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WHY I LOVE MOVIE STILLS

Leonard Maltin
6102

I bought my first vintage 8×10 photo at a used bookstore in Hackensack, New Jersey when I was 13 years old. It cost 25 cents, which was just what I could afford. I’ve continued buying stills ever since, carefully filing and cross-referencing them as only a compulsive person would. Why? Because I love looking at them, noticing details in the background, admiring the often-anonymous photographers who shot them. I thought I’d start sharing some of my favorites with you. Wouldn’t you love to have been a fly on the wall at this 1930s party? W.C. Fields looks to be in fine fettle and good humor—and look at the laughter on the faces of his companions, Herbert Marshall and Leslie Howard. Also take note of how…

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OKJA: GO AWAY, PIGGY

Film In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
7609

Okja is one of the strangest movies of this or any year in recent memory. You may have read about its high-profile debut at the Cannes Film Festival. I can’t imagine what audiences there made of this strange hybrid of family film, ecological satire, and farce. Korean writer-director Bong Joon Ho is internationally renowned for such unusual fare as Mother, The Host, and Snowpiercer, but nothing could prepare viewers for this fable about a wide-eyed girl and her pet super-pig. Yes, I said super-pig. An evil corporation run by neurotic Tilda Swinton has created twenty-six genetically enhanced porkers and sent them around the world to grow for ten years. The best animal will then be selected at a high-profile competition in New York City. There’s just one predictable hitch: the…

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MISSING MOVIE REVIEWS

Leonard Maltin
2868

If you follow my posts, you know that my family and I will be attending the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic for the next two weeks. That means I’m not in Los Angeles to screen and review some major new releases including War for the Planet of the Apes and Spider-man: Homecoming. There’s more to juggle when I return, including Disney’s D23 Convention and the San Diego International Comic-con, but I will do my best to catch up and keep up with the rest of the summer films. Thanks for your understanding. And remember, air conditioning is not reason enough to suffer through a really bad movie!

NEW AND NOTABLE FILM BOOKS: JUNE 2017

Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
8944

  A GATHERING OF GUNS: A HALF CENTURY HISTORY OF TV WESTERNS (1949-2001) by Boyd Magers; forewords by James Drury, Robert Fuller, Clint Walker, Henry Darrow, Don Collier, and Will Hutchins (Western Clippings) For years I’ve been a faithful reader of Boyd Magers’ periodical Western Clippings, which celebrates the Western movie genre with an emphasis on the past. Every issue is jam-packed with information, interviews, rare photos, and more. He has extended this modus operandi to his latest book, a spiral-bound publication that covers an astonishing 196 TV series in its 478 pages—with over 1,600 illustrations. The relationship to movie history is clear: in the 1950s the Saturday matinee Western was reborn as the hour television series for such stars as Gene Autry and Roy…

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THE BIG SICK

Film In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
10335

I don’t know how someone puts his life story on film, playing himself without a trace of self-consciousness…yet that’s what comedian and actor Kumail Nanjiani has done in this disarming film, which he and his wife Emily V. Gordon wrote together. I suppose it’s a logical step once a performer has learned that the best comedy is rooted in truth. Still, it’s a big step to expose oneself emotionally as he does here. The Big Sick is about a rookie stand-up comic from a traditional Pakistani family now living in Chicago. When he falls for a bright young woman (Zoë Kazan) who isn’t Muslim he skates onto thin ice, then realizes he’s not willing to sacrifice the love of his family to cement his relationship with her.…

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SCORE: A FILM MUSIC DOCUMENTARY

Film In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
10179

Score is the result of many years’ effort. Matt Schrader has been building a library of conversations with film composers, which he has compiled in a book and a two-disc DVD set. I find it remarkable that from this mountain of material he has been able to craft such a cohesive and fascinating film. (Full disclosure: I am one of his interviewees, but I had nothing to do with his editorial judgment.) A primer on the history of the subject is provided by several “talking heads” including such experts as Jon Burlingame and Richard Kraft. For the modern era, almost everyone you would want to see and hear from is represented, from Hans Zimmer to Danny Elfman. (There is also great archival footage of John Williams…

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‘BEATRIZ AT DINNER’ OFFERS FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Film In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
6675

Disarming in its simplicity, Beatriz at Dinner establishes a believable premise for a dinner party where things go terribly wrong. It’s a tribute to writer Mike White, director Miguel Arteta and their superior cast that this allegorical story never jumps the rails, as it easily could. Winning ingredient number one is Salma Hayek. She is exceptionally good as a Mexican-American healer who is devoted to her patients at a recovery center in Santa Monica, California. One day she drives to an exquisite home in Newport Beach to give a massage to a client (Connie Britton) with whom she’s had a close relationship. When Hayek’s car breaks down in the driveway Britton insists that she stay for dinner, over the objections of her husband. He doesn’t share his…

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