Film

HOLLYWOOD HOME MOVIES FROM THE ACADEMY NOW AVAILABLE! Hoo-boy, is this ever fun! Unique home movies from the 30s through the 60s of not just stars but the famous folks behind the camera. This annual event is streaming online for the first time. Whether black and white or in color, these pristine moving pictures curated…

FUNNY IS AS FUNNY DOES The feature-length biography Adam Sandler: Funny Guy is now available on Amazon Prime.Critics may not always love Sandler, but fans sure do. The boy from Brooklyn did not need showbiz connections to become a global superstar. Sandler has left his comedic mark on three decades of stage, screen, and song….

GREAT RONNIE SCOTT Ronnie Scott (1927-96) was the top British tenor-saxophonist of the late 1940s/early ‘50s before Tubby Hayes emerged on the scene, and he was one of the first British beboppers. His big tone and swinging style (influenced a little by Lester Young and Stan Getz) was featured on many fine recordings during the…

CRYPTO IS A DECENT ATTEMPT AT INCLUDING CRYPTOCURRENCIES IN MOVIES One way to gauge the popularity of any new fad, invention or development that has been around for a while is to see how quickly it is picked up by popular culture. Movies and TV shows using them as plot devices are a sure sign…

A MOLE IN ONE Sure to be the sentimental favorite at DOC NYC and regions beyond, The Mole Agent is a bittersweet, comical documentary that, as with any great spy story, has a terrific twist. Director Maite Alberdi puts a cute spin on from the start, where slanted blinds make a noirish presence in the…

RISE OF THE RESISTANCE I relate to the howling anger of performance- and guerilla street- artist David Wojnarowitcz (pronounced voy-nah-ROH-vitch), who died of AIDS on July 22, 1992 at 37. It’s fascinating to notice how pissed off Americans are now, but this new collage-like documentary (opening March 19, 2021 on Kino Marquee) shows how the…

RECON NEEDS A REDO There was something strange about Recon even before I saw it. Why is a film that clearly looks like a studio-budget WWII drama showing up on Fathom Events, the distributor that usually veers far from the world of heroic blockbusters, relying on cable, broadcast and Broadway for most of their showings,…

SAMUEL GOLDWYN FILMS TO RELEASE ROMANTIC COMEDY MODERN PERSUASION ON DECEMBER 18, 2020 Especially in a year like 2020, we can always use Jane Austen to lighten our mood. Now, a modern film re-telling of her Persuasion, starring Alicia Witt, has been picked up by Samuel Goldwyn Films. Wren Cosgrove is a happy, single, and…

BUT WHAT ABOUT TIPTON’S LIFE AND TIMES? Billy Tipton (1914-89) had an unusual life, to say the least. Born as Dorothy Lucille Tipton, she developed into a professional pianist and occasional saxophonist. Feeling that her career could only go so far as a female, she reinvented herself as a male by the mid-1930s, using the…

REFLECTIONS OF CULTURAL IDENTITY IN A BEAUTIFUL, GRACEFUL FILM An affecting and sturdy Henry Golding (who made his feature debut with Crazy Rich Asians), plays Kit, who hasn’t been to Ho Chi Minh City since he was six, when he was taken to England with his family so they could escape the brutal Vietnam War….

THE TITLE SAYS IT ALL More prurient than incisive, Bare documents the creation of an all-male, all-naked modern dance piece by Belgian dancemaker Thierry Smits. From audition to opening night, there are so many wondrous money shots here, artful in a Robert Mapplethorpe style, that we are almost willing to forgive the fact we never…

TOUCHED BY CRUTCH If you’re looking for inspiration (and who isn’t these days?), check out the documentary Crutch, which is having its world premiere at the DOC NYC festival from November 11-19. I confess I knew little about Bill Shannon, an almost uncategorizable performance artist who break dances and skates on crutches. Diagnosed in childhood…

DROWNING UNDER TOO MANY HATS It’s unimaginable to think what parents go through when their child has been deployed to war. The wait, the worry, the hand-wringing. For   Rose (Melora Walters), her son’s deployment has put her in an implacable funk. She found heroin in his room, and told him if he’s gonna die it…

AVA DUVERNAY, JULIE DASH AND EUZHAN PALCY IN “ACADEMY DIALOGUES” SERIES FINALE Part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Academy Aperture 2025 initiative, “Academy Dialogues: It Starts With Us” is a new series of virtual panels which, so far, have been graceful, eloquent and fascinating looks at race, ethnicity, gender, history, opportunity…

REMEMBER HIS NAME I like when some experts discuss global warming with a realistic bent, but allow that the subject may be too overwhelming for some, causing inertia. The best thing, we are told, is to start now with whatever steps we can take so that it doesn’t seem so daunting to fix a huge…