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WEST SIDE STORY 1961
West Side Story is the first movie I ever OD’d on. It was my first pre-teen movie crush, my first filmic fateful attraction, my first case of movie musical mania. I saw West Side Story when I was in...
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SETTLE FOR THE DREAM: SONDHEIM IN THE MOVIES
Legendary composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim appears in remarkably good spirits considering what Elizabeth Taylor is probably doing to one of his songs in this photo by Graham Morris of an August 1976...
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PAYDAY 1973
"We only pass this way once, might as well pass by in a Cadillac."Two years before Robert Altman’s Nashville (1975) gave us an epic vision of America viewed through the “politics is show-biz” prism of...
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PASSING 2021
“Back home down South, I could do no right. When I moved out West, I could do no wrong.”The quote is attributed to my late stepfather—a native Georgian who was light-skinned, green-eyed, and had a...
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LAST OF THE RED HOT LOVERS 1972
I remember when I was a teenager there used to be a radio station format called MOR, which stood for "middle of the road." And as the name suggests, these surprisingly popular stations catered to the...
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CHICAGO 2002
For me, the history of CHICAGO has always been inextricably linked with that of A Chorus Line. CHICAGO premiered on Broadway June 3rd; 1975; A Chorus Line, six weeks later, on July 25th. CHICAGO...
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TRILOGY OF TERROR 1975
Spoiler Alert: Crucial plot points are revealed in the interest of critical analysis and discussionAn unforeseen dividend in being a movie fan “of a certain age” is living long enough to see what films...
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THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN 1969
If You Want It, Here It Is, Come and Get It. Mm...Mm...Mm...MmState of the World - 2022: The world’s richest men are eccentric billionaires who, proportionate to the degree to which their hoarded...
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THE HONEYMOON KILLERS 1970
Spoiler Alert: Crucial plot points are revealed in the interest of critical analysis and discussion“My Favorite American film.” François Truffaut“One of the purest movies I’ve ever seen.”...
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MILDRED PIERCE 1945
Spoiler Alert: Crucial plot points are revealed in the interest of critical analysis and discussionFor me, Mildred Pierce has always been the most watchable and quotable of Joan Crawford’s movies....
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WEST SIDE STORY 2021
At age 76, multi-Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg is a full 11 years my senior. But when it comes to our mutual, lifelong love affair/obsession with West Side Story, he's practically my...
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THE TENANT 1976
Spoiler Alert: Crucial plot points are revealed in the interest of critical analysis and discussionSomewhere beyond the boundaries of the healthy, adaptive kind of Cultural Paranoia that I, a Black gay...
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MOVIES I FORGOT TO REMEMBER
What The Hell Did I Just Watch?Silent Scream, Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Amityville 3-D, The Nesting, and Dead & Buried. Even when presented with evidence that...
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THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 2021
"The art of film can only really exist through a highly organized betrayal of reality." François Truffaut For reasons obvious, the years 2020 and 2021 are largely a blur to me. The pandemic and...
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BURT BACHARACH: THE MAN AND HIS MOVIES
A TRIBUTE TO THE CINEMA MUSIC LEGACY OF COMPOSER BURT BACHARACH Burt BacharachMay 12, 1928 - February 8, 2023I don't think it's entirely my fault that, even to this day, a part of me still thinks Cole...
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KÖTÜ TOHUM (THE BAD SEED) 1963
* Spoiler Alert! This critical essay presumes the reader's familiarity with the 1956 film The Bad Seed and features major spoilers. Plot points and details related to both films are divulged for...
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BACK TO THE BEACH 1987
I've always been a huge fan of those Annette Funicello / Frankie Avalon Beach Party movies. A staple of Saturday afternoon TV when I was growing up, I looked forward to them for their terrific music,...
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CASINO 1995
A Movie Without A HeroI've no idea if 19th-century English novelist William Makepeace Thackeray in any way inspired Martin Scorsese's Casino (screenplay by Nicholas Pileggi and Martin Scorsese from...
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GOOD & PLENTY: MY NAME IS BARBRA
"The movies were my escape. ...The Loew's Kings was one of those extravagant movie palaces with red-velvet seats, an exotic painted and gilded ceiling, and Mello-Rolls…the best ice cream cones. And the...
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THE DRIVER'S SEAT 1974
Spoiler Alert: Crucial plot points are revealed in the interest of critical analysis and discussionElizabeth Taylor as LiseIan Bannen as BillMona Washbourne as Mrs. Helen FiedkeAndy Warhol as The...
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LIPSTICK 1976
Spoiler Alert: Crucial plot points are revealed in the interest of critical analysis and discussionLipstick is a dramatized exposé and social critique on the serious topic of rape in the same way that...
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CACTUS FLOWER 1969
When I think back to that time in the late '60s when Old Hollywood (all overlit studio sets, name stars, and formulaic genres) begrudgingly made way for New Hollywood (auteurism, non-linear...
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HELLO, DOLLY! 1969
Hello, Dolly!, indeed.I’ve wanted to write about this movie since I started this blog way back in 2009.The only thing preventing me was the promise I’d then made to myself—in response to what felt like...
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THE SUBSTANCE 2024
Spoiler Alert. This is a critical essay, not a review, so plot points will be revealed for discussion purposes.Have you ever come across one of those hysterical clickbait links with a headline...
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GLENDA JACKSON: MORE THAN A TOUCH OF CLASS
May 9, 1936 - June 15, 2023Winner of two Academy Awards for Best Actress, a two-time BAFTA winner, and the distinguished recipient of a Golden Globe, Emmy, and Tony Award. The late, great Glenda May...
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