He is David King (Denzel Washington), and 20 years ago, he sat on music’s throne. A hits stacker and a kingmaker, David had the best ears in the business and the records to prove it. Now David is scrambling to … Continue reading HIGHEST 2 LOWEST
Reporting from the 2022 Telluride Film Festival. He’s a nice gentleman, always properly dressed, prompt to work and other engagements, and he takes pride in his work—even if that means “holding on” to applications stuck in the Sisyphean circles of … Continue reading LIVING
I guess you could say the low point arrived on March 27, 2022, with the broadcast of the 94th Academy Awards. No, the “slap heard ’round the world” wasn’t it—though that cast a pall over the proceedings, didn’t it?—but the … Continue reading Cinema 101
Comfort watching comes in all shapes in sizes. Sometimes it’s a chubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff. Other times it’s Gene Kelly dancing with an umbrella and splashing around in puddles. Diversion, you could call it: A moment of … Continue reading Home Viewing: Existential Cinema
Here dies Kanji Watanabe (Takashi Shimura). For 30 years, he has been pushing pencils and stamping government documents inside the cluttered offices of Tokyo’s City Hall. He has 75 days left to live (stomach cancer), a son who pays him … Continue reading IKIRU
The Magnificent Seven doesn’t open with fanfare. No blaring horns to signal the American West, no soaring strings to complement the vast vistas before the camera, no cinematic shots of warring bandits cresting a hill, no legends, no heroes. Instead: ominous … Continue reading THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
If I have seen further,” Sir Isaac Newton wrote to his peer, Robert Hooke, “it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” The line is well-known, but it isn’t Newton’s. Like many before and after him, Newton drew on … Continue reading THE HIDDEN FORTRESS (隠し砦の三悪人)
The movie opens and closes with a similar image, the ruins of a fortress, built at the foot of Mt. Fuji, enveloped by fog. A visual cue from famed Japanese director Akira Kurosawa reminding viewers that what goes around comes … Continue reading THRONE OF BLOOD
The object is to try to get the system to work for you, instead of against you. And the only way you can do it is through success, I’m afraid. —George Lucas Continue reading Born On This Day — May 14, 1944
Michael J. Cinema 
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