On Aug. 20, 1977, NASA launched space probe Voyager 2 with the expressed mission of exploring the outer planets of the solar system and transmitting the discoveries back to Earth. What, and whom, might it find out there? If Voyager … Continue reading JAZZ ON A SUMMER’S DAY
Movies echo movies. Sometimes in the minds of the filmmakers: Conversations in sound and image across time and space. Sometimes in the viewer’s minds: Stories ping-ponging their way through a couple of thousand years of recorded history. More often than … Continue reading AMERICAN BOY: A PROFILE OF STEVEN PRINCE
Soft-spoken and even, Charles Bukowski sounds nothing like his face looks. Or like his prose reads. In his introduction to the 1979 edition of John Fante’s Ask the Dust, Bukowski recounts his early days of living in Los Angeles, drinking wine, … Continue reading YOU NEVER HAD IT: AN EVENING WITH BUKOWSKI
Every August TCM breaks from its regularly scheduled programming to honor the faces that make the great mechanical art form so enchanting. It’s Summer Under the Stars, 24 hours with a dozen or so movies from a single actor, 31 … Continue reading TCM’s Summer Under the Stars
They’ll be love and laughterAnd peace ever afterTomorrow, when the world is free —Vera Lynn, “The White Cliffs of Dover” Frank (Lucas Bond) has come to Summerland. Sort of: Under normal conditions, he’d be living in London, but it’s World … Continue reading SUMMERLAND
Amy (Kate Lyn Sheil) is going to die tomorrow. She knows it for a fact; she sees it coming. And so can we: It’s colored strobe lights, slow-motion photography, and the opening of Mozart’s Requiem. It’s convincing, but when Amy’s … Continue reading SHE DIES TOMORROW
For many, Citizen Kane, made when Orson Welles was 25 years old, is the greatest achievement of the filmmaker’s tempestuous career. The shadow of Kane is indeed long, and Welles never quite found his way out of it, but it … Continue reading CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT
When Jack Warner previewed The Breaking Point in the summer of 1950, he knew he had a hit on his hands. And with good reason: The director was Michael Curtiz, Warner Bros.’ top man with hits like Casablanca, The Adventures of Robin Hood, and Mildred Pierce. … Continue reading THE BREAKING POINT
Helmut Newton had a sense of humor. That might not be your immediate takeaway if you do a Google search for his photographs (after you deactivate all the safe search controls). But the more you peruse his oeuvre, the more … Continue reading HELMUT NEWTON: THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL
Michael J. Cinema 
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