WEST SIDE STORY (2021) Directed by Steven Spielberg Cinematography by Janusz Kaminski The Film Experience’s Hit Me With Your Best Shot takes on another 2021 adaptation of an old favorite: West Side Story! Steven Spielberg took on the daunting task of putting his own spin on a beloved classic, and I’ll admit that despite his…
THE CONVERSATION (1974) Directed by Francis Ford Coppola Cinematography by Bill Butler (and uncredited: Haskell Wexler) This week’s Hit Me With Your Best Shot episode at The Film Experience is all about The Conversation, the film sandwiched between Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II, released the same year as the…
ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS (1955) Directed by Douglas Sirk Cinematography by Russell Metty This week’s movie for The Film Experience’s Hit Me With Your Best Shot series is one of my very favorites: All That Heaven Allows. I love Douglas Sirk’s Technicolor melodramas (four of his best ones are currently streaming on the Criterion Channel!),…
NIGHTMARE ALLEY (2021) Directed by Guillermo del Toro Cinematography by Dan Laustsen The Film Experience’s Hit Me With Your Best Shot is back (for a four-week miniseries)! I participated in the last couple of seasons from a few years ago and enjoyed focusing on the cinematography of the assigned films, so I’m glad the series…
Oscar Sunday is finally here! Though we spent much less time seeing movies in theaters in 2020, there were still plenty of good movies that came out over the past year that we had access to at home more than ever before, from screenings at virtual film festivals to premiering on streaming services. And with…
Olivia de Havilland July 1, 1916 – July 26, 2020 Today it was announced that Olivia de Havilland, one of the last remaining stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away yesterday at her home in Paris, France, where she lived since the 1950s. She had just turned 104 years old on the first day of…
Oscar Sunday is finally here! 2019 was a great movie year, though as usual with the Academy Awards, not all of them were recognized for the industry’s most coveted prize. I think this shorter awards season played a role in that, as four films this year received nominations in the double digits, and they’re all…
The 92nd Academy Awards are tomorrow, and one of the Best Picture front runners is Parasite, which is also poised to win Best International Feature Film (the category formerly known as Best Foreign Language Film). The South Korean film is my favorite of 2019, and one of my other top favorites of the year is…
Happy Oscar Sunday! It’s been quite an awards season, with different movies taking the top prizes at the precursors, making it all more uncertain as to which movies will end up winning at Hollywood’s biggest show. As is my annual tradition on this blog, I’ll make predictions on which films will win the Academy Award…
We’re exactly one week away from the 91st Academy Awards! Today I’m wrapping up my series of posts highlighting the actors and actresses that earned four or more Oscar nominations throughout their careers, concluding with the actresses that received six or more nods. And this last entry boasts a couple of the all-time Oscar records:…