Dr. Strangelove, A Half-Century (Almost) Later
Sean MurphyStanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove was released 49 years ago, today. In a longer piece entitled "Making the Case for Kubrick", I assessed his remarkable career (find that HERE). Here is some…
Human Connections, Missed Connections, Chance Connections: ‘Three Colors: Blue, White, Red’ (Revisited)*
Words need not be minced here: the Criterion Collection treatment of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s trilogy is an essential, if overdue cultural event. The high-definition digital restorations are reason enough to rejoice;…
Snow Miser vs. Heat Miser
So it's that time of year. I don't remember the last time I watched the entire 60 minutes of The Year Without a Santa Claus, but I did the other…
Serpico and Turning Black Friday into Good Friday
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…
‘They Live’: The Most Blunt Critique of Unfettered Capitalism Ever Committed to Celluloid
They Live was a postmodern pastiche of old-school science fiction that, for a variety of reasons, was too ahead of its time to be properly appreciated. Actually, that’s not quite…
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 suspense…
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…
A History of Violence
When you think about the distinctive ingredients of Americana, the elements that comprise what we think about when we think of what makes America so...American, it's easy to recite the clichéd…
Farewell to a Goodfella: Henry Hill, R.I.P.
Well, it finally happened, albeit a lot later than many of his enemies would have liked. The world's most famous --and recalcitrant-- bad-guy-turned-FBI-informant, Henry Hill, has passed away at age…
Here’s Johnny, Redux
I may have to go purchase a five gallon (ten gallon?) hat just so I can properly tip it to the good folks at Sabotage Times for unearthing this gem.…