|Courtney Kowalke| For a film reviewer, I have a big blind spot when it comes to Asian cinema. I enjoy the occasional Bollywood musical, and the Twin Cities Arab Film Festival keeps me up to date on the Middle Eastern movie scene. I am pretty ignorant of what’s going on… Continue reading
|Chris Polley| Borders are fake, but people are real. Director Carol Reed knew this better than most others who have trafficked in spy thrillers and political noir over the years. And while The Man Between is typically less regarded than his prior masterpieces The Third Man… Continue reading
|Ian Taylor| Two gentlemen are sitting in a railway carriage, traveling through London. As the train slows down at a station, the first man looks out the window and says, “Is this Wembley?” The second man, gauging, replies, “No, it’s Thursday.” The first man nods thoughtfully and says… Continue reading
|Reid Lemker| Sometimes, it’s a miracle that films get made, and RKO’s 1949 film, The Big Steal, is one of those miracles. Directed by Don Siegel and starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, and William Bendix, The Big Steal was originally conceived as a vehicle for RKO star George Raft, but… Continue reading
|Phil Kolas| I’ve been writing haikus, lately. There’s something so completely stupid and perfect about every single one of them. They are utterly impossible to do incorrectly, as long as you can count to 17. It is an unmissable endeavor. It is a great gift granted to every human being that… Continue reading
|Chris Polley| Planting a flagpole in the ground? That’s a phallus. Shredding a guitar on stage? That’s a phallus. Cocking a revolver and pointing it at a cashier with a lusty grin of power and control on your face, side by side with your gun-toting lover? You better believe that’s a phallus. Continue reading
|Penny Folger| It’s difficult to measure the kind of influence a film like Gun Crazy has had. Like so many great films, it flopped upon its initial release in 1950. It was the only movie ever made by its B-movie producers, the King Brothers, that actually lost money. The industry thought of… Continue reading
|Doug Carmoody| In the years prior to her leading role in Fritz Lang’s You Only Live Once, Sylvia Sidney had endured a barrage of difficult on-screen romantic partners. She was impregnated and drowned by her boyfriend in An American Tragedy, bullied into a life of alcoholism and infidelity… Continue reading
|Patrick Clifford| “Oh man! You’ve never seen Touch of Evil?” “Oh… Man. That first shot!” “Tick, tick, tick, tick… tacka-tooka, tacka-tooka…” This was how my good friend Juan Torres introduced to me to Touch of Evil. Long ago, when we were college students in Chicago. I can still see… Continue reading
