Various and Sundry

“Every [film] has to come to an end, sometime.”

I think L. Frank Baum (the source of the amended quotation above) would understand. Like books, songs, and many other an enjoyable thing: all things come to an end. Thanks to one of my siblings, I have a glorious poster of assorted iconic film endings hanging in my house. Who doesn’t love a really solid ending to a film? Whether it’s funny, poignant, thought-provoking, or applause-inducing, a satisfying ending is what so often makes a…

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Various and Sundry

How Favorite Films Define You

So, it’s basically a week of referencing similar topics to last week. Case in point, this past Friday, I rediscovered one of my favorite YouTube listmakers, Cinefix, who had a great list of uplifting or otherwise engaging films to check out during our current pandemic existence. So, of course, I clicked around some of their lists to find some videos I missed before or had forgotten and came across this gem: The onscreen title is…

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Various and Sundry

Movie Break – 2020 Edition

This was released back in April, but I feel like I could use it even more now, as there’s no end to the quarantining in sight here in the U.S. (also, I’m beginning to try and watch some “muse-see” films in prep for my biennial Favorite Films exercise). One of the things I love about the Cinefix videos is that they love rattling off any number of films in the run-up for the official Top…

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Acting Raves

What’s the cure for boredom? Brian Dennehy (R.I.P.)

I just re-watched Never Cry Wolf the other week, so Brian Dennehy’s ability to fully inhabit characters was fresh in my mind. Sadly, Brian Dennehy has passed away at the age of 81. One of the nice things about his work was that his characters were perfectly at ease with who they were, be it an alien, a corrupt sheriff, or entrepreneurial pilot. If he turned out to be a villain, his character would metaphorically…

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Various and Sundry

A Monster for Every Taste!

As many of my fellow filmmakers know, I’m not overfond of most horror films (apologies to Lonnie and my other filmmaking colleagues who love ’em). At the same time, I do love “creature features.” This is probably due to two reasons. First, like many kids of my generation, I enjoyed the steady stream of good, bad, and less-than-spectacular kaiju films played endlessly on TV on Saturday afternoons. In our case, it was good ol’ WDCA, Channel 20…

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Various and Sundry

The VHS Tapes We Left Behind

Growing up a cinemaniac, there are, quite naturally, a number of actors and directors and screenwriters I would like to meet. However, I daresay I would not shake the hand of any of them so vigorously as I would the hand of film historian and critic, Leonard Maltin. Maltin’s indispensable and always entertaining movie guide was a fixture in our household. Not only did we get each annual edition, but we held on to the…

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Various and Sundry

Recommended Reading: Requiem for a Video Store

Reading a recent piece reflecting on the demise of video stores, specifically independent video stores, made me reflect on the demise of Video Vault, an indie film mainstay in Alexandria that supplied film fans for a generation. Mike Musgrove’s article in the Washington Post about the Vault’s closing gives one a good idea of the pressures that made it close. That article is probably a good warm-up for the aforementioned piece on indie video stores.…

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