Few cinematic forms benefited from the advent of digital technology like the documentary. And not just in cost and access to equipment but in the proliferation of digital archives directors can draw upon. Add social media’s connective power to track … Continue reading THE BEACH BOYS and LET IT BE
Indy sure does have to fight Nazis a lot. Probably because Raiders of the Lost Ark featured Nazis, and the movie did so well at the box office that the creators of the now five-film series fall back on that familiar formula … Continue reading INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY
I have a hard time buying that dinosaurs and humans could live together in any kind of harmony. Food would be an issue: How hard would it be for a Brontosaurus to knock over a grain silo and go nuts? … Continue reading JURASSIC WORLD DOMINION
McBride knows his Welles: he’s been writing about him since 1970. He watched Kane 60 times before approaching Welles for an interview. Not long after he did, Welles cast McBride in The Other Side of the Wind—Welles’ legendarily unfinished final film. Continue reading WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO ORSON WELLES?
The legacy of Orson Welles looms large in the history of cinema. So large, even Welles himself fell into its blackness. “The word genius was whispered into my ear—the first thing I heard—while I was still mewling in my crib,” … Continue reading A Matter of Persistence: Orson Welles
Let us raise our cups. Standing as some of us do on opposite ends of the river, and drink together. … To the movies. To good movies. To every possible kind.” —Orson Welles’ AFI Life Achievement Award acceptance speech, Feb. … Continue reading One Last Toast to the Wunkerkind: Dispatches from the 2018 Telluride Film Festival
On January 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 departed LaGuardia airport at 3:24 p.m. There were 155 souls, including captain and crew, on board. Roughly 208 seconds later, flight 1549 was forced to land on the Hudson River not more … Continue reading SULLY
What motivates an artist to return time and time again to the formative and gentle years of childhood? Is it a rejection of the adult world, the world of responsibility and accountability? Or is it a plea to the next … Continue reading THE BFG
Michael J. Cinema 