Tag Archives: news

Movie Review: A Tasty Tangled Web — “Sew Torn”

I once covered the first day of the first class of a brand new film school. Directing students were learning how to rehearse a scene with actors, and one of them finished his turn running the set when he asked … Continue reading

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Movie Review: “Springsteen” makes “Nebraska” — “Deliver Me from Nowhere”

Self-revealing, self-examining, self-mythologizing, self-indulgent and self-destructive, those are all phrases that can apply to Bruce Springsteen’s seminal, uncompromising and defiantly anti-commercial album “Nebraska.” It can’t be called the LP that “made him.” But this critically-acclaimed smash from 1982 underscored the … Continue reading

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BOX OFFICE:  Taylor Swift” goes “Showgirl,” scores a $30 million+ weekend — The Rock’s “Smashing Machine” Smashes his Oscar Hopes

A documentary about the making of her album “The Life of a Showgirl” makes Taylor Swift the queen of the box office on the first weekend of October, celebrating the record’s blockbuster release with a box office smash as a … Continue reading

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Documentary Review — “Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink”

The thing that instantly dates Rick Goldsmith’s documentary “Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink,” about the Internet, hedge-fund and tycoon-driven death of American newspapers, is the gasping attempt to find something optimistic in the death of the country’s … Continue reading

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Documentary Review: Not just a band, but Prophets Warning of a Grim, Dumb American Future — “Devo”

Some kids dug the beat and found it “easy to dance to….” just so long as you knew The Robot. The cool kids loved the performance art kitsch of it all, groups of five dressing up in yellow ponchos or … Continue reading

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Movie Review: The Animated Early Life of a Great Artist — “Hola, Frida”

“Hola, Frida” is a charming animated imagining of the early years of the great Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Adapted from a book by Sophie Faucher, this Canadian/Quebecois production takes the tidbit that Kahlo had an imaginary friend as a little … Continue reading

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Movie Review: “The Musicians” become a reluctant String Quartet

“The Musicians” is a droll comedy about four string highly-strung string players who must come together as a “quartet” to perform an original composition on four legendary instruments for a worldwide classical music TV audience. If I haven’t scared you … Continue reading

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Classic Film Review: A Brit Baby Boomer lost in His Own World — “Billy Liar” (1963)

Falling into “Billy Liar” is no easy feat, even for a film buff, over sixty years after it was released. It’s been included in more than one list of “the 100 Best British Films Ever Made,” albeit in the bottom … Continue reading

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Documentary Review: A Young Woman “Prime Minister” steers New Zealand Through its Darkest Hours

There’s cold comfort for American and international audiences taking in “Prime Minister,” a new documentary about New Zealand’s first female prime minister, the woman who led the country through a horrific mass shooting hate crime, a volcanic erruption, COVID and … Continue reading

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Documentary Review: Guitars, Reverb and a History of “Sound of the Surf”

Here’s a fun-fun-fun little documentary about the history of surf music, a movie that remembers the surfing “fad” and enduring appeal of surf culture and the “dripping damp sound” of Fender (usually) guitars pumped through amps that had to grow … Continue reading

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