‘Laurel or Hardy’ Offers Another Fine Mess of Short Comedies
When skinny British music-hall comedian Stanley Laurel met portly American film comic Oliver Hardy, the result was cinema’s most enduring and beloved comedy duo.
Michael Barrett
James Whale’s Film, ‘The Kiss Before the Mirror’, Is an Elegant Pre-Code Treat
James Whale’s pre-Code The Kiss Before the Mirror subverts the assumption of women as deceitful property
1928 Documentary ‘Travels in the Congo’ Reveals Allégret and Gide’s Colonial Sentiments
1928 documentary ‘Travels in the Congo’ overlooks colonialist crimes.
On Apes, Racism, and Other Shoddy Scams in 1930 African Adventure Film, ‘Ingagi’
Restored ‘Ingagi’ (1930) is an important influential film fit for neither man nor beast.
Danny Kaye Is the Most Motley Fool Ever in ‘The Court Jester’
Danny Kaye was as equally adept with vine-swinging, dancing, and hypnotizing as he was with tongue-twisting patter, as seen in the 1956 comedy, The Court Jester.
King Hu’s ‘Raining in the Mountain’ Is Rich with Gorgeous Atmosphere
The quiet, extended scenes in King Hu's Raining in the Mountain are full of beauty as well as tension and anticipation.
‘The Other Side of Madness’ Is the Most Obscure Charles Manson Film
If truth is stranger than fiction then the truth about some films, such as the Charles Manson film The Other Side of Madness, feels as strange as reality ever gets.
The Mystery of History in Jia Zhangke’s ‘I Wish I Knew’
In Jia Zhangke's documentary, I Wish I Knew, many discuss the pivotal year of 1949, the year the Chinese Communist Party officially took over China, reaching Shanghai. It was also the year my mother, putting a finger in the wind, left China with my sister.
Silent Classic ‘The City Without Jews’ Wavers Between Satire and Grim Prophecy
It's the privilege of satire to apply one's opponents' "logic" towards a reductio ad absurdum, as we see in The City without Jews.
The Best Classic Films on Blu-ray in 2020
Many formats have come and gone and streaming competes, to a degree, but these best classic films offered on Blu-ray in 2020 prove irresistible.
Robert Altman’s Quirky ‘Popeye’ Boasts a Can Full of Geniuses
Robert Altman's busy, mobile style perfectly captures and mirrors E.C. Segar's rowdy, rambunctious Popeye comic.