Jack Nicholson’s own story rivals any of his films. Born in New York City, he grew up in New Jersey. He grew up thinking his grandparents were his parents, and his mother, his older sister. When years later, he learned the truth, he realized he had no clue who his real father was, and he decided he was not all … More Details

Just when you start believing there’s no hope for anything daring and original coming out of Movieland, something gets released that surprises you. The Artist is one such movie — and what’s new about it is that it’s old. Or rather — it’s a silent film — not just a spoof à la Mel Brooks’s Silent Movie (1976), but a … More Details

The thriller Contagion certainly has its moments, but ultimately adds up to considerably less than the sum of its parts. You go in expecting a lot, with Steven Soderbergh directing, an “A”-list cast, and the promise of witnessing a global cataclysm along the lines of 28 Days Later, only the zombies are us, with really red runny noses, watery eyes … More Details

Like so many comedy film fanatics, I love Woody Allen’s early films, by which I mean mostly the classic comedies he did in the early-mid seventies (Bananas, Sleeper, Love and Death) as well as two masterpieces made at the close of that decade: Annie Hall (1977) and Manhattan(1979). Lest you think I’m living in the past- a theme the Woodman … More Details

With today heralding the official arrival of summer, I’m thinking about those great movies that reflect the heat, transition and sheer release of the season in exciting, unexpected ways. Yet when I did a Google search of top summer movies to inspire me, I actually found a lot of less-than-stellar movies being served up- among them, “Meatballs” (1979), “One Crazy … More Details

Let me simply lead off with the sobering statistic that inspired this piece: While mindless dreck or kiddie fare like “Thor”, “The Hangover-Part 2″ or the latest “Pirates Of The Caribbean” installment all opened on around four thousand screens across the country, when at long last a brilliant, provocative film for grown-ups gets produced- Terrence Malick’s “The Tree Of Life” … More Details

This is not a happy time to be a movie fan who no longer gets carded in bars. Take this weekend’s opening of “Thor” on four thousand screens-a release which reflects the industry’s increasing reliance on that forbidden joy of my childhood – the comic book – to justify its existence. Now before I earn the sobriquet of “film snob” … More Details

Truthfully, Halloween is even more fun now that all the juvenile fuss is behind me, because all I need worry about is which movie will do the best job of petrifying me this year.
My own personal exploration along these lines inspired me to compile a fresh list of skin-crawling entries that in my view do full justice to the spirit of Halloween.
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The late Deborah Kerr, who died just three years ago and would have turned 89 this coming Thursday, was the kind of star and personality we rarely see anymore: a lady first and foremost, who, even playing women of dubious virtue, exudes an innate sense of class, dignity, even nobility.
Starring roles in British productions ensued, followed by the siren call of Hollywood. Over her career, she was nominated six times for the Best Actress Oscar, but never won. In 1994, clearly ailing, she accepted an honorary Oscar, and her brief but eloquent acceptance speech spoke volumes about the special woman she was.
Starring roles in British productions ensued, followed by the siren call of Hollywood. Over her career, she was nominated six times for the Best Actress Oscar, but never won. In 1994, clearly ailing, she accepted an honorary Oscar, and her brief but eloquent acceptance speech spoke volumes about the special woman she was.
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Can it really be that Benjamin Braddock, the disaffected young man starting out his adult life in “The Graduate,” turns 73 today?
That character was of course immortalized in 1967 by a then unknown Dustin Hoffman, whose sheer talent and nervous energy compensated for a conspicuous absence of classic leading man attributes.
It’s sad to think young people today may know this gifted actor primarily as Ben Stiller’s hippy-dippy Dad in the execrable “Meet the Fockers” (2004). In truth, over the past fifteen or so years, almost invariably Hoffman’s performances have outclassed the movies featuring them.
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