Shelley Duvall, Sui Generis
Sean MurphyIt's going to be all The Shining all the time, but the lead sentence of Shelley Duvall's obit should be that she appeared in 3 Women and Annie Hall *in…
March 5, 1982: John Belushi’s Bungalow
I was the ideal demographic: alive while he thrived on Saturday Night Live, old enough to catch Animal House on cable, young enough to think The Blues Brothers were amazing…
Richard Lewis: Farewell and Thank You
Curb Your Enthusiasm has been a ceaseless source of joy for me the last two decades, and my capacity to revisit certain episodes (in general) and specific scenes (in particular)…
Norman Jewison: Movies as Melting Pots
Boy has America gotten a lot of mileage congratulating itself for being a big, diverse, inclusive land of opportunity. The American Dream as melting pot, wherein our differences don't define…
2023: A Final Farewell to Some Irreplaceable Icons
Wow, it's sad to look back and see the sheer number of all-times greats we watched depart our planet this year. Of course, these losses are invariably mitigated by the…
Scorsese’s Stations of the Cross: ‘Mean Streets’ at 50
"Don't you have something you really want to do?" Eternal props to John Cassavetes, mentor not only to Martin Scorsese, but innumerable other apprentices who carried his torch and elevated…
Like a Hurricane: The Brilliance of Billy Friedkin’s Burned Bridges
Boy does it hurt to admit William Friedkin was mortal after all. It didn't seem like he'd ever die; he was so demonstrably in love with life, his art, and…
The American System’s Dark Heart: Serpico at 50
Look at that dude. Pacino, clean-shaven and short-haired as the movie begins, sports the best ‘stache of the decade, then goes goatee, then gets full facial (hair and head), all…
You Want To See Something Really Scary?* 10 Horrific Scenes for Halloween
First off, a confession of sorts: scary movies don’t scare me. Or, to put it less bluntly, as a one-time horror movie aficionado, I quickly outgrew the ways gore supplanted…
Goodfellas at 30: The Most Definitive American Movie of the Last Three Decades
First, a confession. I did not love Goodfellas the first time I saw it (in the theater, shortly after it opened, in October, 1990). Then again, this seems to happen with certain…