The Way They Kiss in ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’
Julie Andrews’ 1960s musical Thoroughly Modern Millie does its anti-authoritarian, anarchic-chaotic thing in a different key.
Michael Barrett
Seaton’s What’s So Bad About Feeling Good? Thumbs Its Tucan-Size Nose at the Establishment
An airborne virus infects the cogs in the capitalist machine in George Seaton’s What’s So Bad About Feeling Good? and makes people subversively happy.
Unearthing Author Margery Latimer’s Body of Work
Margery Latimer’s 20th-century feminist literature is sympathetic and even empathetic toward her women characters–and implicitly judgmental.
Life Irritates Art in These Stanley Kwan and James Cruze Talkies
Kwan’s art-house Center Stage and Cruze’s vulgar The Great Gabbo both touch on the tragic tropes of performers whose careers suck up their lives.
‘The Railway Children’ Shows the World Needn’t Be Beastly
Lionel Jeffries’ film version of Edith Nesbit’s The Railway Children is rich with a charm rooted in a bedrock of social awareness as hard as Charles Dickens.
Juran’s ‘Jack the Giant Killer’ and Bass’ ‘The Daydreamer’ Are Quality Children’s Films
Children’s films Jack the Giant Killer(1962) and The Daydreamer (1966) provide mindful escapism to viewers.
Frank Perry and Jerry Schatzberg Show Us How to Be a Woman in the ’70s
Frank Perry and Jerry Schatzberg jolted audiences who weren’t used to unsatisfied and belittled housewives starring in a film, or to the concept of such people existing.
René Clair’s ‘It Happened Tomorrow’ Is the First Great Film About Time Paradoxes
Meant to divert wartime audiences with sheer escapism, René Clair’s ‘It Happened Tomorrow’ dives into a past where tomorrow looks troublesome.
When Is Film Noir Not Noir but Only Noir-esque?
These 1930-40 films by Robert Siodmak and Lewis Allen challenge the “noir” genre. What if, for example, noir-minded people made slapstick comedy?
Promising Young Screenwriter: On Emerald Fennell’s Perplexing ‘Promising Young Woman’
Emerald Fennell’s thriller Promising Young Woman pushes buttons, but does it deserve the Oscar’s Best Original Screenplay?
The Spectacle of Spectatorship in Cecil B. DeMille’s ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’
DeMille’s ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’ is about spectacle and how people make a living fabricating gargantuan, silly, and sometimes dangerous fodder for the gawping public.