Serpico and Turning Black Friday into Good Friday
Sean MurphyLook 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…
R.I.P. Joan Rivers
I may have more to say about Joan Rivers. I may not. What is there to say (other than: if you want to know what drove her, what gave her…
End of Summer (Camp) with a Bat, a Cat and a Clown (Revisited)
It is an inexorable, if lamentable rite of passage to revisit cultural mementos from one's childhood and discover that, to an adult's eyes, they are lacking. But then, "putting away…
Remembering the USS Indianapolis, Robert Shaw and The Scene
On July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis, which had just delivered key components of the Hiroshima atomic bomb to the Pacific island of Tinian, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine.…
James Garner, R.I.P.
James Garner has died. So too has a tiny part of my childhood. What an American icon. A real hero, on many levels. I don't have anything to add. If…
A Week of Americana. Part Five: Chinatown
Chinatown does not usually make the short list of best American films. In fairness, it probably shouldn’t. It will have to settle for merely being the only perfect American film…
3.14 and Interfacing with the Infinite
If you've never seen Pi, Darren Aronofsky's first (and best) movie, I strongly encourage you to check it out. (Hint: it's not just a number; it's a concept of existence.…
Harold Ramis: Empathy for the Rebel
Consider this: a world without Animal House. Or Caddyshack, Stripes, Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day. I can’t fathom how much less happy my childhood would have been without any one of…
Marlon Brando, Pocahontas and Me (Revisited)
And the Oscar goes to... Who cares? Okay, okay: I'll resist the urge to be a sourpuss and let it suffice that I express my indifference to the pompous and…