Category: Film

  • The year is almost over, so…

    With 2025 almost in the rearview mirror, it’s as good a time as any to assess the year in film, particularly since it has been a considerable improvement over the comparatively listless 2024. Not that one would necessarily know it’s been a positive year from box-office receipts. It’s no secret that moviegoing has been on…

  • The 10 best opening credits sequences 1980-present

    10. Zombieland (2009) 9. Casino Royale (2006) 8. Do the Right Thing (1989) Spike Lee discovered Rosie Perez on a New York dance floor when he was casting for Do the Right Thing. Her moves here, coupled with Public Enemy’s anthemic “Fight the Power,” is electric. 7. Deadpool (2016) Irony Man. 6. Se7en (1995) Creep…

  • The 10 best opening credits sequences before 1980

    Giving credits where credits are due (see what I did there?) has changed dramatically in cinema over the years. While 20th century offerings generally ran their main titles at a picture’s start, most modern-day blockbusters these days save credits for the end. Moreover, astounding advances in CGI have upped the creative ante beyond simply boasting…

  • The 10 best baseball movies

    With the possible exception of boxing, no sport has ignited the imagination of cinema more than baseball. It’s uniquely suited for storytelling, examining team dynamics while revolving around baseball’s ultimate one-on-one showdown: pitcher versus hitter. Baseball fans love to argue over what the best baseball flick is, and I’m no exception. As a wee child,…

  • The 10 most memorable dances in movies that aren’t primarily musicals

    Dance was an integral part of motion pictures long before Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers tapped their way into the hearts of Depression-era moviegoers. In the 1890s, Thomas Edison shot footage of Ruth St. Denis performing her famous “skirt dance.” Not to be outdone, France’s Lumière Brothers captured a “serpentine dance” around the same period…

  • Hot films in the summertime: 10 movies ideal for summer now streaming

    Movies love summer. The two just go together, kindred spirits dedicated to childhood, fun and escapism.  Hollywood saves its blockbuster entertainments for that period between Memorial Day and Labor Day, of course, but there is also that class of films that are set during, or otherwise pay homage to, the season of long days and…

  • Origin stories: The Apprentice and Saturday Night

    It’s not only comic book heroes and fairy tale characters who get origin stories. Cultural icons deserve them, too – or at least get them, deserving or not. It is hard to dispute, however, that the American pop culture landscape hasn’t been deeply influenced by two icons closely associated with New York: Donald Trump and Saturday…

  • Diva (1982)

    When I first saw Diva back in 1982, I was a snot-nosed 16-year-old movie geek eager to overestimate the worth of any foreign-language film that featured a moped, atmospheric lighting and a synthesizer-heavy music score. Diva had all that, and it got to me. I was mesmerized by the overflow of style and look-at-me cool – and it…