Fall movie titles are short and boring
There’s. Something. About. This. Fall’s. Movie. Titles. We. Can’t. Quite. Put. Our. Finger. On. On second thought, we can. They’re really short — and they offer about as much helpful information as an...
View ArticleWould James Dean have turned into another James Franco?
For 60 years now, people have wondered what sort of career James Dean might have had if he hadn’t died when the Porsche he was driving on the way to an auto race was struck by another car on Sept. 30,...
View ArticleLaverne Cox not seasoned enough to play Tim Curry’s ‘Rocky Horror’ role
Let’s do the Time Warp, again? Fox’s new “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” debuting next year, is the most misguided and unnecessary TV retread yet. The beloved 40-year-old cult classic film remains a...
View ArticleThe badass girl-band movie that’s better than ‘Jem’
Teenager starts rock band, renames herself, wears badass red eye makeup and outrageous ’80s outfits, becomes beloved icon of girls around the world. “Jem and the Holograms,” you say? Perish the...
View ArticleWe’ll never see the same ‘Phantom of the Opera’ audiences did 90 years ago
I’ll be introducing a 90th anniversary screening of “The Phantom of the Opera’’ on Sunday at the United Palace with my colleague Michael Riedel, live organ accompaniment by Ben Model and a miniconcert...
View ArticleChristopher Reeve’s Superman costume hits the auction block (cape not included)
Fanboys dreaming of being faster than a speeding bullet and more powerful than a locomotive will at least get the chance to mostly look the part when an iconic Superman costume — cape not included —...
View ArticleThe $100,000 ‘Citizen Kane’ sled
A “Citizen Kane” sled that has been in screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz’s family for more than seven decades goes up for auction on Monday — but his grandson, TCM host Ben Mankiewicz, never rode on it as...
View Article‘Sixteen Candles’ is racist and sexist — and needs to be retired
A few months back, my colleague Lou Lumenick proposed that “Gone With the Wind” go the way of the Confederate flag. It’s with a heavy heart that I wonder whether we should retire “Sixteen Candles,”...
View ArticlePeople are weirdly obsessed with the true meaning of ‘Groundhog Day’
“Groundhog Day,” that Bill Murray classic, is playing in an endless loop on cable in the UK in honor of Tuesday’s rodent-centric holiday (and its own endless-loop plot, of course). But did you know the...
View ArticleMeet the 92-year-old New York woman who once starred with Bogart
Few neighbors realize that Sonia Darrin, who at 92 has lived in the same building on West End Avenue for more than half a century, once traded insults with Humphrey Bogart in one of Hollywood’s...
View ArticleAs a feminist film, ‘Thelma & Louise’ fails miserably
On May 24, “Thelma & Louise” turns 25. Like many other 25-year-olds, it has much to be embarrassed about. Even on its own terms, as a bluntly obvious feminist parable, the movie is a...
View ArticleTCM Fest really does have something for everyone
This past weekend at the seventh annual TCM Classic Film Festival, I joined my fellow fanatics for an extremely rare screening of “Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back,’’ a movie I’ve wanted to watch for half...
View ArticleThe Hollywood film that Hitler didn’t want you to see
Lewis Milestone’s “All Quiet on the Western Front’’ (1930) is one of the most beloved films of the early talkie period, a much-revived anti-war classic that won the third Oscar for Best Picture. But...
View ArticleBronx girl-turned-TCM host re-creates her favorite film roles
As Hollywood gears up for another autumnal crop of Oscar contenders, movie buff Tiffany Vazquez is thinking about films from the 1930s to ’60s. “I’m still so surprised when I find something hilarious...
View ArticleVHS is the only place I can find the terrible movies I love
For most Americans, videotapes became garage dust collectors, table leg lifters, or prime yard sale bargain bin fillers as soon as DVDs were affordable and common at the turn of the millennium. Until...
View ArticleLaverne Cox not seasoned enough to play Tim Curry’s ‘Rocky Horror’ role
Let’s do the Time Warp, again? Fox’s new “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” debuting next year, is the most misguided and unnecessary TV retread yet. The beloved 40-year-old cult classic film remains a...
View ArticleThe badass girl-band movie that’s better than ‘Jem’
Teenager starts rock band, renames herself, wears badass red eye makeup and outrageous ’80s outfits, becomes beloved icon of girls around the world. “Jem and the Holograms,” you say? Perish the...
View ArticleWe’ll never see the same ‘Phantom of the Opera’ audiences did 90 years ago
I’ll be introducing a 90th anniversary screening of “The Phantom of the Opera’’ on Sunday at the United Palace with my colleague Michael Riedel, live organ accompaniment by Ben Model and a miniconcert...
View Article‘Last Tango’ rape scene may have been the real thing
One of the most infamous rape scenes in Hollywood may have been the real thing. Maria Schneider, then 19, starred alongside Marlon Brando in the 1973 flick “Last Tango in Paris.” In one scene, Brando,...
View Article‘Rogue One’ proves stars don’t have to be alive to still be on the screen
The greatest special effect in “Rogue One” isn’t a planet being wiped out or the whizzing dogfights of the rebels’ X-wing fighters. What’s really breathtaking about the new “Star Wars” movie is the way...
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