LUBITSCH-LIKE: A NINETY-YEAR OLD DISCOVERY
When I was a freshman at NYU the Museum of Modern Art held an Ernst Lubitsch retrospective. Every day after classes I took the subway uptown in time to catch the 5:30 pm show, and every day I left…
REMEMBERING SIDNEY POITIER
Sidney Poitier’s milestone achievements are so numerous they scarcely need repeating here. But I would like to pass along a personal reminiscence. Meeting The Man for the first time made a deep impression on my wife and me. His…
THE HAND OF GOD: AN INSPIRED IMPORT
Paolo Sorrentino has made some exceptional films, including ‘Il Divo’ and ‘The Great Beauty’ (my favorite) but he says it took twenty years—and the courage he derived from watching Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma—to tell his own coming-of-age story in The…
REMEMBERING PETER BOGDANOVICH
Anyone who loves movies, and movie history, owes a giant debt of thanks to Peter Bogdanovich for interviewing, chronicling, and bearing witness to so many veterans of Hollywood’s golden age. Listening to the audio version of his fascinating book This…
JOCKEY: BETTING ON CLIFTON COLLINS, JR.
Many character actors never land a leading role, despite having proven themselves in film after film (from The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit to Traffic and Capote). Clifton Collins, Jr. has been handed a golden opportunity in Jockey by director Clint Bentley and his co-screenwriter Greg Kwedar.…
BETTY WHITE WAS A LIVING LINK TO BUSTER KEATON
Like millions of others, I am mourning the passing of actress, animal activist and all-round purveyor of good cheer Betty White. Yes, I can verify that she was as nice in person as she seemed to be on television.…
LICORICE PIZZA: VALLEY HIGH
Paul Thomas Anderson grew up in the suburban L.A. sprawl known as the San Fernando Valley and has set several of his films there (notably Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Punch Drunk Love). His latest is a flashback to 1973, a kaleidoscopic series…
