Holiday is a screwball comedy from 1938—and its actually a remake of a 1930 film, which in turn was based on a Broadway play. That was a common trajectory at the time, with The Maltese Falcon being one of the most famous examples. It was one of first in the genre to star Cary Gran … Continue reading Holiday (1938) – Blu-Ray Review →

Being There functions prematurely as a final film for both its director, Hal Ashby, and its star, Peter Sellers. Both were near the end of their careers, and it delivers a sense of closure—especially as regards Sellers' career, at his turn here kind of sums up everything you like about Sellers as a performer. Ashby would … Continue reading Being There – Blu-Ray Review →

QT8: The First Eight is a feature-length documentary on the ex-video store clerk who made good, which made all less-successful video store clerks resentful... Quentin Tarantino. The documentary has been in legal limbo for a while due to the whole Harvey Weinstein scandal, since the Weinstein Company bought the film sight unseen. Tarantino himself had … Continue reading QT8: The First Eight – Blu-Ray Review →

The Limits of Control is a Jim Jarmusch film, one of his lesser efforts surely but also one of his most boldly ambitious films in certain ways. He’s not a director who’s known for being particularly ambitious, so that’s interesting. It’s kind of a reverse Ghost Dog, and it also has a hitman as the … Continue reading The Limits of Control – Blu-Ray Review →

This film is probably best-known for two things: the fantastic Tom Jones theme song (sung by Jones but written by Burt Bacharach), and being the first screenplay from Woody Allen. It’s very stupid, but that’s the point. It’s also one of the few films Allen has written for someone else, and unsurprisingly he was unhappy … Continue reading What’s New Pussycat? – Blu-Ray Review →