In the past month, I have written 15 articles about American professional football. That fact may not be of interest to readers of a movie blog – especially an international one like Curnblog whose readers probably think American football is the equivalent of Tom Hooper’s Cats, overblown and silly, spectacle over substance, with the odd…
Ah, the social satire. It is not an easy nut to crack. Indeed, satire of any stripe requires a delicate balance and a tough skin. There are audiences who will never accept the joke at the heart of Jonathan Swift’s “A Delicate Proposal” or Ernst Lubitch’s To Be or Not to Be, and those may…
As dreams go, it was simple. I wanted to write a Top Ten list. I mean, I do it every year. I’m sure a lot of you do too. Every critic does it. Every film fan does it. Every angry-young-psychotic-who-will-actually-punch-you-if-you-don’t-agree-that-Quentin-is-modern-day-Shakespeare does it. But here’s the thing. Everyone does one and they are all the same.…
Many people getting introduced to the Living Dead series don’t realize that Day of the Dead (1985) and Land of the Dead (2005) were originally supposed to be one feature. Romero wanted to conclude his zombie franchise on an epic scale; the final chapter of his proposed trilogy was to feature more full-blown action in…
With the prevalence of professional (and professional-looking) videos on YouTube and other platforms that showcase comedians doing their thing, it’s a challenge to find a creator generating content that stands out from a cinematic perspective. One of those individuals, however, is making a sizable dent in that virtual bubble, and that person is Todd Montesi.…
I’ve started writing fifty-year memory essays of late. It’s probably because I am now far enough past fifty to recall the world I lived in fifty years ago. I mean, I have written about The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) and Double Indemnity (1944) as well, but if I have to go back one hundred…
Marriage Story is an unsparing chronicle of the dissolution of a marriage and its aftermath. Furious, tender, funny and possibly a little hopeful, Noah Baumbach’s film takes us through the stages Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) and Charlie (Adam Driver) travel with their young son, Henry, as they attempt to navigate the agonies and frustrations of breaking…
TThe expectations were high but Martin Scorsese’s new film has exceeded them with a magnum opus summing up his life’s work. An account of the circumstances that led to the disappearance of infamous Teamsters Union boss Jimmy Hoffa, The Irishman might best be summed up as elegiac. It is elegiac, not only because the story…
The American Film Institute’s 30th annual Latin American Film Festival concluded last week. Fifty-three new movies. Twenty-three countries represented (throughout Central and South America, as well as entries from Spain and Portugal). It is always one of the highlights of the year for foreign film lovers in the DC area. I was only able to…
In recent years, we’ve come to understand how detrimental the modern human lifestyle is to the environment. The effects of climate change are becoming more pronounced, and Americans alone generate more than 262 million tons of waste annually according to the Environmental Protection Agency. And the entertainment industry, especially film and television production, is one…
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