[Some mild spoilers . . . but if you haven’t seen any of Sam Peckinpah’s films, you have homework to do.] — Among the alarming number of artists and celebrities whose cards God has been pulling these last few months for his RIP file, three stand out as being linked in a remarkable way. Two of them are James Caan and the great English actor David Warner. The third name in this…

Following a two-year, plague-haunted hiatus, live screenings returned for the 2022 Nevada City Film Festival on the weekend of August 26–28. Held in the Foothill Sierra town of Nevada City (pop. @3000), it stands among the top small film festivals in the country. This was my first festival since moving…

Mostly associated with children’s literature, artistic whimsy is a rare flower and hard to grow. Its offhand magic requires a poet’s delicate touch. The fairy-dust effects fade fast, and one clumsy note can dissipate its music as easily as the summer sun burns away the morning mist. It’s also infamous…

Nope may not be a good title for a movie, but that don’t let that keep you away from this excellently made, entertaining, and sharp-eyed entry in the great parade of Alien Invasion pictures, a genre whose roots reach back to 1951’s The Day the Earth Stood Still. With few…

[With The Sopranos star Tony Sirico’s recent passing, I thought I’d re-edit and reissue this piece I posted way back on my old site in 2007, after the series ended. One thing for sure, character actors like him make everything better.] “We all dream of being a child again. Even…

I never fully took to Elvis Presley, but his big-sky voice singing songs like arias written for a backwoods operas, streamed under my childhood during the 1950s and 1960s. …

For over forty years, writer-director David Cronenberg has been among cinema’s most daring and intelligent auteurs. As the founder of what is now called “body horror,” he’s also among the most controversial. Audiences walked out on his first film way back in the late 1960s. They’re still walking out, as…

I haven’t paid particular attention to Tom Cruise throughout his thirty-plus year career. Thanks to a blinding grin visible from the moon, his stardom is undeniable. Still, I’ve never been able to embrace him as I have other stars, some of whom are lesser actors. Like many great movie stars…

Though it thrives most everywhere else around the globe, Thoroughbred horse racing is the sick man of American sports. The “Sport of Kings” was once as popular as baseball, more popular than football. …