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The 10 most memorable dances in non-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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Trap (2024)
If movies won Oscars for their marketing campaigns, M. Night Shyamalan would be sitting pretty. The trailers for his films are invariably intriguing. The writer-director whose works range from the sublime The Sixth Sense to the opposite-of-sublime The Happening has an indisputable gift for high concepts perfect for elevator pitches. And since Shyamalan has been…
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Definitely, Maybe (2008)
It’s never too early to romanticize the past, particularly when it involves affairs of the heart. Amid today’s app-friendly hookups, where a potential relationship is a mere swipe right away, perhaps it is inevitable that a romantic comedy like Definitely, Maybe would turn to the not-so-distant and ostensibly simpler 1990s, back when the Internet was…
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Force Majeure (2014)
Early in Force Majeure, a young, good-looking family – father, mother, son and daughter – is enjoying a leisurely outdoor lunch at a ski resort in the French Alps. The vista, a gleaming and snow-packed mountain, is spectacular. A controlled explosion in the distance triggers an avalanche that commands the attention of the restaurant patrons, including…
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The best movies of 2024 (so far!)
After last year’s bounty of great cinema, Hollywood observers expected an inevitable letdown for 2024. Now that we are a little more than halfway through the year, those prognostications look accurate. The Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes last year resulted in a significant drop in output. And despite some occasional bright spots (Inside…
Cutting to the Chase with Phil Bacharach
Let’s talk about movies.
Cutting to the Chase with Phil Bacharach 