Category: Movies
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96th Oscars Reaction
15 for 23. Amazingly, my pessimistic strategy accounts for most of my misses. Perhaps it’s time to give the Academy more credit. Before I defend myself, some thoughts on the ceremony itself:
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96th Oscars Will Win/Should Win
This year’s Oscar race hasn’t been quite as monotonous as last year’s. Even then, All Quiet on the Western Front managed some surprises on the night where we expected Everything Everywhere All at Once dominance. Which goes to show that this is all pointless and those of us that try to predict the results have…
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Star Trek: TOS Season 1
I’ve never watched Star Trek. Sorry, that’s already a lie. I had never watched a Star Trek television show. My entire experience with Star Trek is limited to the Chris Pine movies and the first six Shatner films. I’ve always had a tickling feeling that I should be into Star Trek, that I’m somehow supposed…
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96th Oscars Nominations Reaction
This year’s Academy Award nominees were just announced on Tuesday and I’m not used to watching them sneakily at work instead of setting an alarm to get up early. Rather than run down all the categories, I’m just going to call out the storylines I’m watching for as the show approaches. I’ve decided from now…
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Charlot #10: The Star Boarder
Release Date:April 4, 1914 Studio:Keystone Director:George Nichols Also Starring:Minta DurfeeEdgar KennedyGordon Griffith Tramp:Yes Worth Watching?Maybe not Whenever we went to new rooms, Charlie would ask the landlady, “Have you got a dark room, ma?” Edith Scales, theatre costume mistress and Chaplin’s touring guardian in youth, quoted in Empire News, 1903
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My Top 10 Films of 2023 of 2023
No more schlock. That’s the promise I made myself. I had a lot of growing up to do this year, and one way I had to get that done was going to the movies less. So I made the decision that franchise schlock was not worth going to the theaters. Guardians of the Galaxy 3?…
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Charlot #9: Cruel, Cruel Love
Release Date:March 26, 1914 Studio:Keystone Director:George Nichols Also Starring:Minta DurfeeChester ConklinEva Nelson Tramp:No Worth Watching?Not really I showed [A Woman of the Sea] exactly once at one theater … and that was the end of that. The film was promptly returned to Mr Chaplin’s vaults and no one has ever seen it again. Josef von…
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Charlot #8: His Favorite Pastime
Release Date:March 16, 1914 Studio:Keystone Director:George Nichols Also Starring:Roscoe ArbucklePeggy Pearce Tramp:Yes Worth Watching?No The moment we met we ignited; it was mutual, and my heart sang. How romantic were those morning’s turning up fro work with the anticipation of seeing her each day. Chaplin, My Autobiography
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Charlot #7: Tango Tangles
Release Date:March 9, 1914 Studio:Keystone Director:Mack Sennett Also Starring:Roscoe ArbuckleFord SterlingMinta Durfee Tramp:I don’t think so Worth Watching?Nope Keystone comedies directed by Sennett are perhaps the best examples of the studio’s true vision. Tango Tangles is particularly boorish and violent, while the characters are merely one-dimensional caricatures. Oddly enough, this is precisely the brilliance behind…
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95th Oscars Will Win/Should Win
This is very last-minute, but I’m watching the clock count down to the start of the ceremony and feel compelled to just throw this out there. I haven’t been keeping up very closely with the races because I’ve been too focused on other things the last couple of months. These predictions are fun to make,…