In The Story of Film, Mark Cousins traces the innovations and development of cinema’s first century. The book, published in 2004, spans roughly 400 pages with about as many photographs. Cousins’ 2011 documentary of the same name runs 15 hours and … Continue reading THE STORY OF FILM: A NEW GENERATION
It all started in Kansas City with a young dreamer named Walt Disney. Alice’s Wonderland wasn’t his first creation, but it was significant. The silent comedy, released in the fall of 1923, blended hand-drawn animation and live-action into something that … Continue reading WISH
Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) is an enigma. It’s 2006, and Oliver’s first day at Oxford University commences without any friends, without any family, and without any past. But something in his laser stare speaks louder than words ever could. Sporting … Continue reading SALTBURN
When Martin Scorsese sat down with friend and classmate Mardik Martin to pen Season of the Witch—later rechristened Mean Streets—he hardly thought he was changing how movies would look and move. The kid who grew up on Elizabeth Street in … Continue reading MEAN STREETS
November 22 marks 60 years since President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, and we’re still grappling with it. Sure, there were conspiracies to eliminate heads of state long before JFK drew his last breath, and there will … Continue reading RUSH TO JUDGMENT
Professor Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) loves history. Not just any old history but antiquity: Greeks, Romans, Sumerians—you name ’em, Paul knows all about ’em. And not just because he believes the past informs the present, but because the past is … Continue reading THE HOLDOVERS
The twisting begins before we even meet the hero. A Union soldier makes his way through the carnage of a battle. Confederate bodies litter the ground, and a Yankee survivor plunders them for gold teeth and various effects. Then he … Continue reading A BULLET FOR SANDOVAL
Fire up the projector and dim the lights—the 46th Denver Film Festival kicks off this weekend. This year’s slate opens with a screening of American Fiction, the story of a serious Black novelist (Jeffrey Wright) who becomes unwittingly acclaimed for the very tropes … Continue reading Under the Radar: Picks for the 46th Denver Film Festival
Director Taylor Hackford once described the westerns directed by Budd Boetticher, starring Randolph Scott, and produced by Harry Joe Brown as movies that take place in the middle of stories. The hero, Scott, rides in from nowhere, deals with a … Continue reading DECISION AT SUNDOWN
Michael J. Cinema 
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