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MEG RYAN DOES DOUBLE DUTY IN ‘ITHACA’

Film In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
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For her feature-film directing debut actress Meg Ryan has chosen a nearly sure-fire piece of material: William Saroyan’s The Human Comedy, a coming-of-age story set in a small town during World War II. It’s a sincere if unremarkable rendering that wisely sticks to the middle of the road. In order to enjoy it I had to try to erase my memories of the 1943 version directed by Clarence Brown, which wasn’t easy…but on its own terms, Ithaca is a creditable piece of work for Ryan as director and costar.     Newcomer Alex Neustaedter plays teenage Homer Macauley, who is determined to make good as a messenger for the local Postal Telegraph office. There he falls under the spell of a boozy, philosophical telegraph operator, nicely played by Sam Shepard. Homer’s father (Tom Hanks, seen only briefly) is out of the…

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ANOTHER NIGHT OF DISNEY TREASURES ON TCM

Featured Journal Leonard Maltin TV
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If you’re a Disney fan, or fanatic, be sure to tune in to Turner Classic Movies on Thursday, when I’ll be hosting another evening of Treasures from the Disney Vault beginning at 8pm EST/5pm PST. As always, we’re offering a mélange of vintage cartoons and features plus a special episode of Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color. It’s called Disneyland Around the Seasons  and it aired two days after Walt Disney’s death in December of 1966—a shock that was still being felt around the world. (I can vouch for that; I was just 15 and it was a terrible blow.) Today it stands as a time-capsule of what the Anaheim park looked like exactly fifty years ago. I was fortunate to host all of this…

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MAGIC IN THE AIR AT TELLURIDE

Featured Festivals Journal Leonard Maltin
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There is something about the atmosphere at the Telluride Film Festival that can only be described as magical. It may have something to do with the beauty of the Rocky Mountains, the thinness of the air, the eclectic gathering of filmmakers from around the globe, or the friendliness of the people–but everyone I meet seems to fall under its spell. That includes actors and filmmakers who wind up watching other people’s movies, which they don’t always get to do at other such events. After the first screening of Sully, Tom Hanks apparently spent the last few minutes of his q&a waxing rhapsodic about Damien Chazelle’s La La Land. This is what the rest of us do all weekend long as we buzz about what we’ve…

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NEW AND NOTABLE FILM BOOKS Sept 2016

Journal Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
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I am long overdue in covering some of these titles so they aren’t really “new” any more…but they are worthy of your attention, and that’s the point. As always, this is a survey rather than a series of reviews, based on skimming rather than careful reading.   GREAT BRITONS OF STAGE AND SCREEN IN CONVERSATION by Barbara Roisman Cooper. Foreword by Robert Osborne; Afterword by Kevin Brownlow (Rowman & Littlefield)   Would it interest you to know that the masterful (and staggeringly versatile) Stephen Fry is a great admirer of Laurel and Hardy? Or that a great actor like Alfred Molina begins his process by reading a play “over and over and over again. My intelligence is limited,” he says “but I have a great…

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‘THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS’ GROWS DIM

Film In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
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Based on M.L. Stedman’s best-selling novel, The Light Between Oceans is mesmerizing, at first. It is a physically beautiful production with a fable-like quality. The story takes place in the years following World War I. There is a scene of the main character walking along a railway platform surrounded by men with crutches and missing limbs, yet it turns out to be the only visual reminder of the period. The quaint seaside town where the characters live could be anywhere, anytime. (There is also little evidence that the setting is Australia since there are such a variety of dialects, or lack of them, amongst the cast). Michael Fassbender, sporting a brush mustache, fully embodies the part of a soldier who’s seen too much, with his…

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‘THE COMMITMENTS’ STILL GREAT AFTER 25 YEARS

Featured Film Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
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I fell in love with The Commitments when it first came out in 1991 and it’s remained a favorite ever since. When I launched my podcast two years ago I wanted to recommend it to listeners but found, to my dismay, that it wasn’t available for rental or streaming online. Now I understand why: its owners were preparing a special 25th anniversary reissue on Blu-ray and DVD. That edition hits the streets today, from RLJ Entertainment, and it’s a welcome sight. Director Alan Parker and several cast members including Glen Hansard, who went on to win an Oscar for the song he introduced in Once, sat for new interviews, which happily confirm that the movie meant as much to them as it has to its…

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GENE WILDER: FAREWELL TO A GENTLE MAN

Featured Journal Leonard Maltin
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I only met Gene Wilder once, more than twenty years ago, but it was a memorable day in my life. He was everything I had hoped he would be: sweet, articulate, and generous of spirit. Although he was ostensibly promoting his new (and short-lived) NBC sitcom, he didn’t mind reminiscing about Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, or his long association with Mel Brooks. Most of the stories have been repeated by now, but here’s one that stands out for me. I asked if he remembered where and when he first saw Young Frankenstein with an audience. “I was in New York City and I went with my daughter to the Sutton 57th Street Theater at midnight,” he recalled without hesitation. “The title came on and the…

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