Before Richard Pryor, before Eddie Murphy, before rap, there was Rudy Ray Moore. This comic legend from Ft. Smith, Arkansas, had been in show business for 30 years, working with Redd Foxx and others in comedy clubs, doing the “chitlin’…
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Why is it that some of the key movies I frequently rewatch involve girls with bad attitudes, criminal tendencies and questionable morals? Is there anything sweeter than sitting with a group of drunken friends howling through Switchblade Sisters or Shanty…
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There are character actors in movies that pop up occasionally and you’re overcome by a warm wave of recognition and delight. One unforgettable gal that used to drive me crazy was the mannish-looking Madame Spivy who appeared in such movies…
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Is it just me, or does Thanksgiving make you think of Italian cannibal movies, too? Ah. November; bowls of stuffing and mashed potatoes, peas and carrots slathered with butter, steaming ladles of dark rich gravy, a golden-brown turkey carved on…
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The film Outlaw King, now showing on Netflix, has received a lot of press concerning the sight of actor Chris Pine’s penis. It still amazes me that the phallus still has the power to overshadow anything else about the movie.…
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They don’t call it “fall” for nothing. There’s a definite unfriendly chill in the air. Leaves are turning riotous colors somewhere, but not near you. (To be honest I always thought old dead leaves colorfully camouflaging their demise to be…
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In the new film Boy Erased, Lucas Hedges plays a young man sent to a gay conversion therapist by his Baptist preacher father (Russell Crowe) and mother (Nicole Kidman). What director Joel Edgerton does so well, adapting the autobiographical book…
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When people ask what I do for a living, as a film critic my response is always: “I sit in the dark.” Which sometimes begs the reply: “Oh, like a vampire?” Well, not exactly. But I do feel a real…
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Contrary to popular belief your life does not flash before your eyes at the moment of death. I discovered this the hard way while standing on a step ladder to check out my VHS copy of The Night God Screamed…
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In a beloved episode of the Twilight Zone called “Living Doll,” a girl’s baby doll threatens her hateful stepdad, played by Telly Savalas, icily declaring “my name is Talky Tina and I am going to kill you” before sending him…
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