‘Unanswered Prayers’: the road you didn’t take
Does anyone remember the Sissy Spacek-Kevin Kline movie, “Violets are Blue”? It was a 1984 flop — written by Naomi Foner (mom to Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal) and directed by Jack Fisk — that rarely...
View ArticleWhat’s a good film actress to do in the age of ‘Transformers’?
The other night I watched the 1966 comedy-drama “Morgan!” (below) starring Vanessa Redgrave and David Warner and was inspired by my enjoyment of that oldie to pull out a copy of another Redgrave film...
View ArticleAnne Hathaway: embracing the ripe old age of 28
Like almost everyone else who goes to the movies, I think Anne Hathaway is very talented and very easy on the eyes in everything from “The Devil Wears Prada” to “Love and Other Drugs.” The stunning...
View ArticleWhen Hollywood studio films were built around women
Meryl Streep’s Oscar win last winter was another triumph for an actress who has managed to find good parts on a very regular basis since she started working in movies in 1977. Now 63, Streep has become...
View ArticleRent it now — how Charlotte Rampling avoided the scrap heap
It’s a question that older moviegoers ask all the time: why do actresses over the age of 40 thrive in Europe while their American counterparts (with a few exceptions like the one and only Meryl Streep)...
View ArticleWould Meryl Streep play Pepper Potts if she came along now?
Back in the 1970s and 1980s, an Oscar win for a young actress usually meant a salary upgrade and the ability to land even better roles in A-level productions. Meryl Streep won the 1979 best supporting...
View ArticleThoughts on seeing ‘Frances Ha’ in an empty multiplex
Is there room for Greta Gerwig in today’s mainstream Hollywood? I finally caught up with the Noah Baumbach movie, “Frances Ha,” and was charmed by its warm and sometimes romantic take on an aspiring...
View Article‘Living Dangerously’: Mel Gibson before the fall
Remember those long ago days before Mel Gibson turned into a ranting, drunken, anti-Semitic mess and his career imploded? Today’s kids probably find it hard to believe there was a time when the raspy,...
View Article‘Wicked, Wicked’: split-screen nightmare
It takes some doing to unearth an early 1970s major studio release that yours truly has never heard of — those were probably my peak moviegoing years, when I saw nearly everything (i.e. “The Legend of...
View Article
