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
Some can’t miss titles playing the 46th Denver Film Festival: “About Dry Grasses,” “Perfect Days,” “La Chimera,” and “Fantastic Machine.” Continue reading
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
Thoughts on “The Killer” and “Priscilla.” Continue reading
A father lies in the snow motionless. He is bleeding from the head and not breathing. That’s how his blind son discovers him, and when the panicked boy calls to his mother for help, she peeks out from the second-story … Continue reading ANATOMY OF A FALL (ANATOMIE D’UNE CHUTE)
Michael J. Cinema 
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