The Cotton Club’s excesses ultimately align with Francis Ford Coppola’s bloodstained romanticism to pull off a uniquely American show of jazz.
MOVIES
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’s Flaws are Fundamental
The Star Wars inversion from 1977’s can-do Americanism to blank Nineties reboot and post-9/11 tribalism is complete. JJ Abrams directs and Kathleen Kennedy guides as Disney funds this mashup of mysticism and mainstreamed “social justice” pap.
Move Review: A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
The two-hour drama plugs Fred Rogers’ ideal that living for your own sake, “without hurting yourself or others”, is ultimately like making for yourself heaven on earth.
Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver: Flawed, Engrossing and Prophetic
Why Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver is Flawed, Engrossing and Prophetic About Today’s Culture
David Lean’s “Lawrence of Arabia”
Unraveling the Mysterious Allure of David Lean’s “Lawrence of Arabia”
The Joker Movie: Making Outcasts Into Monsters
The Joker depicts with a penetrating portrayal by Joaquin Phoenix of the much-maligned, non-college-bred white male, which is why the “social justice” thugs hate this film sight unseen, the various factors that breed one of today’s most persecuted minorities, the American outcast, into monsters.
The Last Emperor
Scott Holleran on Bertolucci’s muted, mythological, China-themed masterpiece.
At 50, Downbeat ‘Midnight Cowboy’ Made Deep Impact
As the Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight film turns 50, Scott Holleran explores the reasons for the controversial box-office hit and the impact of its legacy.
Appreciating “Gone With the Wind” (1939) as a Great Work of Art
Gone with the Wind is an expression of the ability of the individual to resist the times, the trials and ruins of the day, rise and never let one’s ego be destroyed.
Heroism in Sports: 1949’s The Stratton Story
A simple American story about a man and the work and woman he loves makes director Sam Wood’s biopic, authorized by Chicago White Sox pitcher Monty Stratton, a compelling and inspiring motion picture.
Interview with Robert Benton
Scott Holleran met with writer and director Robert Benton to talk about his distinguished career. 1979’s Kramer vs. Kramer won the Best Picture Academy Award and earned Benton two Oscars for Best Screenplay and Best Director.
‘Skyscraper’ Rises to the Occasion
Two plot points serve as bookends for the plot and theme of writer and director Rawson Marshall Thurber's Skyscraper. They're mercifully on time and surprisingly simple yet effective. I wish the movie's gratitude theme was layered with more...
Streisand’s ‘A Star is Born’ (1976) Falters
The second remake of William Wellman's historic A Star is Born (1937) suffers from the same or similar problems as the Fifties' Judy Garland vehicle. Going with the same iconic title as the original and the 1954 film, the 1976 version also puts...
Judy Garland Dominates ‘A Star is Born’ (1954)
Hollywood's first remake of William Wellman's searing 1937 tragedy, A Star is Born, neither enhances nor detracts from the original. Director George Cukor, working from Moss Hart's screenplay (based upon the original script), mixes music into the...
Man Shapes Life on Earth in ‘Heaven Can Wait’ (1978)
This year marks 40 years since Paramount Pictures debuted its other big box office hit in 1978. Heaven Can Wait, not to be confused with the delightful Ernst Lubitsch comedy with the same title, was released within weeks of Paramount's popular...
‘The Incredibles 2’ Satisfies
With the same voice cast and writer and director, Brad Bird, as the 2004 original, this Pixar sequel, which is being released 14 years after its animated characters debuted, offers more of the same. By my estimate, and I enjoyed The Incredibles...
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Rogers sought to establish for the child a benevolent orientation to reality.
‘Grease’ (1978) Rocks and Rolls
Grease revels in the pure enjoyment of contrasting clean-cut and raunchy un-seriousness. It brings both into alignment and this is its enduring charm. Forty years after Grease debuted in movie theaters to major blockbuster success, the 1978 Allan...