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It’s hard to believe it’s been over half a century since Hollywood experienced a creative renaissance. Just what happened back then? Starting in the mid-sixties, the film industry underwent a dramatic transition as the major studios realized their approach to moviemaking was no longer working. Too many big-budget releases were falling flat at the box office; the losses were staggering.

Sometimes, when choosing a film, only a documentary will do. 

By now you know I love movies, but the fact is, I’m equally passionate about music. My taste runs to the more modern forms tied to this country’s rich history: jazz, rock, rhythm and blues, and of course, those evergreen standards from the Great American Songbook, interpreted by giants like Sinatra, Tony Bennett, and Ella Fitzgerald.

 With warmer weather comes thoughts of romance. Or is it just me? Even with forced isolation causing the occasional disagreement, I feel profoundly grateful to have my wife of three-plus decades experiencing this strange, new CO-VID world with me.

As this stay-at-home period persists, I am increasingly grateful to be somewhere where I can get out and walk. Even so, cabin fever is very real. I feel it in my bones.

Watching Matthew Miele’s “Alan J. Pakula: Going For Truth” (2019), more a heartfelt memorial tribute than a standard doc, waves of nostalgia swept over me, not just for Alan J. Pakula’s best films from half a century ago, but for the bygone days when artists like him could thrive; when good, meaty scripts were still prized and Hollywood invested in them.

It was gratifying, if not particularly surprising, to see Cillian Murphy capture the Best Actor Oscar this year. He’d just starred in the year’s most critically acclaimed film, “Oppenheimer,” which also took Best Picture. It was a big performance in a very big movie.

Just last month, Robert De Niro turned eighty, a milestone that came and went without much fuss. It may well be that famously private actor didn’t want any. However, this moment reflects another milestone, marking a half century since De Niro broke out as a screen actor with two indelible performances, first in “Bang the Drum Slowly” playing a terminally ill baseball catcher, second as the unhinged Johnny Boy in “Mean Streets.”

The first time I saw a gambling table in movies was when I (and everyone else) first encountered secret agent James Bond on the big screen. The scene is iconic. Cool and confident in black tie, Bond (Sean Connery) lights a cigarette as he plays Baccarat. We see he is winning, and we sense he wins at a lot of things. The film was, of course, “Dr. No” (1962).