A preview of the 39th Reeling: The Chicago LGBTQ+ International Film Festival, featuring reviews of "Boulevard! A Hollywood Story," "Firebird," "Jump, Darling," "Sweetheart" and "North by Current."
Matt writes: The Roger and Chaz Ebert Foundation is joining the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation in presenting the inaugural No Malice Film Contest for Illinois youth and young adults.
A tribute to the great Cloris Leachman.
Melika Bass chats with Michael Glover Smith; Drawing away clichés; Franklin Leonard's Hollywood list; On the set of "The Last Picture Show"; Distillation process of adaptation.
RIP Harper Lee; Hell in Oz; "The Witch" reawakens childhood nightmares; How to hire women directors; How David Milch gambled away his fortune.
Even the Pope loved Eli Wallach; North Korea threatens war over Seth Rogen movie; Remembering Peter de Rome; Dennis Hopper's lost photography; Richard Linklater on "Boyhood"
Marie writes: For those unaware, it seems our intrepid leader, the Grand Poobah, has been struck by some dirty rotten luck..."This will be boring. I'll make it short. I have a slight and nearly invisible hairline fracture involving my left femur. I didn't fall. I didn't break it. It just sort of...happened to itself." - Roger
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Marie writes: I may have been born in Canada, but I grew-up watching Sesame Street and Big Bird, too. Together, they encouraged me to learn new things; and why now I can partly explain string theory.That being the case, I was extremely displeased to hear that were it up Romney, as President he wouldn't continue to support PBS. And because I'm not American and can't vote in their elections, I did the only thing I could: I immediately reached for Photoshop....
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Enlarge image: Slapping flesh and heavy breathing.
From Kim Morgan, Sunset Gun:
When reading the request for greatest opening shots, the first film that popped into my head was immediate and almost too easy — “Kiss Me Deadly.��?
And then I reflected more.
There are so many masterful opening shots, some I find works of genius or some I simply love. But the more I thought about it, the more I drifted back to where my mind always manages to drift back to — stark, hard-boiled cruelty, paranoia, insanity and psycho sexual angst — so there it was again, “Kiss Me Deadly.��?
But for good reason. Robert Aldrich’s masterful noir hits you with a hysterical bang that sets its frenzied tone with such balls-out experimental élan; you can’t believe the film was released in 1955:
Before any credit sequence, the film begins with a pair of naked feet running down the middle of a highway in the black of the night.
Great Movies
