By John H. Foote (Bomb!) Why revisit a terrible film? Why rescreen the worst film of the 2000’s? A film widely known as an abomination? I will reveal that later. Every actor and director, every artist in fact has their dream project. Mine as a stage director was directing a Canadian play Can You See…
By John H. Foote Long one of the most gifted actresses on film and stage, Wiest was already an Academy Award winner and nominee when she took the role of Helen Sinclair in Woody Allen’s farce Bullets Over Broadway. She had won her Oscar as Best Supporting Actress in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Allen’s…
By John H. Foote (****) Streaming / On Demand Talk about a scorched earth film! Talk about an unexpected, scorching performance from Carey Mulligan, who gives what I believe to be the years very best performance! Mulligan has been very busy since her stunning work in An Education (2009) which earned her an Academy Award nomination…
By John H. Foote For nearly all of his career, Jerry Lewis was seen as a buffoon, always portraying the monkey to his co-star’s organ grinder. When he was young it was refreshing to see such an energetic, dazzling talent who was fearless, willing to go as far as one can go. When he and…
By John H. Foote At four years old (I think) I first watched The Wizard of Oz with my parents on television. The characters fascinated me, except one. One character sent me running from the room down to the safety of my bedroom and my teddy bear sitting on my bed. There is a point…
By John H. Foote Gloria Swanson had been a silent screen legend and a respected businesswoman, producing many films for various companies including her own. But by 1926 she had just $65 in her bank account and serious debts to pay. She was no longer a box office titan, and was listening to the advice…
By John H. Foote For her superb performance as FBI trainee Clarice Starling, Jodie Foster won her second Academy Award for Best Actress, following her win for The Accused (1988) just three years before. It is rather rare for the Academy to honor an actor or actress so soon after they already have won once,…
By John H. Foote Never a huge fan of Dick Van Dyke on the big screen, I do confess to admiring his TV show. His one great, and I mean truly great film performance, was in The Comic as a former silent screen star Billy Bright who fades into sad obscurity and old age. Bright…
By Marie-Renee Goulet (***) Sunny Daze is a redemption story about a formerly famous musician who was given talent, success, and love in spades but whose demons are slowly but surely taking all away. It is about friendship, family, loss and our individual need for accountability and responsibility. Sunny’s (Jason Wiles) days are reduced to heavy…
By John H. Foote Films are often thought to be a purely escapist art form when in fact some of the greatest films ever made both comment and educate on historical and modern happenings, often bringing fresh light to a difficult subject. The Battleship Potemkin (1921), a masterpiece of the Russian cinema, is generally regarded as…