Month: July 2021

Made for television, this movie pretty much screams educational, but it’s a good educational focusing on bits of history that many Americans may not be well versed on: race and labor organizing during World War I and a bit after. I enjoyed how it touched on the early days of the Great Migration and how […]

The copy that I watched of this on Hoopla wasn’t the greatest, but it’s possible there’s not a better version available. The story isn’t unique for the Pre-Code era (a naïve actress, a mild love triangle, and a menacing gangster all mix together in relatively predictable ways) but I do enjoy all Black cast films […]

As in many genres, there’s a lot of sameness to be found amongst many Westerns, particularly the story of a lone lawman fighting off a gang of baddies. Here we have a gunslinger being hired to act as marshal and clear the town of their bad guys. The gunslinger and his companion (played by Henry Fonda and Anthony Quinn respectively) aren’t really good guys themselves and the townspeople don’t really have authority to hire a marshal, but that only is a small obstacle in how things go down. As really the reason to watch this, Fonda and Quinn pull off an early bromance, with Quinn willing to make any sacrifice to elevate his friend.

Parts of this really feel like a sequel to The Defiant Ones except the action is set in Apartheid-era South Africa and we trade Tony Curtis for Michael Caine. With the specter of Apartheid hanging over every scene and a diamond caper added to the mix, it does become its own unique thing. It’s a […]

The preternaturally talented young writer providing voice-over for their coming-of-age story is a tad overdone and this doesn’t add anything new to that trope and is largely forgettable (particularly with that title). The best parts of the story were the flashbacks of the teenage Fairuza Balk’s memories of her mother. On the other hand, the […]

The storyline for this film is essentially a fictionalized version of JFK’s murder where Ted Kennedy has to follow clues and interview wacky characters to wade through the conspiracy to find out who the true murderer was. The charisma of Jeff Bridges holds it all together and helped along the way by the likes of […]