4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on September 21, 2023

Like Stormy Weather, it’s a slightly unnerving form of mimesis as Cabin in The Sky sets about depicting the lifestyle of Blacks. There’s not a white folk to be seen, and yet there’s no doubt they have been integral in developing this musical fantasy out of a Faustian-like folk tal   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on September 19, 2023

Hallelujah (1929) is one of those films that takes some leg work in order to grapple with what it fully represents. But like some of King Vidor’s broadest, most humane portraits, it has moments pregnant with all sorts of residual meaning. We begin with iconography that feels troublesome even a   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on August 18, 2023

Christian Petzold is a filmmaker I was introduced to over a decade ago, and I would consider myself a passionate fan. I’ve seen every one of his films since then, and I would gladly share him with anyone who might listen. There’s some pleasure in championing a director who’s not...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on August 16, 2023

A version of this review was published on Film Inquiry. I’ll admit that in our modern world and hyperactive lifestyles full of constant distractions and competing spectacles, I’m thankful I was able to watch Past Lives the old-fashioned way. I sat there in the dark with other strangers   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on August 11, 2023

“Like you I know what it is to forget.” Recently I’ve been meditating a lot on the impact of the atomic bombs in part because of the resurgence of the life and work of Robert Oppenheimer; he will be inextricably tied to Hiroshima and Nagasaki for posterity’s sake. Thanks to...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on August 9, 2023

Being a history aficionado I pored over American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin, which provided the inspiration for Christopher Nolan’s latest film on J. Robert Oppenheimer. So many ideas were swirling around my brain when I entered the theater, but the first is obvious and it&#8217   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on July 25, 2023

It’s not a groundbreaking observation, but the French seem predisposed to have a less dismissive posture toward genre fare. I’ve written ad nauseam about how Jerry Lewis has lasting appeal overseas (befuddingly I know). In the ’50s and ’60s, The Cahiers du Cinema gang did the   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on July 23, 2023

A few years ago my mother helped sell my grandparents’ home, and it was a home they had resided in for well nigh 50 years. They were not affluent French folk with a fine arts collection; what they did have was a connection to that space. And it wasn’t just...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on July 21, 2023

Our entry point into Irma Vep as an English-speaking audience is Maggie Leung, and although this is a French production from Olivier Assayas, it’s almost as if he’s provided us an avatar. The cinematic Maggie in the film becomes our window into the world created around her. Although the   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on June 15, 2023

The Old Dark House has a disarming levity that broadsided me at first. James Whale, the man who famously gave us Frankenstein, has all of his notable features with the tinges of horror on hand for another ghastly delight, and then he goes and pokes fun at the whole setup....   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on June 13, 2023

There’s something deeply prescient about The Mummy beginning with an archeological expedition for The British Museum. If it’s not evident from the outset, the film is firmly planted in the reality of 1922 when Howard Carter famously discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun. This is only one hi   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on June 8, 2023

One of the personal details of Tod Browning’s life was his adolescence spent working in the circus. This gives him an accessibility to the material that some other less-attuned director might have lacked. And yet there’s little denying Freaks is a genuine showpiece when it comes to turn   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on June 6, 2023

As the story behind Universal’s Dracula unfolds, it’s a joy to pinpoint all the elements helping to intensify the dread and solidify it among the studio’s emerging array of horror classics. There has to be a kind of mythology and lore that the scares can be built out of. The...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on May 18, 2023

This is my entry in The CMBA Spring Blogathon: Big Stars on the Small Screen There are several more recent late-night hosts like Stephen Colbert or Conan O’Brien who have managed to use the truncated form (and podcasts) to try and go deeper with guests beyond surface-level pleasantries. Colber   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on May 5, 2023

The story is as old as the mythology of the West. You cannot avoid tales of Tombstone, Arizona on October 26, 1881 and the famed Gunfight at The O.K. Corral. John Ford covered the events most famously in My Darling Clementine headlined by Henry Fonda, Victor Mature, and Walter Brennan...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on May 3, 2023

We open in Montana 1866 with the Allison brothers (Clark Gable and Cameron Mitchell), two former Confederate soldiers, leaving behind the “heartbreak memory of Gettysburg” for the promise of wealth in California. But first they must traverse frostbitten exteriors. It’s no picnic a   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on April 29, 2023

It’s initially intriguing to have a western pairing of Robert Taylor and Richard Widmark, rather like what we get out of Warlock from Henry Fonda and Widmark the year after. My estimation of the dashing ’30s matinee idol has refined over time as he matured into such worthwhile westerns a   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on April 27, 2023

Time Limit sounds like it should be the title of a syndicated TV program or at least a game show in the heyday of family entertainment. It is not. The themes are heavy, and there’s a weight behind the picture that means something. And in spite of the clunky title,...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on April 25, 2023

Only in a western could we meet our protagonists in a sand trap known as Gila Valley. It says everything you need to know about the Arizona landscape, and then the sweeping Technicolor tones say a bit more. Richard Widmark is easy enough to place as an enigmatic figure. There’s...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on April 6, 2023

One of my latest ventures was to view a handful of romantic comedies of the ’30s and ’40s, many with screwball elements, and you could not broach this territory without eventually crossing paths with Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray. They starred in 7 films together throughout the de   read more