With his perfectly styled Afro, cool bop walk and smart-aleck mouth, martial artist and actor Jim Kelly, who died from cancer on Saturday at the age of 67, was a seventies screen sensation who became an icon. Michael A. Gonzales appreciates cinema’s first African-American martial arts star.
My mom, the criminal; two new books that want to be the next Lolita; heart disease cut in half, but we’re not cheering; how to take care of your smartphone battery; remembering the actress Elizabeth Hartman; R. Crumb’s rejected gay marriage New Yorker cover; the most popular movies outside the United States
This piece is about director Neil Jordan’s seven most overtly supernatural, fairy tale-like films—The Company of Wolves, High Spirits, Interview with the Vampire, The Butcher Boy, In Dreams, Ondine, and his latest, the mother-daughter vampire shocker Byzantium. An infographic analysis of each—please refer to the key for each symbol’s meaning—reveals this pattern and confirms Byzantium is the culmination of 30+ years of Jordan exorcising his personal demons on-screen.
The National Society of Newspaper Columnists recognized Roger with first place in the category “Online, Blog, and Multimedia Column — over 100,000 monthly unique visitors.”
If movies were reviewed like video games; the new prostitutes; The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, appreciated; a different, highly visual approach to web-based art criticism; five best burger recipes; falconer academy for beginners; The Great Gatsby without special effects.
A dinosaur that started on four legs and then graduated to two, just like humans; a Chinese poet writes about his experience of torture in prison; why all journalism is “advocacy journalism”; why it matters that 50 Shades of Grey will have a female director; a brief history of the president as action hero; the 50 essential lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movies; artist creates portraits of people she’s never met via DNA samples from cigarette butts.
Tom Shales looks at “Carson on TCM,” a weekly series of shows culling great Carson interviews.
Charlie Schmidlin reports from a screening of the Roger Ebert–scripted “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.”
A Civil Rights-era test to see if you’re smart enough to vote; what you need to know about the situation in Turkey; the director of 20 Feet from Stardom, interviewed; new classical music suggestions for Hollywood villains; something about Like Clockwork; guess which critic wrote this un-bylined New York Times review?
Does the blizzard of images from Turkey confuse you? Do you who the protesters are and what they want? Do you know what’s at stake? Far-Flung Correspondent Omer M.
Mozaffar tries to explain the situation in this piece, a primer aimed at people who would like to understand what’s happening but don’t know where where to start.
Terence Stamp opens up about singing in “Unfinished Song,” the long acting dry spell he had in the 1970s, and working with Steven Soderbergh.
The use of drones and other machines for war or for surveillance has turned up as a subject in a surprisingly large number of summer blockbusters, including “Iron Man 3,” “Star Trek Into Darkness,” “Man Of Steel,” and now “Pacific Rim.”
What’s happened to physical comedy? Have we’ve lost the desire to stimulate the part of the brain pratfalls talk to? Max Winter wants answers to these questions, and wonders if the great silent comedian Harold Lloyd can provide them.
Distribution company Olive Films
has released two obscurities by Jean-Luc Godard, 1976’s “Comment Ca Va” and 1987’s “Soigne ta Droite”
(known in the U.S. as “Keep Your Right Up”) and while these films may
not have the immediate impact of his better-known works, they both
reveal a filmmaker who has spent his career challenging himself, his viewers
and the very medium of cinema itself in ways that are oftentimes
fascinating and frustrating in equal measure.
Defense of Marriage Act struck down; anti-abortion bill in Texas defeated; the Civil War rages on in film; how Under the Dome proves that TV shows don’t have to pay for themselves with ads; why The Simpsons is TV’s most God-friendly series; appreciating Steve Wonder; two Mad Men video essays, on the show’s depiction of Vietnam and the gradual evolution of Peggy Olson.
The “accidental racism” of Paula Deen; Curtis Mayfield as musical journalist; Stephen Fry’s ongoing struggle with depression; Rex Reed still thinks Melissa McCarthy is, oh, don’t make us repeat it, just read it; why NBC newsman David Gregory is what’s wrong with Washington; Richard Matheson at 20,000 feet; what the heck is an aspect ratio, anyway?
Peter Sobczynski eulogizes the late, great, astoundingly prolific writer Richard Matheson, “whose work in a career that would encompass seven decades influenced anyone who encountered, it regardless of the medium he was working in.” Includes appreciations of “Duel,” “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” “I Am Legend,” “Somewhere in Time” and many other works, original and adapted.
The future of affirmative action; what it means to be “Pro-Putin”; Jaws the Revenge, re-shredded; James Gandolfini, cautionary tale; Isadora Duncan’s forgotten art; getting to the bottom of that mysterious Mad Men poster; Roger and Gene rave about Star Wars on Nightline.
For all our Los Angeles readers: This Thursday you’re in
for a treat. To remember Roger, the Cinefamily has partnered with
Cinespia to host an archival 35mm screening of the Ebert-penned cult
classic, “Beyond the Valley of Dolls” featuring a performance by ’60s
psychedelic rockers The Strawberry Alarm Clock. Some of the “Beyond…”
cast and crew, like Meyer bombshell Erica Gavin and groovy music
supervisor Stu Philips, will be there. I’ll be there too. And it all happens this Thursday, June 27th at 7:30pm at the the Saban Theatre, a newly restored 1930 Art Deco movie palace, at 8440 Wilshire Blvd in Beverly Hills, CA.
