Havana watch a trio of musicals set in pre-revolutionary Cuba. Care to join me? Week-End in Havana (1941) Out of the 480 steamship passengers stranded on a reef, Nan Spencer (Alice Faye), a hosiery salesgirl …

Her super powers extend far beyond those of the mild-mannered gatekeeper whose job it is to flag cabs or sign for packages. Look! Up in the vestibule! It’s a guard! It’s a greeter! It’s Doorman! …

Hitchcock-tober returns to the Angelika Film Center this month with five of the Master’s finest. Rear Window (1954) The rights to Cornell Woolrich’s short story “Murder from a Fixed Viewpoint,” were purchased by Hitch and …

It’s been a good summer at the movies for biopics of second-wave feminists. Helen Reddy passed away late last month, but not before I Am Woman introduced her to a new generation. We end the …

This week’s selections represent the best 2008 had to offer, starting with an invitation to the wedding of the decade. Rachel Getting Married (2008) Many were quick to complain about Jonathan Demme casting a feature …

The copyright that trails Robert De Niro’s first theatrical release since The Irishman reads 2017. But it wasn’t until earlier this year that the picture swept cinemas in Eastern Europe and the Baltic States before …

Church on Sunday? If not, did you ever wonder why people do? One man's search for Christianity's core. By Matthew Lickona, April 8, 2009 | Read the full article Joy to the Screen Isn’t the …

This week, I struck gold with Henry Silva. Johnny Cool is the swingingest Rat Pack neo-noir ever filmed without the active participation of Frank and Dean. Peter Lawford co-produced, Joey Bishop begged the question, “Would …

It would be impossible to discuss Antebellum without giving away the film’s startling secret. If you have yet to see the movie, please bookmark the page for future reference. It takes five minutes for the …

It’s over, Johnny. Rambo: Last Blood was the final nail in the Rambo coffin. This week, we look back on the first and fourth installments of Sylvester Stallone’s fivefold franchise. First Blood (1982) Abandoned, betrayed, …

Remember when Cuties were orange and tasty and sold by the box? They still are, just don’t expect any promotional tie-ins with Maïmouna Doucouré’s controversial debut feature, the straight-arrow coming-of-age dramedy Cuties. Why the recently …

Third Spud from the Sun: Cameron Crowe Then and Now “A couple things about Cameron set him down a peg from even the rank and file of ’zine greenhorn dust-suckers. He for all intents & …

Three things I know about Dracula. Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922) It was not the famous bloodsucker’s first screen appearance: that distinction goes to the long lost Hungarian film Dracula’s Death, made a year …

DTF: Down to Fornicate. It’s impossible to imagine the eponymous initialism was there from the outset. Doting filmmaker Al Bailey (he played matchmaker for the film’s subject “Christian” and his late wife Charlotte) initially intended …

It’s a slow week at the movies, and what with my 65th birthday looming large, I decided to spend Labor Day weekend sweating through a sea of nostalgia. What lies ahead are answers to the …

Tom Palazzolo is one of Chicago’s foremost documentarians, but you don’t have to be a local to appreciate his films. Anyone who’s ever had the occasion to visit a bustling deli will find something to …

This has been the longest dry spell of my moviegoing life. Even the most blizzardy Chicago winter could not keep me away for more than a few weeks let alone the almost six months it’s …

There was a point in America’s history when you couldn’t enter a supermarket or flip the radio dial without hearing I Am Woman’s titular tune. I clicked on the screening link expecting to find another …

This week brings a pair of comedy duos: one legendary, the other with plenty of Hope (and Crosby) in their soul. Where the Truth Lies (2005) A fictionalized account of a murder that may or …

What is it that will ultimately draw the following four characters together: the misfortunate maintenance man at a men’s sauna, a crooked customs officer, the resilient boss of a glittery nightspot, and the battered B-girl …

This week’s homework assignment finds Fred Astaire and company in peak form. Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940) If Orson Welles is credited with introducing the ceiling to cinema (he didn’t), then the “Begin the Beguine” …

The way Guest of Honour is being vaunted in some circles, one would think that it had been decades since its writer-director had turned in anything of quality. The truth is that Atom Egoyan has …

This year, the Oceanside Film Festival goes virtual, with over 120 shorts and features. The festival runs August 15 and 16. Visit online for more information and reviews. The Devil’s Road: A Baja Adventure (2019) …

We open as the curtain rises on the #MeToo movement. When our return to cinemas is finally ensured, there will be a new closing credit aberration to reckon with, a job described simply as “Intimacy …

It’s game, set, and match with these three tennis-related films. Tennis, Anyone...? (2005) Things you learn at the movies: next time you’re at a strip club, walk up to the first exotic dancer you see …

Peru 1988. Under the credits, newspaper headlines and file photos summarize the situation: a government at war against ruthless guerilla forces. Georgina (Pamela Mendoza) can be heard faintly in the distance, singing the song without …

Three variations on a cops-and-robbers theme from the early ‘70s The Super Cops (1974) Released three months after Serpico, Gordon Parks’ film followed a pair of successful Shaft scores with this real-life account of two …

In ancient times, they might have called First Cow, an allegorical tale of two culturally discordant cowpokes who join forces to carve out a culinary slice of the American dream, “Figowitz and the Chinaman” and …

Every now and then, a critic has occasion to treat a film that demands special treatment. The recent passing of Carl Reiner has provided just such an occasion. Where’s Poppa? (1970) When Robert Klane set …

What’s A Nice Girl Like You doing in a lead review spot like this? Happy accidents happen. Were it not for my stringent self passing on a screener with a disclaimer branded across the bottom …

La Mesa’s very own Reanimated Records was open, but only for curbside pickup. Owner Nic Friesen was a beautiful enough person to forward a photoset of recent acquisitions. What follows are but three jewels among …

There are those whose knowledge of Kaye Ballard is limited to the caricatured screaming Italian she playing opposite demure Eve Arden on TV’s The Mothers-In-Law. Ballard’s ball-shaped eyes, radiating angst from beneath a perfectly manicured …

This week, it’s Albert Brooks’ first and (hopefully not) last, plus a bit of Sinatra propaganda. Albert Brooks Famous School for Comedians (1972) Omnibus television at its finest, The Great American Dream Machine was a …

Other than an innate ability to turn heads with each passing performance, what do Montgomery Clift, Alan Arkin, Alec Guinness, Bud Cort, and Viggo Mortensen share in common? At a given moment in each man’s …

Do you miss the prospects of a football-free 2020? Not me, especially with this trio of celluloid scores to spike in celebration. Easy Living (1949) Jacques Tourneur had never seen a football game when RKO …

For decades, Fabienne Dangeville has been the face of French culture (and haute couture). Considered by many to be one of history’s most celebrated beauties (and Europe’s greatest actress), the icy blonde was set to …

Finding this week’s selections was as easy as giving the old external harddrive a spin. There, nestled alphabetically in the “W”s, were a trio of “Wakes,” all new to me. There’s one to dream, one …

In one seemingly simple sentence, musician Laura Mvula concisely sums up the everlasting appeal of Ella Fitzgerald: “She made it seem like anything is possible.” (It’s likely that at one point or another, generally in …

Spinning ‘round the turn comes this week’s sure-bet trifecta, a trio of thoroughbred friendships of the unforgettable teenage girl variety. The World of Henry Orient (1964) While strolling through Central Park one day, Val (Tippy …

When Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo first began shopping their sprawling story of a Vietnam treasure hunt around the studios, it was conceived with four white veterans in mind. IMDB reports that Lloyd Levin, producer …

It’s been almost four decades since Romy Schneider’s career was cut short by cardiac arrest at the unripe age of 43. Schneider made her acting debut when she was 15, and during her time spent …

The real Scott Davidson, Pete’s father, was a New York firefighter and first-responder who died in 2001 when the World Trade Center collapsed around him. Anyone familiar with his son’s Comedy Central appearances knows how …

When the lockdown first caught hold, I pinky-promised myself not to devote column space to movies focused on quarantines, vaccines, epidemics, or violently insane world leaders who suggest injecting household chemicals as a cure for …

At the same time many Americans are clamoring to get back to work, here comes a film about a man who refuses to be ousted from his job. Work gives us purpose; our jobs help …

I have a hood on my back. No sooner do I finish Capone, Hollywood’s latest footnote to the legacy of the Prohibition-era crime lord, than our trustworthy friend Jon over at Rarefilmm.com posts what is …

“What’s with all the movies?” was one of my father’s pet questions. “Don’t you ever read a book?” (This coming from a man who never cracked a spine in his life.) Years later, Dad’s counsel …

Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett collaborated on fourteen pictures together before going their separate artistic ways in 1951. (Wilder went on to have an equally fertile collaboration with I.A.L. Diamond with whom he shared screenwriter’s …

You know Muni and Robards and Rico Bandello/ Steiger and Gazzara and Dame Judith who was no fellow/ But does Tom Hardy present a compelling scumball/ or is Capone yet another long haul?/ Così cosà. …

A trio of ‘70s action flicks for your amusement, led by Gene Hackman, Walter Matthau, and... Whit Bissell? French Connection II (1975) The porkpie hat is as unmistakably American as the beret is French. And …

Brandon Cronenberg’s second feature will no doubt confirm those nasty rumors that daddy David set his son on the road to dreamland every night with Videodrome projected on the nursery wall opposite the baby’s crib. …