As we approach the end of 2020, my mind turns to years previous, curious to see if the movies that informed that time and place informs this one. In 2015, the movies almost had a premonition of the years to … Continue reading 2017: ‘What year is this?’
Taken as a whole, 2017 at the movies has left me somewhat dismayed. This is at least partly due, I think, to the overlong award season. With each passing year, this toxic notion of competition clouds the waters and does little to foster the appreciation and discussion of cinema. This rang particularly true in the silly and absurd horse race between La La Land and Moonlight—which ended up being an overwrought debate between authenticity in emotion—and culminated in one spectacular and public bungle at this year’s Oscar ceremony. And while award season is both exhausting and disheartening, it was the lackluster rollout of blockbusters that followed, suggesting that Hollywood’s wheels … Continue reading 2017: The Best So Far…
There is a scene roughly halfway through Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1948 backstage masterpiece The Red Shoes where Ballet Russe impresario Lermontov comforts his understandably nervous principal dancer, Vicky Page. “Nothing matters by the music,” Lermontov assures her. He hums … Continue reading BABY DRIVER
Michael J. Cinema 