By John H. Foote (BOMB!) In 1967, 20th Century Fox produced a lavish big budget film musical entitled Dr. Dolittle based on the children’s books by Hugh Lofting. How bad this film was, is, I am not sure has ever fully been recognized. Director Richard Fleischer wrote about it in his autobiography, exploring in detail,…
By John H. Foote (****) There is a luminosity to Sarah Polley only a handful of actresses possess. Meryl Streep, obviously, Jessica Lange, Emma Stone, Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett, and perhaps Margot Robbie posses this light which draws the audience directly to them. Recently I attended a stand-up comedy show in Toronto, my old friend…
By John H. Foote (****) Is it generational that Little Women seems to pop up as a new film version with such frequency? Whatever the reason, the topical issues explored in the fine book by Louisa May Alcott remain as timely today as they were back in the 1860s and in this film are given…
By Nick Maylor In this delightful animated film with a star-studded cast, the title of “Santa” works like it would within inherited monarchy. It is passed down, generation to generation and has done so for centuries. The current Santa is Malcolm (Jim Broadbent). His father Grandsanta (Bill Nighy) is now retired. Malcolm has two sons.…
By John H. Foote (****) Bob Clark’s warm, wonderfully nostalgic film A Christmas Story, has long been a classic, a staple of holiday film watching. The Canadian production, yes, it is a Canadian film, is among the finest films made in this country, an event when all the pieces fell perfectly together to give us…
By John H. Foote (****) Academy Award winner Sam Mendes returns to greatness with his stunning World War One epic, 1917, a breathtaking work that ironically comes to us the same year as the superb Peter Jackson documentary They Shall Never Grow Old. More on that later. Mendes film, deceptively simplistic, yet undeniably compelling, is…
By John H. Foote (****) As a man, I will never know what it is to be sexually harassed. I suppose there is a slim chance of being so harassed by a woman or a man, but so far it has not happened and I doubt it will. My wife knew what it was to…
By Alan Hurst When Love Story was released in late 1970 it caused a sensation. It quickly became one of the biggest box office hits of all time, it made major stars of both Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neal, and it’s gorgeous, overtly emotional score hit the top of charts. Even the film’s most famous…
By John H. Foote (*) What the hell is a Jellicle cat? I have no clue. I am sure not even the director of this film knows., Tom Hooper directed the superb HBO miniseries John Adams (2008) which led to his being handpicked to direct The King’s Speech (2010) which won him an Academy Award…
By Nick Maylor (***1/2) In a certain respect, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) is a film 42 years in the making. It’s been over four decades since the release of George Lucas’ original film and now at the culmination of the third trilogy, lots of loose ends were expected to be tied up.…