot a feature film on an iPhone. That was Tangerine, which was set in and around a Hollywood donut shop. He is fascinated by people who live and sometimes thrive on the fringes of society, well apart from the mainstream. But he doesn’t judge his characters and challenges us to remain open-minded, too. Anora which earned him the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, opens in the midst of a hectic Brooklyn strip club, where a free-roaming camera follows one of its high-energy dancers (“call me Ani”) played by Mikey Madison. In the course of several minutes we…

THE OBLONG BOX

A Bit Of Crumpet October 19, 2024

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Leonard here. The following column is written by my colleague Mark Searby highlighting British cinema past and present. Please enjoy A Bit of Crumpet. Any horror film that brings together icons such as Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Gordon Hessler and Edgar Allen Poe should immediately pique the interest of fans of classic horror movies. Yet The Oblong Box seems to have passed under the radar for many decades since its release in 1969. How can a story about a British aristocrat who locked his disfigured brother away in a tower, only for him to escape and cause havoc in the local town at night be something that hasn’t shown up on horror fans film lists? The simple answer is that while it has some heavyweights in-front…

HIDDEN CITY

A Bit Of Crumpet October 19, 2024

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Leonard here. The following column is written by my colleague Mark Searby highlighting British cinema past and present. Please enjoy A Bit of Crumpet. A name synonymous with premium quality British TV dramas is Stephen Poliakoff. Close My Eyes, Perfect Strangers and Dancing on the Edge are just three of Poliakoff’s much lauded work for British television. Prior to writing for TV, Poliakoff had been crafting stage plays for some of the most legendary London theatres. But by the late 1980s he still had not ventured into feature films except for a one-off of writing Runners (a limited theatrical release in 1983 before being broadcast on Channel 4). Hidden City, filmed in ’87 and released a year later with the same fate as Runners (a limited theatrical…