Every year it gets a little bit harder to work up much enthusiasm for the Oscars, which is a surprise to me considering how much I used to look forward to this time of year.  It’s actually never been the same for me since Crash beat Brokeback Mountain, signifying a new marker in Oscar’s closed-mindedness, cowardice, [...]

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English screen actress Susannah York died last week at age 72.  She is best remembered as a star of the 1960s, playing the female lead in two Oscar-winning Best Picture period pieces:  Tony Richardson’s zesty comedy Tom Jones (1963), in which she’s delightful as the spirited ingenue; and Fred Zinnemann’s high-minded prestige picture A Man for [...]

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One of countless war propaganda movies churned out by Hollywood during WWII, Warner Brothers’ In Our Time isn’t close to being one of the best.  Like many in the European-set sub-genre of these movies, In Our Time pays tribute to a particular country’s valiant fight against Nazi aggression, in this case Poland, a nation that had recently [...]

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In the nine years since I wrote 100 Great Film Performances You Should Remember But Probably Don’t, I occasionally see a screen performance that I wish I had included in the book.  Not that I’d want to delete any of my choices, just make room for a few more.  I’m sorry there was no space [...]

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