Across 110th Street
Three men steal $300,000 from the mob in this blaxploitation classic from 1972. My main complaint with Black Mama, White Mama (co-written by Jonathan Demme, who sadly passed away yesterday) was that […]
Tag Archives: Retro review
West Side Story
Two basketball teams, both alike in dignity / in fair Manhattan, where we lay our scene. So doesn’t begin Sondheim and Bernstein’s West Side Story. Set in New York City, 1957, this […]
Gandhi
“No man’s life can be encompassed in one telling. There is no way to give each year its allotted weight, to include each event, each person who helped to shape […]
Fiddler on the Roof
The Jewish community of Anatevka lives a modest but peaceful life in tsarist Russia. Farmer Tevier (Topol) works hard for his family, and dreams of marrying off his five daughters […]
Left Behind
Named after Nicolas Cage’s career, Left Behind is a Christian thriller set during the rapture. Remember the rapture? It was all the rage back in 1981, 1994, 2011 and various other dates for which […]
Amadeus
We look back on 1984’s Amadeus to commemorate the recent loss of its writer Peter Shaffer (and because the DVD was cheap in Sainsbury’s). This octuple-Oscar-winning drama tells the story of […]
Gods of Egypt
We missed this film when it came out. After causing a serious box office stink across the pond, its time in UK cinemas was severely limited. I’m not even sure […]
Mommie Dearest
Faye Dunaway takes the limelight as screen legend Joan Crawford in this tale of child abuse against her daughter Christina (Mara Hobel and Diana Scarwid). An adaptation of Christina’s memoirs, […]
Leonard Cohen: Bird on a Wire
Bird on a Wire documents Leonard Cohen’s 1974 20-date tour of European cities, from Dublin to Tel Aviv. The story of this documentary’s path to cinema screens is a remarkable […]
Mildred Pierce
Joan Crawford plays Mildred Pierce, a housewife-cum-restraunteur (or “housewife cum restraint” if you ask my spellchecker) who struggles to meet the demands of her materialistic daughter Veda (Ann Blyth). But […]
Screen Goblin 