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…
It’s been six years since I re-launched my personal website, which evidently is the “iron” anniversary, hence good ol’ shellhead above. As I mentioned in last year’s blogiversary post, I was going to try and make this more annual and — especially because last year felt like at least five years — it felt right to do a post. So here are some highlights and personal favorites. Star Trek My series Crisis of Infinite Star…
What with my biennial Favorite Films sort, I have a soft spot for many an internet film list, especially when it’s clearly crafted with passion (as opposed to, say, the need to fill electronic print space on deadline). So I was totally down with this list from the gang over at The Ringer detailing the top 50 cult films of all time. Now, I would venture that the appear of cult films is often why…
When you talk with your filmmaking peers, it comes as no surprise they have always have a few filmmakers they follow closely, perhaps someone who isn’t necessarily a household name… or even necessarily an art house movie theater name. Michael Apted was one of those filmmakers for me. He died at the age of 79, earlier in January (I’m just getting to writing this post now). You can read obituaries and remembrances from the BBC,…
The end of this week will feature the latest edition of my biennial Favorite Films list, so I suppose I have films on my mind. Some of the earliest films I saw were short films, thanks to my dad and the Arlington County library which had them. And I do mean films! We had a projector at home, which was often used for birthday parties and other events. This inevitably meant those masters of movie…
Back to the Main Post For those of you who want to know the nitty-gritty details of how I worked out the rankings, this is the page for you! Scope First was to define scope. As any Trekker knows, the Star Trek universe is, to paraphrase Douglas Adams, really, really big. There’s no way I could rank all known official Trek in terms of TV, films, novels, and so on. I needed to limit scope…
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…
If you checked out my earlier post, you know that I’m readying the 2018 edition of my favorite films. I always add a new crop of films to the sort every time, but I also find time to re-watch some of the old films… and Thanksgiving weekend proved to be a great time to do so. One of the films was the delightful modern fantasy, Field of Dreams. Sharp-eyed readers will recall that it ranked #29…
(Note: this capsule review is part of my farewell to the Netflix DVD service. #GetThroughMyQueue) Yet another DVD I’ve been meaning to check out for ages. This black comedy is an absolute favorite of several indie filmmaker friends I know. Now, I get why. Being into smaller indie films will definitely aid your enjoyment of the film, as well as wanting humor that’s dry as a bone and peppered with profanity as punctuation in that…
Having done villains last week, let’s take a look at heroes. Okay, James Bond is something of an anti-hero as established from the get-go in that “you’ve had your six” moment in Dr. No. But still, he is working for Queen and Country as well as saving the world (sometimes as a sad clown). This is a fun overview of how James Bond has changed with the times that Fandom released just before No Time…