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The Eddy Duchin Story

“A typical biography of a popular musician in the studio era was all scrubbed clean, high-gloss, highly-fictional biographical bits in-between popular stars belting out the greatest hits of the artist(s) depicted. It can make for entertaining spectacle, and several great musical stars gave their grea” read more

The Man with the Golden Arm

“The Man with the Golden Arm has seen its reputation mellow in comparison to other addiction dramas from the era, namely The Lost Weekend. I suppose falling into the public domain and an avalanche of poor home video releases can do that to a movie. Shame as The Man with the Golden Arm has a lot to of” read more

Phffft

“Comedies of remarriage are a backbone of the screwball genre, and there’s several classics to be mined from the material (The Philadelphia Story and The Awful Truth come to mind immediately). Phffft is not one of these films, as it takes a couple amusing gags, strong comedic actors, and then stick” read more

Pushover

“In 1954, Kim Novak made her debut onscreen in this forgettable minor noir. The running time is short, but the story still feels bloated and stretched out, and none of the beats feel shocking or anything more than routine. It’s fine, but there’s nothing here worth a repeat visit.   Pushover pl” read more

Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill

“Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill is a five star performance in a three star vehicle. Audra McDonald, the reigning grand dame of American theater, gets to reprise her history making role, and her work is wondrous. Electrifying, terrifying, defiant, wounded, broken, and heartbreakingly fragile,” read more

Political Animals

“Political Animals wants to act like a distaff West Wing, a thinly veiled account of Hillary Clinton’s failed 2008 presidential bid. A great foundation for a juicy story about politics, journalism, and family legacies in the public sector is laid, but then it veers off course. Wildly off course, in” read more

Princess Arete

“Positively lovely to look at, blissfully quiet for long stretches, and wonderfully feminist, Princess Arete should have been a slam dunk, an underrated classic just waiting for rediscovery. It was not to be, as the pacing drags all over the place, like a theme park ride that comes to a screaming hal” read more

Anastasia

“Borrowing liberally from the Disney Renaissance template, Anastasia plays as fast and loose with historical figures and events as the Mouse House’s own Pocahontas or Mulan. There’s the basics of names, a few historically accurate trivia tidbits thrown in, some musical numbers, and cutesy sidekic” read more

Horton Hears a Who

“Whereas 1966’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas is a model of pacing and narrative economy in adapting a piece of children’s literature, Horton Hears a Who is a slightly bloated affair. Too many songs slow things down, and perhaps there just wasn’t enough story here to justify a full twenty-five” read more

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

“This is twenty-five minutes of absolute perfection. A hugely successful artistic marriage between the adapter and source material, How the Grinch Stole Christmas is as much of a mighty, towering classic as the beloved Dr. Seuss book.   For me, this is perennial viewing. Christmas is never quite c” read more

The Phantom Tollbooth

“Here’s an underrated and barely known quantity in Chuck Jones’ career. His lone feature-length film, The Phantom Tollbooth is his second dip into Norton Juster’s work, but with less explosive results than the adventurous “The Dot and the Line.” It’s still a very enjoyable and enjoyably s” read more

A Chipmunk Christmas

“Despite growing up during the 80s resurgence of the Chipmunks, I was never much of a fan of their helium voiced harmonies and sitcom-level shenanigans. I didn’t hate them (I still don’t, although I don’t recognize the grotesqueries they’ve been turned into by the modern live-action films), b” read more

The Pogo Special Birthday Special

“The creative tension and falling out between comic strip creator Walt Kelly and Chuck Jones mares The Pogo Special Birthday Special. It’s like listening to an orchestra playing while being ever-so-slightly off key the entire time. The individual pieces are all there, but they’re just not assembl” read more

Stormy Weather

“Even by the already lax standards of a musical, the narrative of Stormy Weather is a wispy thing. A mere formality to string together a series of revue numbers from an all-black group of entertainers. Don’t come around here if you want typical dramatic stakes like character arcs, emotional develop” read more

The Pumpkin Who Couldn't Smile

“The narrative stakes in these Raggedy Ann and Andy specials are just bizarre. Strange things in which they are impossibly low, but lacking in a certain sparkle of interest that you begin to pay closer attention to the fact that none of it makes sense. And that’s taking into account that you’ve a” read more

The Great Santa Claus Caper

“It’s a bit hard to review this mess as there’s not much there to speak about. The plot makes zero sense, even going by the wide margins of which we accommodate Christmas specials tied to merchandised characters, and the whole thing consists of only a handful of scenes with little in the way of w” read more