The New Classics: The Master

By Michael Cusumano

The Master refuses to elevate the audience above Freddie Quell.  In the simplistic version of the film Joaquin Phoenix’s wastrel Freddie Quell would be The Sucker and Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Lancaster Dodd would be The Fraud and there would be little ambiguity about it. No doubt this version was what many expected when they bought a ticket for Paul Thomas Anderson’s kaleidoscopic spiritual and psychological odyssey. A dynamic that would allow for them to lean back and smugly cluck that they wouldn’t be so easily taken in by such madness.

What Anderson's fictionalized take on the founding of Scientology delivered was something altogether more twisted and obscure. At no point can we be entirely sure what any of the main characters truly believe...

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Almost There: The cast of "A Raisin in the Sun"

by Cláudio Alves

The 1950s and 60s marked a time when the Academy Awards loved few things more than prestigious stage play adaptations. This was particularly true of the acting categories, where dozens of such movies scored multiple nominations. Comparing the Tony nods with the Oscars' is to find many of the same roles, like Tennessee Williams' heroines, Eugene O'Neill's human wrecks, Clifford Odet's tragic characters, and Edward Albee's domestic demons. For a short period, the Tonys were even better precursors for an Oscar victory than the Golden Globes. Still, even these trends have exceptions and one of the saddest was the 1961 movie based on Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun…

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Joel Schumacher (1939-2020)

by Nathaniel R

Joel Schumacher and the star he made, Colin FarrellI once walked across the street in the East Village with Joel Schumacher. I didn't say anything though I immediately recognized him; as directors go he was hard to miss -- very tall with long silver hair. Anything I might have wanted to say would surely have been too belabored in a street crossing. "I love your work," is rote and in this case untrue though I loved some of his work enthusiastically in a formative (St Elmo's Fire) or camp (Batman & Robin) or moment-in-time (Flatliners, Tigerland).

Sometimes I loved his work in all of those ways at once -- Love you, Lost Boys!

It's been curious to see so much appreciation spring up on the internet today, particularly because Schumacher was never a director to inspire reverence in the masses though he made several popular pictures...

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200 Oldest Living Screen Stars

We thought it was time to update this list..

200 OLDEST LIVING SCREEN STARS
last updated 06/10/2021

103 years old

Marsha Hunt (10/17/17)
This Chicago born actress made over 50 films but never achieved A list stardom (during her peak she was often just below the title) and was one of many victims of the Hollywood blacklist of the 1950s. Among her best known films: the Greer Garson version of Pride & Prejudice (she played Mary Bennett), the comedy Bride by Mistake, the family dramedy The Human Comedy (which gave Mickey Rooney a historic nomination), and the well-loved noir Raw Deal.

101 years old

Nehemiah Persoff (8/2/19)
Modern audiences probably remember him best as the loving Papa whose ears Yentl kept checking in song in Barbra Streisand's hit musical. But that was just scratching the surface of his career as he had numerous tv and film roles for decades including the voice of Papa Mousekwitz in the An American Tail movies. At the peak of his career in the 1950s he was in films like Hitchcock's The Wrong Man and the immortal comedy Some Like It Hot...  

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Introducing the Smackdown Panel for '57

Are you enjoying our super-sized Supporting Actress Smackdown season? We've already discussed 1947, 1981, and 2002. We normally only do 4 episodes but we're super-sizing things this summer so there's lots more to come. It's our own niche movie-loving way of trying to alleviate your (and our) anxiety, depression, exhaustion, during this tumultous time of righteous protests, pandemic sheltering, and treasonous manchild in the White House. Up next 1957

THE NOMINEES

• Hope Lange (Peyton Place)
• Carolyn Jones (The Bachelor Party)
• Miyoshi Umeki (Sayonara)
• Elsa Lanchester (Witness for the Prosecution)
• Diane Varsi (Peyton Place)

Get to watching those four films when you need a break from the real world! Send in your ballots once you've screened 'em with "1957" in the subject line. But please only vote on the movies you've seen.

PLEASE WELCOME OUR NEXT PANEL ... 

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