Retrospectives

I refuse to watch the Broadway musical Newsies because I have a strong loyalty to the 1992 Disney film version of the production starring Christian Bale. Why do I love it so much? The numbers are catchy, …

Singin’ in the Rain is a go-to movie for me. I reach for it whenever I want something familiar and fun. The comedy holds up upon repeated viewings (and, in fact, seems to grow funnier), …

Brad Pitt’s performance in The Devil’s Own is good. I think his Irish accent is melodious and I enjoy listening to it. Not being Irish myself, I can’t speak to the authenticity of it, but I …

The Lawnmower Man isn’t the most popular sci-fi film ever made in the 90s. It’s certainly a weird one. Yet, it’s strangely relevant to 2022 and the wonders of modern technology. The Lawnmower Man is about Jobe …

In 2002, the national sense of security and anxiety was at an all-time high in the aftermath of 9/11. Panic Room, a cerebral thriller with a twist on the home invasion genre, was released to …

Before watching Hart’s War, I had read no summary of the movie. I knew it took place in World War II and had Bruce Willis and Colin Farrell. Other than that, I was completely in the dark. …

One of my biggest fears is volcanoes and Dante’s Peak accentuates that fact. This is generally pretty irrational, considering I live in the Intermountain West (don’t bring up Yellowstone), yet the fear has persisted my …

As an adult, it’s easy to get caught up in the daily grind. Work, marriage, kids, etc., can eat up our day before we know it’s gone. Sometimes we need a proverbial kick in the …

I am the youngest of three older sisters, so you can imagine the emotions that ran rampant in our household. I vividly remember watching A Walk to Remember with my sisters several times throughout my 2000s …

I only recently saw Black Hawk Down for the first time, but I was well aware of the history behind the film and knew what I was getting into. Despite the minor corniness you get …

It’s hard to imagine a movie that has more 90s hip-hop nostalgia than Juice. It was the golden age for movies like it, with Boyz n the Hood in 1991 and Menace II Society in …

I had a choice between writing a retrospective on David Lynch’s haunting Lost Highway, or this embarrassing 1992 comedy starring Sylvester Stallone and Estelle Getty. Every reasonable cineaste would naturally choose the former. One movie …

JFK has its share of flaws. Director Oliver Stone, a Vietnam veteran, displays his strong disdain for the government throughout the film. Blinded by this, some of the information included in the film is incorrect and some …

I’m probably writing this article prematurely. On my reading list, I have somewhere — beneath hundreds of other books I promised myself I would read one day — Kevin Farley’s supposedly touching memoir about his …

Movies have always been an important part of my life; from my first (traumatic) cinema experience, to a present where I write about movies, and yap about them on YouTube. However, in the later 1990s-very …

Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) got the ending that Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) deserved in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. After years of the government bouncing her around and facing discrimination and violence, she deserved to be …

In 1999, the film industry underwent a seismic shift that would change cinema forever when Lana and Lilly Wachowski released The Matrix. The film was an immediate cultural phenomenon and proved to be a massive …

We’ve mentioned the Mission: Impossible franchise before in the context of anniversaries. Back in the days when the franchise was hopping from director to director with big stylistic changes from entry to entry. While they …

Ralph Fiennes excels at playing villains, even when he isn’t necessarily trying to. The English Patient is a good example of this. Even though Laszlo de Almásy (Fiennes) is our main character that we should sympathize with, …

Cape Fear is a Hitchcock film without Hitchcock. Who better to make it than Martin Scorcese, the master of all things bloody and dark? It’s the kind of film that theaters were made for. Cape Fear is …

In 1953, a new play premiered. Written by the legendary playwright Arthur Miller, The Crucible is loosely based on the Salem Witch Trials. Though the narrative is based on historical events, Miller was indirectly talking …

Thirty years ago we were treated to Wes Craven’s deliriously entertaining socially-conscious horror roller coaster, The People Under the Stairs. When we talk about Craven’s oeuvre, the usual suspects are mentioned: the exploitation classic, The …

I was introduced to How Green Was My Valley through Frasier (and no one was surprised). There’s an episode where Frasier goes to several different video rental stores just to find this one movie — How Green Was My Valley. …

When someone dons multiple hats on a production (such as starring, directing, and/or writing), the results can vary greatly. Yes, there are times when everything falls into place, and we end up with Citizen Kane, …

My Own Private Idaho is weird to watch for the first time. I don’t know what I was expecting, but a group of young male prostitutes with Shakespearean vernacular was not it. All I knew about …

I’d never seen Training Day before this past week and so I had the idea in my head that Denzel Washington’s character, Alonzo, was the hero of our story. He was rough around the edges and a …

Ten years ago saw the release of remakes of The Thing and Footloose (Prequel, shmequel, you know damn well the 2011 The Thing is a remake really, but we’ll come back to that). Footloose made $63 million …

Along with the highly-anticipated release of Halloween Kills, comes the desire to revisit past films in the franchise. Coincidentally, Halloween II, one of the best chapters in the Michael Myers lore, turns 40 this month. Kind …

Andrzej Zulawski’s 1981 horror film Possession has been a particularly difficult film to view legally in the United States. For this reason, it has been on my radar for literal years as a film I have heard …

You never really know what you’re in for when you watch Drive. You think it’s a movie about crime, then it becomes a slow-burning journey of self-discovery, then it’s a romance, then it’s back to a crime …