“Continue down your mistaken path”: SPARTACUS (1960)
They don’t make them like Spartacus anymore, an overstuffed, overlong pileup of gorgeous, funny, tearjerking,…
The Avengers: Age Of Ultron Is A Humongous Yet Intimate Success
One of the worlds most prolific authors, Ernest Hemingway, once wrote how “The world breaks…
“Continue down your mistaken path”: PATHS OF GLORY (1957)
With Fear and Desire, Stanley Kubrick learned how to film still images. With Killer’s Kiss,…
Before BIRDMAN: Films about Actors – Part 3: PERSONA
In Persona, written and directed by Ingmar Bergman in 1966, a sharp rebuke is offered…
But It Did Happen: The Short Works of Paul Thomas Anderson
(This is a review of the Paul Thomas Anderson shorts that are or were available for…
“Continue down your mistaken path”: THE KILLING (1956)
Gerald Fried’s score comes stomping in, the credits appear in simple block capitals over an…
Before BIRDMAN: Films about Actors – Part 2: OPENING NIGHT
It is hardly surprising that, given John Cassavetes’s acting and directing philosophy that went sharply…
“Continue down your mistaken path”: KILLER’S KISS (1955)
In the two years between Fear and Desire and Killer’s Kiss, Stanley Kubrick learned how…
Before BIRDMAN: Films about Actors – Part 1: THE STUNT MAN
The recent success of Birdman illustrates that there is a lucrative market for films about…
Twenty Years Ago, FARINELLI was High-Tech; Now, It’s History
Beginning in the early 1600s, the practice of removing the testicles of prepubescent boys to…