Had an absolute blast on WDEL’s Saturday HotSpot talking with host Frank Gregory about forty years of Saturday Night Fever. We discuss the film’s turbulent history, including the cast, the soundtrack, the fired director, madman screenwriter Norman Wexler and the phony magazine article that started it all. Listen to MP3s of the show after the jump. Continue reading
“Harry made it look so easy for sixty years. His work doesn’t seem like anything’s happening. He walks onscreen fully in life, three-dimensional with his own key light and his own shadow. He lived that way, and he played that way. That is an estimable thing. That is something to be inspired by and aspire to. I’m so happy we got this movie made.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 10/06/2017
“A movie for people who miss the voice-over narration. It’s a talky, blocky launching pad for yet another cinematic universe, short on incident but long on sequel setups and what studio executives like to call world-building. What a frustrating act of diminishment this project is, transforming an enigmatic classic into a branded franchise property. It turns poetry into prose.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 10/05/2017
“A rip-roaring romp through the Reagan administration’s many foreign policy malfeasances and misdeeds. The satirical masterstroke is casting Cruise as the blithely amoral hustler at its center. It’s a grand performance of toothy grins, aw-shucks charm and movie star magnetism. Barry’s so much fun to watch you keep forgetting he’s one of the bad guys.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 09/29/2017
BATTLE OF THE SEXES * *
Starring Emma Stone, Steve Carell, Andrea Riseborough, Sarah Silverman and Bill Pullman. Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy. Directed by Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton.
“At its best the film recalls late-period Eastwood pictures like Flags Of Our Fathers and American Sniper, plumbing the gulf between truth and what people need to hear. Last year’s despicable movie star auto-fellatio Patriots Day invented a phony hero to save the day, Stronger reminds us tragedy is a lot more complicated than a bumper-sticker slogan.” – North Shore Movies, 09/26/2017
KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE * 1 / 2
Starring Taron Egerton, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Julianne Moore and Sir Elton John. Screenplay by Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn. Directed by Matthew Vaughn.
“We gotta mix it up. We leaned heavily on the classics last year, and I think next year we probably will return to a little bit more of that. If we get a lot of people for Top Gun or Wonder Woman and ten of them come back to see Cleopatra then my job is done. I’ve continued to keep these important movies in the consciousness.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 09/20/2017
MOTHER! * * 1 / 2
Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, Michelle Pfeiffer and Kristen Wiig. Written and directed by Darren Aronofsky.
“‘Tilda Swinton is simply one of the most mercurial and indelible screen performers of our age,’ says the Brattle’s creative director Ned Hinkle, via email from the Toronto Film Festival. ‘She fits neither the definition of movie star nor the definition of character actor. I think she’s a very unique performer and also, in a real way, a cinema artist.'” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 09/14/2017
SPLICED PERSONALITY 