SPIKE LEE MOVIES #5: He Got Game (directed by Spike Lee) In this programmer's opinion, one of Spike Lee's absolute best movies, HE GOT GAME tells the story of an imprisoned father played with raw rage and vitality by Denzel Washington who gets a brief furlough to try to convince his estranged basketball star son (played by real basketball legend Ray Allen) to play for a certain college team. But like many of Lee's movies. . .
Read MoreToday we look at two amazing masterpiece movies by filmmaker Charles Burnett. First up is. . .
Read MoreGREAT MOVIES OF 2015: In this blog post, we take a look at 12 great movies (in this programmer's opinion) of 2015. As a kind of science experiment, you might want to look at the pictures that won the awards in 2015 versus the ones we discuss here. You certainly may have a different take than we do. But 2015 proved that it's often the passage of time that's the real arbiter of the movies we come back to. First up. . .
Read MoreFirst up, three movies by master John Ford. Ford's YOUNG MR LINCOLN is part of an unbelievable streak of films (all of which we highly recommend) that includes STAGECOACH, THE LONG VOYAGE HOME, and THE GRAPES OF WRATH. All made within 1 year of each other. What's so amazing about YOUNG MR LINCOLN is actually the incredible reserve and tact Ford displays. Lesser directors would have. . .
Read MoreThe Old Dark House (1932, directed by James Whale) Haunted house films are a staple of Halloween movie delights. They are sometimes funny, sometimes terrifying, with interesting ensembles. They span from the earliest of recorded cinema (look for The Haunted Castle from 1896 on YouTube, it’s tons of fun) all the way up until yesterday. One of the earliest spooky house movies. . .
Read MoreWe wanted to explore 3 of Cuaron's previous films today. First up is the last movie he made in Mexico before ROMA, Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN. It tells the story of two teenage friends on the cusp of adulthood who go on a road trip with a woman in her 30's in the hopes of basically having sex. . .
Read MoreBALLAD TO BUÑUEL #3: L'AGE D'OR (1930) Today, we'd like to sing the praises of totally singular auteur Spanish surreal filmmaker Luis Buñuel (1900-1983). Buñuel made early surrealist masterpieces, middle period Mexican surreal yet socially biting dramas, and a final French period that ended with one of the greatest "last" movies this programmer has ever scene. In his first phase. . .
Read MoreGuest writer Stephanie Sack on the giallo masterpiece of loneliness Footprints on the Moon (Bazzoni, 1975, Italy)
I have never been lonelier than when I have been with other people.
That is one of the worst feelings in worlds both known and unknown. If you are anywhere in or near or approaching that corridor of aching cold, for whatever reason, right now, I got you. I get it. It's horrible. No thank you.
Read MoreGUEST BLOG BY MITCHELL NAGY: Two Japanese Anime Classics Whisper of the Heart and Galaxy Express 999
Directed by the late Yoshifumi Kondo, Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart is based on a shojo manga with adapted screenplay from master animator Hayao Miyazaki. Together they created a film with inviting textures and multilayered depth set in Western Tokyo. . .
Read MoreThis programmer will post about some of the foreign language movies that made a deep, profound impact on him in his teenage years and a bit later. There's something very powerful and intense that happens with those first few movies on your journey of cinema. You start to discover whole worlds you never knew existed…
Read MoreThe doc is such a plastic and malleable art form and genre. Though the ones that stick with us seem to really reveal something about reality, true life that fiction can't, documentaries are every inch as manipulated, crafted, structured as fiction movies…
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