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Barry Levinson's 1982 film Diner is set in Baltimore at the end of 1959, in the final days of what had been a momentous year, and just before what would be a pivotal decade. The year had begun with the success of the Cuban revolution and its recognition by both the US and Soviet governments, and Barry Gordy's founding of Motown. Pope John XXIII announced the Second Vatican Council and Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper died in a plane crash in Iowa. Later in the year China abolished the Tibetan government and replaced the Dalai Lama, NASA...

The ostensible premise of The Godfather, the film version of which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, is that American society is so prejudiced against Italians that extraordinary men such as Vito and Michael Corleone have no choice but to turn to crime. In a way, then, author Mario Puzo was a kind of goombah Ibram X. Kendi, director Francis Ford Coppola the dago Ava DuVernay, and The Godfather the guinea 12 Years a Slave. If you doubt my claim, consider two scenes. In the first, Michael, back from hiding in Sicily, finally decides to get married (again) and so...

Like all those musicians who say they formed bands because they bought the first Velvet Underground record, there were at least two generations of photographers who chose their profession because they saw Blow-Up, Michelangelo Antonioni's 1966 so-called "murder mystery" starring David Hemmings as Thomas, an arrogant and successful photographer in what was about to be called "Swinging London". Deputized to stand in for all those photographers is the American Robert Whitman, who recalled in a 2018 interview that "in those days people were very conservative; you couldn't look like this and get a job. I never wanted to wear a...

The trailer for I Play Rocky, the Sylvester Stallone biopic about how Rocky was made, dropped today onto the Internets.This looks as solid as they come. How Stallone wrote and starred in that movie is quite an inspirational tale and this looks like something that we need right now.Go check it out!

During filming of We're Not Dressing, a 1934 musical comedy that came out a month before Carole Lombard ascended into the top rank of screwball comedy heroines with Twentieth Century, her co-star Bing Crosby discovered that the actress had a rather extreme reaction to her one notable phobia. As recalled by Gary Giddins in Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams: The Early Years 1903-1940, Crosby had to slap Lombard in one scene. "At her request, he refrained during rehearsal, but when the scene was filmed, she responded violently. Howard Hawks liked to take credit for creating Lombard as a comic...

When Abraham Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address on March 4, 1865 the Civil War was nearly over. After recalling the circumstances of his first inaugural address, given precisely four years earlier and just before the nation fell into civil war, he told the crowd with characteristic understatement that "the progress of our arms...is as well known to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all." After the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation two years previous and the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment outlawing slavery by the House of Representatives just two...

The movie, written and directed by German filmmaker Uwe Boll, is an inconvenient truth that the globalists don't want their people to see: an accurate portrayal of Muslim atrocities against white Europeans and, worse (to them), with a hopeful ending.

I had never heard of Citizen Vigilante, Uwe Boll's new film starring Armie Hammer, until a few days ago. That's when I read that this movie has been effectively banned in Germany and the United Kingdom. Something about it encouraging violence against migrants. But then Elon Musk made Citizen Vigilante available to watch for free on his X (formerly Twitter) platform. Something that would avoid the censorious thought police and let the people see and decide on their own. Which only made the German and British governments even more furious. Rush Limbaugh called it the "Streisand Effect": trying to keep...

The collaboration between director Michael Powell and writer/producer Emeric Pressburger began on the eve of World War Two and built up a considerable head of steam making films for and about that war. Some were obvious propaganda (Contraband, 49th Parallel, One of Our Aircraft is Missing) while a couple were far too idiosyncratic to match any workable definition of propaganda (The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, A Canterbury Tale). Blimp was so at odds with the British government's idea of what aided the war effort that Churchill himself ordered the military not to assist the filmmakers during its production....

Here are 100 reasons to love the comedy writer, director and star who’s celebrating a milestone on Sunday. No. 1 He started a novel titled “Springtime for Hitler.” No. 2 He turned that into a play. No. 3 He turned that play into a flop film titled “The Producers.” No. 4 He won a screenplay Oscar for that flop … No. 5 … turned that flop into a Broadway hit … No. 6 … then tried to destroy “The Producers” on “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” No. 7 He never did a serious movie because to him comedy was serious. No. 8...

People are tired of paying more to scroll longer. Streaming was supposed to make movie night easier. Somehow, it made it exhausting. When every app wants more money, the old DVD shelf starts looking sane again. BRIEFING Grant here. Streaming literally revolutionized the way we all consume entertainment. Gone were the days of cable boxes and trips to Blockbuster. Instead, from the comfort of your own home, you got to choose exactly what you wanted to watch. But this convenience over the years has morphed. It's become more expensive and more complicated, and people are starting to yearn again for...

What would happen if Civil War broke out in the United States again in 2026? Thankfully, with modern AI technology, we no longer need to wonder.

"There is no other city one can know as completely from the movies and television as New York," wrote film location scout Nick Carr in 2015. "Even if you've never set foot in Manhattan, there's a good chance you can instantly picture a multitude of its neighbourhoods: Carrie Bradshaw's favourite cupcake spot (the Village); the Ghostbusters' firehouse (TriBeCa); the deli where Harry met Sally (Lower East Side)." Or, if you're a movie fan with a particular taste in New York cinema, your mind's eye can easily recall the setting of the conclave of New York gangs in TheWarriors (Riverside Park...

Just yesterday, it was reported that Hollywood insiders fear the city is turning into the next Detroit. Movie and TV productions are talking their business to other, more attractive locations with fewer rules and better tax rates. In response to this, Adam Schiff and other lawmakers want to give Hollywood a federal tax subsidy. In other words, they want taxpayers to bail out Hollywood.

In 2010 the Western Writers of America surveyed its members and compiled a list of the top 100 western songs of all time. They presented it at their annual convention in Knoxville, Tennessee, and holding down the top three spots were, in descending order, "Ghost Riders in the Sky", Marty Robbins' "El Paso" and the chestnut "Cool Water", recorded most famously by The Sons of the Pioneers. "El Paso", the most cinematic of all three songs, was never featured in a movie, while Stan Jones' "Ghost Riders" has showed up in many, starting with Gene Autrey's 1949 film Riders in...

“Disclosure Day” may be the most alien film in Steven Spielberg’s catalog. The really terrific story of UFO info finally being divulged to the world went over as a dud last night at the box office. The film made just $6.5 million in previews. Tonight, if the film makes $10 million, and then does the same Saturday and Sunday, it will be a historic flop. Timing is everything in the movie release world, and this is not a great weekend for a hit. The weather is stormy. (An ironic problem since Emily Blunt plays a metereologist.) The World Cup has...

In 1982, Blade Runners' vision of human degradation felt like an impossible fiction. Today, it reads like a conservative prophecy. hen Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner hit movie screens in the summer of 1982, critics viewed it as a vivid but far-fetched exercise in cinematic nihilism. For a young student arriving in the United States at the time, the film’s oppressive atmosphere was enough to prompt one to walk out of the theater. The overwhelming sensory assault of a decaying, rain-slicked future Los Angeles felt too nightmarish to endure. In 1982, the film’s vision of human degradation felt like an impossible...

The recently knighted star has been linked to the role for a long timeIdris Elba has confirmed he will not be playing James Bond, saying that he felt some audiences wouldn’t “go for” a Black actor playing the role. The award-winning actor, who has been the star of films including The Suicide Squad, Pacific Rim, and TV series The Wire, has been linked with the role for many years, with speculation building following the departure of Daniel Craig from the role in 2021. However, in a recent interview with British GQ, he discussed why he won’t be playing the part....

3:06 Half a century after Steven Spielberg challenged audiences to think about what lies beyond the starry canopy that defines our universe in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the director is again challenging accepted precepts of faith and singular belief in a supreme being. His new film Disclosure Day sees him revisit the possibility of aliens: “I absolutely think that they have been here, and they are here,” he outlined in an interview with CBS News. First he outlined the themes behind the $115 million creation and the answers it (possibly) posed to questions of life, faith and mortality.

The filming of The Strange Love of Martha Ivers happened when the Paramount lot was ringed by a picket line, part of the 1945 strike by motion picture set decorators that led to the infamous Black Friday riot outside the main gate at Warner Bros. The strike is a movie history footnote today, and though it gets aired out whenever the industry endures another labour dispute, it's hard to imagine pickets full of writers or actors today in a melee with studio security and police with "tear gas bombs, fire hoses, brass knuckles, clubs, brickbats, and beer bottles" as Variety...