Reviews, interviews, and festival coverage for Boulder’s only independent newspaper from 2014 to 2025.
Shot in stark black and white like a moving Weegee photograph, Lionel Rogosin’s On the Bowery is a stunning piece of filmmaking instrumental in dropkicking American movie making out of the studios and onto the streets. The story here is of an … Continue reading ON THE BOWERY
It didn’t take long for Judy Garland to get started. Born Frances Ethel Gumm in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, on June 10, 1922, Garland strode onto the vaudeville stage with her sisters in 1924, solidifying her future as an entertainer. In … Continue reading Judy Garland
Paris, 1981: Björn Borg has five French Open grand slams under his belt and is looking for number six. Ivan Lendl is looking for his first. So is John McEnroe, on clay at least. Hana Mandlíková is looking to be … Continue reading THE FRENCH
In 1965, Soviet filmmaker Sergei Parajanov was riding high following the critical and commercial success of the great Ukrainian film Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. Tapped by the government to make a movie celebrating the 20th anniversary of the defeat of the … Continue reading KYIV FRESCOES (Киевские фрески)
Movies are wondrous. Magical, moving pieces of art crafted by human hands, designed to explore the very essence of the human condition and, in many cases, instill hope in current and future generations. The same cannot be said of the … Continue reading LUX ÆTERNA
France, 1963. Three young women enter the club. Inside, they’re having a party, dancing to the music. The Cokes are in the icebox; rock ’n’ roll on the radio. The place is packed with students, the current occupation of the … Continue reading HAPPENING (L’ÉVÉNEMENT)
England, 1944: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger want to make a movie about an English bomber pilot and an American radio operator falling in love—in this world and the next. They envision a Technicolor fantasia unlike anything seen. The only … Continue reading I KNOW WHERE I’M GOING!
Most movies are a window you gaze through for two or so voyeuristic hours. Others are a door you walk through. Jewel Robbery, a 1932 pre-Code comedy, is like falling into a glass of champagne. The black and white photography by … Continue reading All Together Now: Dispatches from the 13th TCM Classic Film Festival
There’s a lot about The Northman that is ancient and just as much that’s mythic. It’s Shakespearean in its bones, but touches of Confucius, Sophocles and Wolfram von Eschenbach are never far from reach. There’s even a surprising tribute to Disney’s The Lion … Continue reading THE NORTHMAN
Michael J. Cinema 
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