George Clooney’s 2019 adaptation for Hulu was faithful to Joseph Heller’s novel until it missed the mark. He condemned Yossarian to a Sisyphean hell rather than set him free and off into the world. Clooney’s deviation probably comes from a … Continue reading CATCH-22
A lecture may get your point across, but a story illustrates it better. And if you can smuggle in a little humor, it’s a better bet the medicine will go down. Irresistible got you hankering for more? Here are four … Continue reading Home Viewing: Satire Streams
Gary Zimmer (Steve Carell) is a typical liberal elite, the kind they grow in labs somewhere along the coast. He dresses well enough to look like he has taste, works at a job that makes him enough money to look … Continue reading IRRESISTIBLE
Craving some much needed positive PR, the Valiant Tobacco Company announces a cockamamie scheme: Any American town that can give up smoking for one month will win $25 million, tax-free. Eagle Rock, Iowa—population 4,000—needs that kind of coin to revamp … Continue reading COLD TURKEY
On this week’s edition of After Image, I chat with Metro Arts producer Veronica Straight-Lingo to discuss Criterion’s latest 4K restoration, The Cameraman, and suggest a few silent films you can stream if you’re missing Chautauqua’s annual Summer of Silents. … Continue reading
On April 23, 1917, Buster Keaton made his theatrical debut in Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle’s The Butcher Boy. Three years later, Keaton would strike out on his own, producing one comic short after the other. Three years after that, Keaton made the … Continue reading THE CAMERAMAN
Made in 1925, Charlie Chaplin’s greatest comedy is also his most recognizable. From the Little Tramp (Chaplin) woefully underdressed in the Klondike to hunger so intense he envisions his cabin-mate as a large roast chicken. But it’s the dance of … Continue reading THE GOLD RUSH
Harold Lloyd’s Glasses character was a real go-getter. The middle-class boy next door could accomplish anything he put his mind to. And it made him immensely popular with the rah-rah-rah mentality of the Roaring Twenties. 1923’s Safety Last! might be his best, … Continue reading SAFETY LAST!
Chaplin was the tramp, Lloyd was the go-getter, and Buster Keaton—Born Oct. 4, 1895—was the Great Stone Face. He was unflappable, no matter how hard he got hit or how hard he fell. The General is his best, maybe the greatest American … Continue reading THE GENERAL
Michael J. Cinema 
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