Criterion really is the gold standard of home media. Aside from some questionably oblique covers, their Blu-rays are all sensational restorations of movies by legendary directors such as Fellini: Bergman; Antonioni; Bunuel; Bresson; Fassbinder; Varda; Renoir; Denis; Powell; Akerman– it’s…
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I just finished a wonderful biography of the legendary Vampira, a living Charles Addams cartoon come to life as a television horror host in L.A. in the 1950s; good friend of James Dean; lover of Marlon Brando and Orson Welles;…
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While most have us have been glued to their screens for the last year, one has to admit it’s a golden period for TV shows. When I think over the million hours I have spent watching TV, there are plenty…
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It all started with a Perry Mason TV episode. Doesn’t it always? I find I can only go to bed after midnight when I watch a MeTV Perry Mason show. I need that psychic joypop of watching someone breaking down…
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When people crave action movies it’s easy to head for the James Bond films or the Jason Bourne, Mission Impossible or Die Hard franchises. Or any John Woo film. But there are a few kick-ass, action-packed, cinematic excesses that I…
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Now, we don’t watch cheesy horror and sci-fi movies for the witty, sparkling repartee. But occasionally one of these low budget wonders lets loose with dialogue that makes you laugh out loud. Over the years, I keep a notepad ready…
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During the depths of the pandemic I found myself re-watching a wacky Warner Brothers musical from the 1930s- Ready, Willing and Able– the one where Ruby Keeler dances atop a giant typewriter at the end of the film. This time…
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Sometimes I can get in a wormhole on YouTube, especially when I’m in the mood for an “old dark house” movie from the 30s and the 40s. I just get a hankering for cantankerous families gathered at crumbling mansions for…
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If ever a movie was in need of rediscovery it’s Deadly Games, a deliriously deranged 1989 French film about a little boy and his elderly grandfather on Christmas Eve battling a fearsome home invader- a psycho dressed in a Santa…
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One of the best defenses for using Botox (the act of injecting toxins in one’s face in order to smooth wrinkles) was made by a rather well-preserved friend of mine. We were talking about Botox and I asked, “why…
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