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 Life is full of weird coincidences: The first time Brad Pitt’s star power really hit me was in a film directed by...Robert Redford. The movie, of course, was Brad’s big breakthrough, 1992’s “A River Runs Through It”, in which Brad plays the more rebellious of two brothers growing up in 1920’s Montana. Watching it over twenty years ago, I vividly remember thinking that Redford was directing a younger version of himself. Think about it: they look alike, they talk alike, and a generation apart, each would be considered for the same kind of roles. Each in their younger days had the fair, clean-cut quality commonly referred to as “All-American”.

In preparation for this, the anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy, I re-visited what I feel are the two finest cinematic representations of this pivotal confrontation in the Second World War. Both moving tributes to the heroic men who fought and died on the critical day that turned the tide in the Allies’ favor, these films are…(drumroll)... “The Longest Day” (1962) and “Saving Private Ryan” (1998).    

It’s easy just to focus on Angie Dickinson’s physical attributes and allure. But before the pictures below allow us to do just that, let’s remember that behind that powerful, unapologetic sexuality was a strong woman who had the brains and talent to become an enduring star.

With the coming of May, parents reflexively steel themselves for the end of the school year, and that interim period before the kids get immersed in their various summer experiences and activities.

It’s a bit of a mystery why lines like  “Do I feel lucky?” (“Dirty Harry,” 1971)  and “I’ll be back!” (“The Terminator,” 1984) enter the popular zeitgeist, but there’s no denying they do. And there’s more than a bit of magic to that.

With the 91st Academy Awards upon us, the time feels right to recognize the crucial role that movies have played in our lives, particularly in troubled times.

Many of us have lost someone we love way too soon. After the initial shock and grief recede somewhat, the prevailing feeling (at least for me) is waste. Wasted opportunity. What more could that person have done with his or her life? I feel it too with famous names in the arts who left us way too soon.

I can vividly recall the first moment I saw Meryl Streep on-screen. The film was “The Deer Hunter” (1978). Her part was relatively small — she played the stateside love interest of two men shipped off to Vietnam — but I was immediately struck by her presence. 

 Tonight, make it real; watch a doc.  Here’s a bugaboo of mine: while the documentary form offers viewers incredible rewards, it rarely gets the attention it deserves. Theories abound as to why, the most prominent being that people tend to watch movies to be transported, to actually get away from life as it is. Perhaps there’s some truth to that, but to avoid the best of these films is to miss out on something truly special. In examining real life, its myriad characters and society as a whole, docs can be wildly entertaining, yet still deliver a form of insight and impact quite distinct from narrative films.