Like most love stories, this one begins at the movies. London, 1971: A young actor goes to see the latest release, A Clockwork Orange, and is transfixed. The garish colors, the violence, the sex, the terror, Malcolm McDowell’s theatrical performance; the young … Continue reading FILMWORKER
This conversation between Eric Kohn of Indiewire, writer/director Paul Schrader, and actor Ethan Hawke took place following a screening of FIRST REFORMED at 2017’s Telluride Film Festival. Spoilers follow. ERIC KOHN: Paul, first of all, anyone who’s seen your films … Continue reading Conversations from the Telluride Film Festival: FIRST REFORMED
Reverend Toller (Ethan Hawke, in one of his best performances) is having a crisis of faith. The parish pastor of New York’s 250-year-old First Reformed church—once a stopover on the Underground Railroad, now jokingly called a gift shop—watches with detachment … Continue reading FIRST REFORMED
On May 14, 2018, Tom Wolfe—one of America’s most exuberant writers—died at the age of 88. Among his litany of good works, Wolfe penned The Right Stuff, effectively coining a phrase while summing up the spirit of the idolized American … Continue reading Robert Mitchum
I always thought I wanted to be a film critic. Then I ran into a whole series of problems in my life, which could not be addressed by non-fiction. … I had to give life to these demons before these … Continue reading On Familiar Ground: Paul Schrader and the Death Impulse
RBG, from documentarians from Julie Cohen and Betsy West, opens with images of Washington D.C. accompanied by sound bites from conservative talk radio and one American president casually dismissing a Supreme Court justice as vile and disgusting. “Witch” and “zombie” … Continue reading RBG
What good does it, writing about classic films? If it’s covering an undiscovered gem or a movie never properly released, that’s one thing. But to cover a classic, a movie that has withstood the baptism of time, has been written … Continue reading How We Got Here
Ah, little lad, you’re staring at my fingers. Would you like me to tell you the little story of right-hand/left-hand? 1930s West Virginia: A condemned man brags to his bunkmate that he hid $10,000 in his house before his arrest. … Continue reading THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER
We stand together and reinforce the extraordinary value of this art form. And by ‘we,’ I mean all of us who love cinema and who learn about it as we watch and re-watch these precious films. —Martin Scorsese On April … Continue reading A Community in the Dark: Dispatches from the TCM Classic Film Festival
Michael J. Cinema 
You must be logged in to post a comment.