During an early scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a Medieval peasant woman digging in a pool of mud calls up to her son (Michael Palin), “Dennis, there’s some lovely filth down here!” Wallowing in filth is the best either of them can hope for, and is likely better than their current circumstances.… Read More You’ll Get Your Rags All Dirty | Jabberwocky (1977)
Having saddled myself with the arbitrary gimmick of choosing titles for the Film After 11 podcast this year in alphabetical order, I find myself struggling with the “O” this week. Most of the movies I own beginning with that letter are either inappropriate for a 12-year-old or just not something he’d enjoy. I wound up… Read More Film After 11 Podcast | O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
The movie that won Jane Fonda her first acting Oscar, Klute deserves equal credit for director Alan J. Pakula, master of the 1970s paranoid conspiracy thriller. If not a conspiracy story, per se (though a little bit so), Klute is certainly rife with paranoia, and Pakula subverts the thriller genre in unexpected and remarkably effective… Read More The Sin, the Glitter, the Wickedness | Klute (1971) Blu-ray
I introduce my son Joseph to his first movie by the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, with a viewing of the classic North by Northwest in this week’s Film After 11 podcast. One of my goals with this podcast is to instill my children with some appreciation for older movies they wouldn’t seek out on… Read More Film After 11 Podcast | North by Northwest (1959)
I have one serious gripe against the 1991 Bruce Willis action movie directed by Tony Scott. IMDb, Wikipedia, and just about every other reference source I can find today insist on spelling the title as The Last Boy Scout (four words total), even though the movie’s poster art and opening credits clearly (as I read… Read More Friday Night’s a Great Night for Football | The Last Boyscout (1991) Blu-ray
I’m typically a little wary of watching comedies with my kids for the Film After 11 podcast. The humor in older movies doesn’t always play well for the younger generation. My own boys also almost never laugh during comedies, leaving me unable to read their reactions until asking them later. Nevertheless, this week I introduced… Read More Film After 11 Podcast | Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
The appeal of films by Jim Jarmusch, especially his early work, is difficult to explain to someone who’s never watched one, and frankly even to some who have. His movies don’t exactly feel or behave like anything you’d expect from a regular movie. 1989’s Mystery Train, for example, has little story or plot to speak… Read More Some Days Just Go Like That | Mystery Train (1989) Criterion Collection Blu-ray
This week in the Film After 11 podcast, I take my son Joseph out to the ballpark for a viewing of Penny Marshall’s rousing 1992 baseball picture A League of Their Own. As a former Little Leaguer, he appreciated the depiction of baseball and the history lesson he didn’t know beforehand. If you’ll forgive the… Read More Film After 11 Podcast | A League of Their Own (1992)
With a narrative premise that sounds like a gimmick, if not the basis for a comedy, The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey is in fact a very heavy drama with significant physical, emotional, and spiritual stakes for its characters. Although imperfect, the movie is quite an impressive artistic achievement that seemed at the time to signal… Read More No Escape from the Real World | The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey (1988) Blu-ray
In this week’s episode of the Film After 11 podcast (remember, we changed the title of the show), I take my son Thomas on a journey back to Medieval times for the rollicking adventure of A Knight’s Tale. Clever boy, he picked up right away that something might be amiss as soon as a rock… Read More Film After 11 Podcast | A Knight’s Tale (2001)
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