Living for the Cinema

From the director of The French Connection, The Exorcist, and.....Cruising :o....this was somewhat of a comeback vehicle for the late, great William Friedkin in the mid '80's after a series of highly publicized flops and commercial disappointments.  It's a hard-edged LA-based crime story revolving around two Secret Service agents (William Peterson, John Pankow) attempting to take do...

For the first time in more then eight years, the legendary Michael Mann (Heat, The Insider, The Last of the Mohicans) has returned to the director's chair with a project which he has been developing for more than two decades.  This is the epic story of Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver) the Italian racer/industrialist who would forever revolutionize both car manufacturing and auto-racing.  Only this...

Many would consider Denzel Washington to be our Greatest Living Actor....Period and as part of this podcast's year tradition to celebrate his birthday (December 29), we will revisit one of the lesser-known starring vehicles from early in his career which is this Jamaica-based mystery thriller directed by Carl Schenkel.  Denzel stars as the local police chief of a Jamaican resort community who...

First-director Cordell Jefferson helms this highly acclaimed new comedy/drama starring Jeffrey Wright as a veteran author struggling to find success and also coping with some upheaval within his family back home in Boston - his siblings are played by Sterling K. Brown and Tracee Ellis Ross.  His literary agent is played by John Ortiz who has challenged him to write a novel with better commercial p...

Todd Haynes (Carol, Far From Heaven) directs this domestic drama/psychological thriller starring Oscar-winner Julianne Moore as a suburban woman who had an affair with an underage boy more than twenty years prior and ended up marrying him after she was eventually released from prison.  This young boy has grown up into Charles Melton (Riverdale) and the two eventually had a family....now with three...

Sam Email (who was the creator of the popular drama "Mr. Robot") directs only his second feature film adapting the 2020 novel of the same name from Rumaan Alam.  This is a story of one New York City family (lead by Oscar winner Julia Roberts, Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke) who rents a nice home on Long Island to get away for the weekend....and the father (Two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali...

CHRISTMAS MOVIE WEEK 2023 continues!  And this second episode happens to focus on a strange, little studio holiday-themed comedy which actually came out thirty years ago this coming Easter.... It stars previous stand-up comedian Denis Leary in his first starring role in a feature film - he plays Gus, a career thief who is robbing the homes of some wealthy residents in a snowy New England town when...

It's CHRISTMAS MOVIE WEEK 2023, Season's Greetings!!!   What better way to kick things off than the much-anticipated sequel to one of THE greatest Christmas movies ever....Die Hard?  This came out only two years later and needless to say, it brings back a lot of the elements from that first action classic from '88.....our hero John McClane (Bruce Willis) taking on several terrorists...

The legendary director of Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, American Gangster, and.....Exodus: Gods and Kings (!) has returned to deliver another historical epic.  Oscar-nominated legend Ridley Scott (also Alien, Thelma & Louise) directs the story of Napoleon Bonaparte, the renowned French King/General who took Europe by storm just over 200 years ago....and he's played by recent Oscar-winner Jo...

Thirty years ago in the lead-up to its release, this Western historical epic was looked upon as "the Other Wyatt Earp" movie with the troubled production as the following year, there was a much hyped bigger budget biopic of Wyatt Earp starring Kevin Costner coming out.  Since they covered similar subjects, both films were in a race for production and this one was first.....with some cost...

Just over thirty years ago, we saw the unheralded release of this latest futuristic action thriller directed by Marco Brambilla starring Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes....only it was actually more of a comedy. :o   And Stallone was actually being INTENTIONALLY funny for a change.....and here was Snipes at the peak of his stardom playing a Joker-like homicidal villain....and playing a promine...

Aren't movie weddings SUCH fun?? :) Well it certainly depends on who's attending of course along with the current emotional states of the families involved.  This highly acclaimed melodrama from fifteen years ago focuses on the Buchman's, a family which MIGHT not be in the best place at this time despite their oldest daughter Rachel....getting married. (Hence the title)  Rachel is p...

The long-awaited sequel to the 2019 smash hit Captain Marvel is finally here.....and is the Marvel fanbase excited?  Well it seems that due to much negative coverage in the lead-up to to its release, they might not be.  But is that reflective of its quality?  Well for this new entry in the franchise, we have a new talented director on board with Nia DaCosta (2021's Candyman) along with a coup...

Over the past five decades, there have been several docudramas devoted to stories from The Nixon Era including films focusing on his presidency (Nixon), the investigation of the Watergate break-in (All The President's Men, Dick), and even smaller episodes WITHIN his presidency such as Elvis & Nixon which came out just a few years ago starring Michael Shannon as Elvis and Kevin Spacey as R...

Fincher's back!  (David that is) As it is Fassbender...Michael Fassbender as his star.  The Oscar-nominated director of Seven, Fight Club, and The Social Network has returned towards directing his first full-on thriller in more than a decade.  (If we're not counting Gone Girl which is as much a social satire and domestic comedy/drama) Fincher is telling us a story (based on a French grap...

For a long-running franchise like the James Bond series, the release of Casino Royale in 2006 was just a shot in the arm - this was the first film starring Daniel Craig as Agent 007 and it was also THE first film in the history of this franchise to be a genuine reboot.  It received stellar reviews, made a ton of money, and was beloved by fans....it was also the first entry to end on a genuine clif...

Welcome to the second half of this week's run of Brian DePalma/Al Pacino collaborations as this crime drama came out ten years after Scarface starring Pacino in title role in his first performance following his long overdue (and several say not deserved) Oscar win for Best Actor for Scent of a Woman earlier that same year.  This was now an older, wiser Pacino....yet arguably just as loud, thi...

Back in December of 1983, this bloody, epic crime saga from director Brian DePalma (Carrie, The Untouchables, Blow Out) opened to middling reviews and box office....after months of hype regarding its extreme violence and how it depicted the Cuban community in Florida.  The controversy never quite died down but its reputation only grew as it went on to become one of the most influential films of th...

Throughout his illustrious career, Oscar winner Martin Scorsese has collaborated with many great actors but two in particular more than any others.....multiple Oscar winning Robert DeNiro and Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio.  But now for the first time in his career spanning more than five decades, Mr. Scorsese has finally directed a film starring BOTH of them.  And yet, the main star of this parti...

Twenty years ago in the immediate wake of winning his second Oscar (Best Actor for Training Day), our Greatest Living Actor chose this as a follow-up project....a frothy neo-noir taking place in Florida reuniting with a director (Carl Franklin, also director of previous episode One False Move) behind one of his underrated '90's gems, Devil in a Blue Dress.  We're of course referring...

The Halloween holiday is upon so what better time than to kick in CARPENTER WEEK!  Of course this refers to genre master John Carpenter who over the past 45 years has directed several of the most iconic action and/or horror genre films of the modern era including previous episode The Thing, Escape From New York, and of course...Halloween. ;) Many would cite the decade of the '80's as his...

The Halloween holiday is upon so what better time than to kick in CARPENTER WEEK !  Of course this refers to genre master John Carpenter who over the past 45 years has directed several of the most iconic action and/or horror genre films of the modern era including previous episode The Thing, Escape From New York, and of course...Halloween. ;) Many would cite the decade of the '80's as hi...

Spooky Season has arrived!  And what better way to kick it off than to celebrate what many consider to be "The Scariest Movie Ever!" which would be this supernatural psychological thriller first released fifty years ago this coming December.  It was directed by the legendary, recently passed William Friedkin partnering with celebrated author William Peter Blatty adapting his very own bes...

Twenty years ago, this Tokyo-based relationship comedy/drama opened to great acclaim and strong word of mouth not only becoming a minor worldwide phenomenon at the box office but also garnering significant Oscar attention.  For Sofia Coppola, it was the second film she directed and she earned a nomination for Best Director making her only the THIRD woman to be nominated for that award in Oscar his...

From the director of Rogue One and Godzilla (2014) comes yet another EPIC science fiction adventure.....and yet this time around, it's based upon a completely original concept.  Gareth Edwards (who not only directed by co-wrote the screenplay with Chris Weitz) presents us with a future world taking place in 2067 where the two main factions fighting for control of the planet are humans (mainly...