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
Is it more important to be respected or liked? Most everyone wants to be both, but only a few achieve that goal. The rest of us scrap for one or the other. They’re not always mutually exclusive, but they often … Continue reading THE LAST DANCE
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
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
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
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!
Spike Lee’s back, and he’s getting better with age. The first half of the 2010s found the filmmaker working in a different milieu with Red Hook Summer and Da Sweet Blood of Jesus. Slightly atmosphere, quieter, lower budgets. Neither were duds, but nor did … Continue reading DA 5 BLOODS
Lanky, hulking, and almost always stooped, Scott Carlin (Pete Davidson) is 24 years old, jobless, directionless, and living in the same Staten Island home he grew up in. Mom, Margie (Marisa Tomei), is an emergency room nurse, and though they’re … Continue reading THE KING OF STATEN ISLAND
Counted by many as the father of African cinema, Ousmane Sembène was a novelist before he picked up a camera. And when he did, all hell broke loose. His first work, the short film Borom sarret, was released in 1963, perfectly … Continue reading BLACK GIRL
Michael J. Cinema 
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