Monthly Archives: January 2021

The answer to that rhetorical question headline is “Yeah, pretty much.” David Fincher’s brutal, sprawling fever-dream of Incel America can seem prescient, 22 years after its release. It crossed over into cult status sometime before the lunatic right embraced its … Continue reading →

First time I ever saw “Saturday Night Live” this band with Hitler on keyboards appeared. I thought it was another comedy element of the show. This film just premiered at Sundance.

I see this stacked in my “warm clothes” collection at my mother’s place in frigid N.C., a studio-provided turtleneck from the days when critics were critical, films were shot on celluloid and Michael Palin might be just the priest to … Continue reading →

Shudder has this one, which starts streaming Feb. 4. Creepy?

Good storytelling skates by on the tension between what we see, read or hear unfold, and what we hope or fear might happen as the tale unfolds. Dickens or “Dumb & Dumber,” it’s all about meeting or willfully defying our … Continue reading →

A little song, a little prance, a little Patsy from “AbFab” in her cups and in your hands.

Joanna Smith Rakoff’s memoir about working in a New York literary agency that represented J.D. Salinger becomes a break-out vehicle for Margaret Qualley and a reminder that nobody knows that New York/Old Money world better than Sigourney Weaver, who rarely … Continue reading →

“First Blush” is a Millennial Dance with the Tiger romance, another generation’s flirtation with the “Threesome that Works.” Victor Neumark’s film posits that maybe this time, with this generation, we can stop the dance without the tiger eating us. Hey, … Continue reading →

The Cold War comedy had become its own genre by the time Mel Brooks and Buck Henry put in on TV with “Get Smart.” The idea that Russian spies, Russian authoritarianism and “The American Way” could collide for laughs should … Continue reading →

A friend posted a Facebook link to a New York mag Vulture column, “An Oral History of Disney’s ‘The Emperor’s New Groove’” the other day, and that got me feeling nostalgic, remembering when Disney had a Feature Animation Florida division … Continue reading →