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- Substack: An interview with screenwriter Bonnie Gross about her script Lady Parts
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- “Good acting is thinking in front of the camera. I just do that and apply a sense of humor to it. You have to trust the audience to get it.” — Charles Grodin
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- March 2024 Viewing Diary
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Tag Archives: Rocky
“I take rejection as someone blowing a bugle in my ear to wake me up and get going, rather than retreat.” — Sylvester Stallone
Old-timers here will remember the Rocky phase that took over for a while. Of course the movies weren’t new to me. As a matter of fact, I know the first movie by heart, practically shot for shot, and there was … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Directors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged mirrors, Rocky, Sylvester Stallone
6 Comments
Packing/Unpacking Montage
I haven’t been around these here parts much in the last 2 weeks. I moved to a new apartment on February 1 (and the move was somewhat unexpected. It all happened – finding apartment, applying, getting approved – in a … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
Tagged Alfred Wertheimer, Elvis Presley, Gun Crazy, Hope, John Wayne, Quantum Leap, Rocky, Sylvester Stallone, Ulysses
13 Comments
Year in Review: Shooting My Mouth Off in 2016
I look at this and I wonder why I always feel like I haven’t done jack-squat. Or, at the very least, I could do more. Well, I always can do more. Regardless, here are links to some of the things … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Books, Movies, On This Day, Personal, RIP
Tagged Abbas Kiarostami, Baz Luhrmann, Buddy Holly, Camille Paglia, Carrie Fisher, Carroll Baker, Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, Chantal Akerman, Compulsion, David Bowie, Dean Stockwell, Dolly Parton, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Elizabeth Bishop, Elizabeth Taylor, Elvis Presley, Eminem, friends, Gena Rowlands, George Stevens, Gilda, Isabelle Huppert, James Dean, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, July and Half of August, Katherine Dunn, Langston Hughes, Little Richard, Marion Cotillard, Marlon Brando, Matthias Schoenaerts, Merle Haggard, Mia Hansen-Løve, Miriam Hopkins, Patricia Highsmith, Rebecca Hall, Richard Linklater, Rocky, Sam Cooke, Shakespeare, Something Wild, Stephen King, Sudden Fear, Supernatural, Sylvester Stallone, Tennessee Williams, The Great Gatsby, Wanda Jackson, women directors, year in writing, Zac Efron
6 Comments
“[Ryan Coogler is] unspoiled, he’s unfettered with material success, and he’s hungry. He reminded me of some other brash young guy in 1975.” – Sylvester Stallone
What a gorgeous and honest interview with Sylvester Stallone about his Oscar-nominated performance in Creed. (I wrote on Creed for Rogerebert.com’s year-end roundup.) He is so so good in Creed, and I’m grateful that I’m in the group of people … Continue reading
December 2015 Viewing Diary
Christmas, Again (2015; d. Charles Poekel) So good. I reviewed for Rogerebert.com. Back Street (1932; John M. Stahl) Back Street is the story of a woman who allows herself to be a “back street” woman: a long-time mistress to a … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Alfred Hitchcock, Belfast, dance, England, Greta Gerwig, Hal Ashby, Howard Hawks, Hungary, Ingmar Bergman, Iran, Iranian film, Ireland, Irene Dunne, Jennifer Lawrence, Joan Crawford, John Wayne, Kentucker Audley, Poland, Rocky, Star Wars, Supernatural, Sweden, Truffaut, Turkey
63 Comments
10 Best Movies of 2015: Rogerebert.com Contributors
The 10 regular reviewers at Rogerebert.com were polled for our top movies. Editors then tallied up the polls, came up with the winners: 10 Best Films of 2015 Each of us were assigned to write a short piece on one … Continue reading
Fandor’s Best Feature Films, 2015
I was invited to participate in Fandor’s end-of-year poll about the best feature films of 2015. Here are the results. Whether or not your favorite is or is not there is irrelevant (at least in my view). I’m not a … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged Angelina Jolie, Asghar Farhadi, Christian Petzold, Jafar Panahi, Nina Hoss, Rocky
32 Comments
Seeing Creed Today
It’s one of my most-anticipated films of the year. Not just because of my long-standing Rocky obsession, plus my love of Sylvester Stallone, but because I think Michael B. Jordan is so excellent too (Fruitvale Station!) Plus the wonderful Tessa … Continue reading
The Creed Trailer
Well. THAT was phenomenal. Never mind the fact that it pours right into my Rocky obsession, but the film is directed by the enormously gifted Ryan Coogler who brought us the harrowing Fruitvale Station. I’m thrilled he’s at the helm. … Continue reading
Mirrors #2: The Man In the Mirror
You didn’t think I’d forgotten, did you? I forget nothing. I still haven’t written the damn thing but I now have a file folder on my desktop filled with screengrabs of men looking at themselves (or at somebody else) in … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies
Tagged Compulsion, Lady From Shanghai, mirrors, Paris Texas, Rocky, Saturday Night Fever, Sunset Boulevard, Taxi Driver
8 Comments