Most of us remember the first movie witch that freaked us out. From the green-skinned Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz, to the evil Maleficent of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. Honestly, for me the thought that you could ride a broom and…
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Starting in 1995 the US Post Office released a series of “Legends of Hollywood” stamps that were a thrill for collectors and fans. From James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Bette Davis, John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, Alfred Hitchcock to Shirley Temple there…
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Watching Luke Kirby’s extraordinary performance as serial killer Ted Bundy in No Man of God got me to thinking of other actors who were able to sharpen their acting skills portraying murderers. It must be wild channeling some twisted mind…
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There are many news stories about post-Covid air travel. Particularly about unruly passengers punching the flight crew for having the temerity to tell them to buckle their seat belt or wear a face mask. Jean-Paul Sartre was right: “Hell is other…
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There was a period beginning in the late 90s when Asian “J-Horror” was all the rage. Director Hideo Nakata’s Ringu became an international horror sensation and made us afraid of video cassettes and televisions. Takashi Shimizu’s Ju-On: The Grudge made…
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We love certain movies for many different reasons. Some that we saw as kids have an almost supernatural pull on our psyche. Others had a profound effect when we first saw them and continue to cast a spell through the…
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I just finished a fascinating, heartbreaking book by Laura Wagner– Hollywood’s Hard-Luck Ladies, another one of those offbeat, great, movie books published by McFarland & Company. It chronicles 23 Hollywood actresses whose careers and lives sometimes careened off cliffs. They…
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There are quite a few films that fall into a certain category. The kind of movie you are watching and you say to yourself, “am I reading too much into this or is this really gay?” There’s that funny monologue…
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Every year around this time of “Pride” celebrations I try to set up a film festival in my apartment of movies that aren’t exactly what many would consider life-affirming or particularly queer-positive, but I consider radically gay. Not that I…
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Way before the denigrating cinematic term “chick flick” there was the “woman’s picture.” It was a catch-all for gloriously soapy melodramas where females were the main focus of the movie. It was similarly a put-down, but since then film historians…
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