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- “I’m not interested in money. I just want to be wonderful.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “[My ambition is to] give something to our literature which will be our own.” — Walt Whitman
- “I don’t want to show things, but to give people the desire to see.” — Agnès Varda
- “I never made a message picture, and I hope I never do.” — Howard Hawks
- “If I am going to be a poet at all, I am going to be POET and not NEGRO POET.” — poet Countee Cullen
- Reviews: Currents (2026)
- Reviews: Forge (2026)
- “Only the bad directors tell you how to read a line, how to define your character. The good ones let you do your job.” — Carroll Baker
- “I never heard the term ‘rockabilly’ back then. Nobody did…When people asked what music we played, we were rock ’n’ rollers.” — Sonny Burgess
- “I am in a prison: one wall is the avant-garde, the other wall is the past, and I want to escape.” — György Ligeti
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- Mike Molloy on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
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- sheila on “There’s nobody as good as the Ramones, never will be.” — Joey Ramone
- Jincy Willett on “There’s nobody as good as the Ramones, never will be.” — Joey Ramone
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Hamlet
- Biff Dorsey on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Hamlet
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Hamlet
- Dave on Review: The Chronology of Water (2025)
- Biff Dorsey on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Hamlet
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Tag Archives: drama
The Great Escape (1963), Possessed (1947), Three on a Match (1932)
The Great Escape Directed by John Sturges I saw this for the first time on the big screen, at a packed showing at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago. It’s meant to be seen large. It’s meant to be seen … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged Ann Dvorak, Bette Davis, drama, Humphrey Bogart, Joan Blondell, Joan Crawford, John Sturges, Mervyn LeRoy, Pre-Code, reviews, war movies
11 Comments
The Letter (1940), The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969)
The Letter Directed by William Wyler I can’t get over the two opening scenes. I watch the behavior, I watch every gesture, every gliding camera angle, the way all of the characters’ heads, including Davis’, are turned away from the … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged Bette Davis, comedy, drama, Kurt Russell, reviews, William Wyler
24 Comments
For Road and Track: Snake & Mongoose, opening today
This was a lot of fun. Road and Track asked me to review Snake & Mongoose, about the famous drag racing duo in the 1970s. I know many people have nostalgia for those Hot Wheels. Although I am not one … Continue reading
Seen Recently: Une Affaire Des Femmes (1988), Seven Psychopaths (2012), Battle of Algiers (1966), The Bling Ring (2013), Tomorrow (1972)
Une Affaire des Femmes or: Story of Women directed by Claude Chabrol This movie is as deep as the Mariana Trench. I suppose it all depends on which angle you want to look at it, which filter you want to … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged Claude Chabrol, drama, France, Horton Foote, Isabelle Huppert, Italy, literary adaptation, politics, reviews, Robert Duvall, Sam Rockwell, Sofia Coppola, war movies
9 Comments
Seen Recently: Corman’s World (2011), Imitation of Life (1959), Viva Zapata! (1952), The Skin I Live In (2011), Undercurrent (1946)
Corman’s World directed by Alex Stapleton A great documentary about Roger Corman whose low-budget productions in the 1960s/70s basically acted as film-school and film-experience for a generation of filmmakers who now run Hollywood. The stories are legendary, but here in … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged documentary, Douglas Sirk, drama, Elia Kazan, film noir, Katharine Hepburn, Lana Turner, Marlon Brando, reviews, Robert Mitchum, Spain, thrillers, Vincente Minnelli
17 Comments
Review: After the Triumph Of Your Birth, (2012)
“Life feels like a gift you didn’t ask for. You appreciate the gesture. You just don’t know what to do with it.” Eli (Tom Dunne) is a self-described “traveling man”. He is on a journey to walk to the ocean … Continue reading
Review What Maisie Knew
My latest for Roger Ebert: a review of What Maisie Knew, the modern-day telling of Henry James’ 1897 novel. It’s good. It’s upsetting.
Review: TFF 2013: Run & Jump
This review originally appeared on Capital New York. Will Forte is well-known to American audiences from Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock and his appearances on “Conan,” makes his dramatic debut in Run & Jump, an Irish film about a 38-year-old … Continue reading
Ebert Fest 2013: Bernie, with Richard Linklater and Jack Black
2012 was a heavy-hitting year. An embarrassment of riches. We had The Master, Moonrise Kingdom, Zero Dark Thirty, Django Unchained, Amour, Beyond the Hills, Argo, Lincoln. The majority of these were in my Top 10 list for 2012. But one … Continue reading