by Mark Brinkerhoff
Veronica Cartwright in a 2020 documentary "LIfe After The Navigator" exploring one of her 80s films
Happy 4/20, which happens to be the birthday—same day/month/year—of both Jessica Lange and one Veronica Cartwright, the British-born former child star and current character actor extraordinaire.
When did you first clock the extraordinary Veronica Cartwright on screen? Though she mainly does TV guest spots (and the occasional direct-to-vod titles) nowadays, I can say that she made an immediate impression for me in the mid-‘80s, starting with The Right Stuff (1983), Flight of the Navigator (1986), and most notably The Witches of Eastwick (1987)...
Veronica Cartwright in a 2020 documentary "LIfe After The Navigator" exploring one of her 80s films
Happy 4/20, which happens to be the birthday—same day/month/year—of both Jessica Lange and one Veronica Cartwright, the British-born former child star and current character actor extraordinaire.
When did you first clock the extraordinary Veronica Cartwright on screen? Though she mainly does TV guest spots (and the occasional direct-to-vod titles) nowadays, I can say that she made an immediate impression for me in the mid-‘80s, starting with The Right Stuff (1983), Flight of the Navigator (1986), and most notably The Witches of Eastwick (1987)...
- 4/20/2024
- by Mark Brinkerhoff
- FilmExperience
No two people feel the exact same way about any film. Thus, Team Experience is pairing up to debate the merits of this year’s Oscar movies. Here's the last discussion, between Mark Brinkerhoff and Nick Taylor on Barbie…
Nick: Hi Mark! We’re coming to you live and in color - but mainly in pink - from Barbieland for today’s split decision. This is the only one of these where I get to be on the side of positivity, so if the runoff of good vibes is Too Much, forgive me. Either way, I’m very excited to talk to you about Barbie. I’m not sure this makes it into my top 10 for the year, but it’s almost certainly the 2023 film I’ve watched the most, and I think it’s a total delight with as much on its mind as any of Greta Gerwig’s previous films,...
Nick: Hi Mark! We’re coming to you live and in color - but mainly in pink - from Barbieland for today’s split decision. This is the only one of these where I get to be on the side of positivity, so if the runoff of good vibes is Too Much, forgive me. Either way, I’m very excited to talk to you about Barbie. I’m not sure this makes it into my top 10 for the year, but it’s almost certainly the 2023 film I’ve watched the most, and I think it’s a total delight with as much on its mind as any of Greta Gerwig’s previous films,...
- 3/10/2024
- by Nick Taylor
- FilmExperience
Team Experience is discussing each Oscar category as we head into the precursors. Here's Juan Carlos Ojano and Mark Brinkerhoff...
Carlos: I've learned my lesson about the Original score category. It defaults to usual suspects. On the one hand, their loyalty to certain composers gives the opportunity for films to be nominated even when they're not Best Picture nominees. They don't even have to be Best Picture-adjacent. On the other the hand this category can be a lazy checklist of familiar names in the way other categories are a lazy checklist of Best Picture heavyweights. Are you feeling the same way?
Mark: Yes. Often times the familiar “in the club” composers get shortlisted. Considering The Fablemans is positioned to score overall and considering his own track record, we can surely reserve one spot for John Williams...
Carlos: I've learned my lesson about the Original score category. It defaults to usual suspects. On the one hand, their loyalty to certain composers gives the opportunity for films to be nominated even when they're not Best Picture nominees. They don't even have to be Best Picture-adjacent. On the other the hand this category can be a lazy checklist of familiar names in the way other categories are a lazy checklist of Best Picture heavyweights. Are you feeling the same way?
Mark: Yes. Often times the familiar “in the club” composers get shortlisted. Considering The Fablemans is positioned to score overall and considering his own track record, we can surely reserve one spot for John Williams...
- 12/16/2022
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
In the first third of Klute (1971) we met the two fascinating central characters, a smart angry prostitute/actress Bree Daniels (Jane Fonda) and a hard-to-read detective John Klute (Donald Sutherland) investigating the disappearance of a man who might have been her client. In the middle of the picture, a volatile romance between the two blossoms just as the speculative danger becomes real.
part 3 by Mark Brinkerhoff
01:17:20 As we left part two of this retrospective, the body of another of Bree's friends was found. Klute is putting the pieces together and it doesn't look great for Bree, the only one of the three prostitutes involved with the mystery man who is still alive. Boy does the suspense really ratchet up towards the end! So we'll keep this final installment briefer in appreciation of quickening heartbeats...
part 3 by Mark Brinkerhoff
01:17:20 As we left part two of this retrospective, the body of another of Bree's friends was found. Klute is putting the pieces together and it doesn't look great for Bree, the only one of the three prostitutes involved with the mystery man who is still alive. Boy does the suspense really ratchet up towards the end! So we'll keep this final installment briefer in appreciation of quickening heartbeats...
- 6/27/2022
- by Mark Brinkerhoff
- FilmExperience
Team Experience is revisiting a dozen Judy Garland movies for her Centennial. Here’s Mark Brinkerhoff on one of her most popular pictures...
Judy Garland: physical comedienne. This may not be the descriptor that comes to mind when it comes to the one, the only, The Voice. But as superlatives go, it’s the one that fits like a dainty, sturdy little glove on the hand of a one-of-a-kind talent in her very prime.
At 26 (and newly a first-time mom to then-baby Liza), Garland, less than a decade removed from her superstar-making performance in The Wizard of Oz, was reemerging in MGM musicals with a proto-Barbra-Streisand-as-Fanny-Brice performance in what would become her second biggest hit of the ‘40s. Easter Parade is a Funny Girl period-adjacent set tale of a novice singer-dancer plucked from obscurity by a storied showman...
Judy Garland: physical comedienne. This may not be the descriptor that comes to mind when it comes to the one, the only, The Voice. But as superlatives go, it’s the one that fits like a dainty, sturdy little glove on the hand of a one-of-a-kind talent in her very prime.
At 26 (and newly a first-time mom to then-baby Liza), Garland, less than a decade removed from her superstar-making performance in The Wizard of Oz, was reemerging in MGM musicals with a proto-Barbra-Streisand-as-Fanny-Brice performance in what would become her second biggest hit of the ‘40s. Easter Parade is a Funny Girl period-adjacent set tale of a novice singer-dancer plucked from obscurity by a storied showman...
- 6/5/2022
- by Mareko
- FilmExperience
by Mark Brinkerhoff
That sound you heard this week? It likely was #FilmTwitter collectively reeling from reading The Ringer staff’s list of the 50 “best” romantic comedies of all time. What prompted such a breathless response, however, was that only one of the films on the instantly infamous list pre-dated the 1980s, and it *wasn’t* Annie Hall. No, that Best Picture-winning, genre-redefining classic didn’t make the top *50*, Harold and Maude did.
Now far be it for me to quibble about anything the late, great Hal Ashby made (namely Harold and Maude) but the otherwise ignorance of literally more than half a century of not only the very best rom-coms, but some of the finest films of all time—period—can’t go unnoticed. So with that, here’s a non-exhaustive, chronological list of the “best” rom-coms from the genre’s Golden Age in the ’30s through its modernization...
That sound you heard this week? It likely was #FilmTwitter collectively reeling from reading The Ringer staff’s list of the 50 “best” romantic comedies of all time. What prompted such a breathless response, however, was that only one of the films on the instantly infamous list pre-dated the 1980s, and it *wasn’t* Annie Hall. No, that Best Picture-winning, genre-redefining classic didn’t make the top *50*, Harold and Maude did.
Now far be it for me to quibble about anything the late, great Hal Ashby made (namely Harold and Maude) but the otherwise ignorance of literally more than half a century of not only the very best rom-coms, but some of the finest films of all time—period—can’t go unnoticed. So with that, here’s a non-exhaustive, chronological list of the “best” rom-coms from the genre’s Golden Age in the ’30s through its modernization...
- 4/21/2022
- by Mareko
- FilmExperience
by Mark Brinkerhoff
All three of Will Smith's nominations have been for biopics. His first was Ali (2001). If he wins will that be the end of his Oscar journey?
We’re a mere two days from the 94th Academy Awards, and it’s looking likely that at least one of the probable acting winners will win the coveted Oscar after multiple nominations. Equally possible: For many “overdue” actors, winning an Oscar marks a turning point. In 2020, Tfe took a look back at the post-Oscar win trajectories of Golden Age and modern Hollywood stars alike: Gregory Peck, Shirley MacLaine, and the Susans—Hayward and Sarandon—all of whom finally won Oscars on their fifth (and to-date final) nominations.
Among the current acting nominees, two three-time Oscar nominees have yet to win...
All three of Will Smith's nominations have been for biopics. His first was Ali (2001). If he wins will that be the end of his Oscar journey?
We’re a mere two days from the 94th Academy Awards, and it’s looking likely that at least one of the probable acting winners will win the coveted Oscar after multiple nominations. Equally possible: For many “overdue” actors, winning an Oscar marks a turning point. In 2020, Tfe took a look back at the post-Oscar win trajectories of Golden Age and modern Hollywood stars alike: Gregory Peck, Shirley MacLaine, and the Susans—Hayward and Sarandon—all of whom finally won Oscars on their fifth (and to-date final) nominations.
Among the current acting nominees, two three-time Oscar nominees have yet to win...
- 3/26/2022
- by Mareko
- FilmExperience
Team Experience is discussing the various Oscar categories. Here's Nathaniel, Ben Miller, Mark Brinkerhoff and special guest Nick Davis to discuss Best Actress.
Nathaniel: I've been thinking a lot about what the characters and not the nominated actresses would make of all the competitive hoopla around the Best Actress Oscar this year. Photographer Janis (soulfully embodied by Penélope Cruz) wouldn't quite want all the eyes on her but she'd keep busy and turn her lens on her fellow nominees. She'd stick around for all the events. Professor Leda (Oliva Colman in all her complexity) and Princess Diana (anxiously inhabited by Kristen Stewart), who I'd never otherwise pair in thought, would both surely acknowledge the honors while eyeing the nearest exit and counting the minutes until they could escape. They would skip anything non-mandatory. Lucille Ball (surprisingly portrayed by Nicole Kidman) would be the consummate star and pull all the focus.
Nathaniel: I've been thinking a lot about what the characters and not the nominated actresses would make of all the competitive hoopla around the Best Actress Oscar this year. Photographer Janis (soulfully embodied by Penélope Cruz) wouldn't quite want all the eyes on her but she'd keep busy and turn her lens on her fellow nominees. She'd stick around for all the events. Professor Leda (Oliva Colman in all her complexity) and Princess Diana (anxiously inhabited by Kristen Stewart), who I'd never otherwise pair in thought, would both surely acknowledge the honors while eyeing the nearest exit and counting the minutes until they could escape. They would skip anything non-mandatory. Lucille Ball (surprisingly portrayed by Nicole Kidman) would be the consummate star and pull all the focus.
- 3/25/2022
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
by Mark Brinkerhoff
What a wild week it has been, ancillarily, for a certain New Zealand filmmaker. The presumed—and deserved—frontrunner for Best Director at this month’s Academy Awards, Jane Campion had her latest masterpiece unexpectedly shut out at the SAG Awards and herself inexplicably drawn into a ridiculous imbroglio stirred by none other than an apparently sexist and homophobic Sam Elliott.
But for those less keen on reading too much into Oscar-adjacent developments or unnecessary, boneheaded statements that go viral, we find ourselves at the glorious height of a hopeful culmination of a brilliant, one-of-a-kind director’s justly lauded year. So what makes Campion such an enduring, singular international filmmaking force?...
What a wild week it has been, ancillarily, for a certain New Zealand filmmaker. The presumed—and deserved—frontrunner for Best Director at this month’s Academy Awards, Jane Campion had her latest masterpiece unexpectedly shut out at the SAG Awards and herself inexplicably drawn into a ridiculous imbroglio stirred by none other than an apparently sexist and homophobic Sam Elliott.
But for those less keen on reading too much into Oscar-adjacent developments or unnecessary, boneheaded statements that go viral, we find ourselves at the glorious height of a hopeful culmination of a brilliant, one-of-a-kind director’s justly lauded year. So what makes Campion such an enduring, singular international filmmaking force?...
- 3/7/2022
- by Mareko
- FilmExperience
With just over a week until nominations are announced Cláudio Alves, Mark Brinkerhoff, and Nathaniel Rogers discuss the Best Production Design race…
Dune is in it to win it.
CLÁUDIO: The Art Directors Guild of America recently announced their nominees, and I'm in love with the Period Feature lineup. The French Dispatch, Licorice Pizza, Nightmare Alley, The Tragedy of Macbeth, and West Side Story offer such a varied approach to the matter of scenography, either swinging towards hyper-stylization or aiming for immersive historical accuracy. Honestly, I'd be Ok if AMPAS just copied the guild's picks, though that's not likely to happen. Not with Dune in the conversation. As far as I'm concerned, it'd be a massive surprise if Patrice Vermette's conception of a dilapidated future doesn't end up winning it all. The scale of the achievement is undeniable, the sense of monumentality and balance between Villeneuve's sense of severe...
Dune is in it to win it.
CLÁUDIO: The Art Directors Guild of America recently announced their nominees, and I'm in love with the Period Feature lineup. The French Dispatch, Licorice Pizza, Nightmare Alley, The Tragedy of Macbeth, and West Side Story offer such a varied approach to the matter of scenography, either swinging towards hyper-stylization or aiming for immersive historical accuracy. Honestly, I'd be Ok if AMPAS just copied the guild's picks, though that's not likely to happen. Not with Dune in the conversation. As far as I'm concerned, it'd be a massive surprise if Patrice Vermette's conception of a dilapidated future doesn't end up winning it all. The scale of the achievement is undeniable, the sense of monumentality and balance between Villeneuve's sense of severe...
- 1/30/2022
- by Cláudio Alves
- FilmExperience
by Mark Brinkerhoff
Where were you when you first saw—hell, even learned about—2011’s Young Adult? For me, it was at the Angelika, an arresting poster of a scowling Charlize Theron with the perfectly judged tagline:
“Everyone gets old. Not everyone grows up.”
Boy, if that ain’t the truth...
Young Adult opened nationwide on this day a full decade ago (!!!) to rather muted buzz but with a pedigree that couldn’t be denied: Conceived by the brilliant, Oscar-winning screenwriter, Diablo Cody, and helmed by Jason Reitman, following up his Oscar-nominated Up in the Air while re-teaming with Cody after their similarly lauded Juno, Young Adult managed to assemble an incredibly rich ensemble of under-sung or underrated character actors—yes, including those inhabiting the body (and careers) of movie stars (Theron and Patrick Wilson)...
Where were you when you first saw—hell, even learned about—2011’s Young Adult? For me, it was at the Angelika, an arresting poster of a scowling Charlize Theron with the perfectly judged tagline:
“Everyone gets old. Not everyone grows up.”
Boy, if that ain’t the truth...
Young Adult opened nationwide on this day a full decade ago (!!!) to rather muted buzz but with a pedigree that couldn’t be denied: Conceived by the brilliant, Oscar-winning screenwriter, Diablo Cody, and helmed by Jason Reitman, following up his Oscar-nominated Up in the Air while re-teaming with Cody after their similarly lauded Juno, Young Adult managed to assemble an incredibly rich ensemble of under-sung or underrated character actors—yes, including those inhabiting the body (and careers) of movie stars (Theron and Patrick Wilson)...
- 12/15/2021
- by Mareko
- FilmExperience
Team Experience is revisiting '98 in the lead up to the Supporting Actress Smackdown on July 26th
by Mark Brinkerhoff
For as long as motion pictures have existed, ingénues have been central to Hollywood. Yet while pretty young things have never been out of style in the film industry, they do appear more dominant—or at least ubiquitous—in certain eras. And in 1998, ingénues, notably of the blonde variety, were seemingly everywhere in entertainment—on screens big and small...
by Mark Brinkerhoff
For as long as motion pictures have existed, ingénues have been central to Hollywood. Yet while pretty young things have never been out of style in the film industry, they do appear more dominant—or at least ubiquitous—in certain eras. And in 1998, ingénues, notably of the blonde variety, were seemingly everywhere in entertainment—on screens big and small...
- 7/16/2021
- by Mark Brinkerhoff
- FilmExperience
Team Experience is watching ever Montgomery Clift film for his Centennial
by Mark Brinkerhoff
Much has been written at The Film Experience about Tennessee William’s one-act play-turned-wild-ass movie (including again here, just last week), though with Elizabeth Taylor and Katherine Hepburn going head-to-head, how can you not? But generally un(der)discussed among the trio of stars of Joe Mankiewicz’s 1959 film, adapted by Gore Vidal of all writers, is the by-that-time uninsurable Montgomery Clift.
Reuniting onscreen for the third (and final) time with Taylor, his closest friend in real life, Clift gallantly cedes the floor to his co-star...
by Mark Brinkerhoff
Much has been written at The Film Experience about Tennessee William’s one-act play-turned-wild-ass movie (including again here, just last week), though with Elizabeth Taylor and Katherine Hepburn going head-to-head, how can you not? But generally un(der)discussed among the trio of stars of Joe Mankiewicz’s 1959 film, adapted by Gore Vidal of all writers, is the by-that-time uninsurable Montgomery Clift.
Reuniting onscreen for the third (and final) time with Taylor, his closest friend in real life, Clift gallantly cedes the floor to his co-star...
- 10/13/2020
- by Mark Brinkerhoff
- FilmExperience
by Mark Brinkerhoff
The mid-‘60s were as stark and as seismic a cultural (and political) turning point as any, and few places was that more evident than on movie screens. Sure, many a cinephile and film historians will cite 1967 as the year of full-on revolutionary American cinema—when the Hollywood of old was overthrown from within—but seeds of this were planted in 1965, as old, quaint fads gave way to new, bold ideas.
For those of us old enough to remember, either first or secondhand, the phenomenon that was the American teenager can not be overestimated. From the ‘50s into at least the early ‘60s, “teenagers” became a novel, powerful consumer and cultural force...
The mid-‘60s were as stark and as seismic a cultural (and political) turning point as any, and few places was that more evident than on movie screens. Sure, many a cinephile and film historians will cite 1967 as the year of full-on revolutionary American cinema—when the Hollywood of old was overthrown from within—but seeds of this were planted in 1965, as old, quaint fads gave way to new, bold ideas.
For those of us old enough to remember, either first or secondhand, the phenomenon that was the American teenager can not be overestimated. From the ‘50s into at least the early ‘60s, “teenagers” became a novel, powerful consumer and cultural force...
- 10/8/2020
- by Mark Brinkerhoff
- FilmExperience
by Mark Brinkerhoff
50 years ago today the one and only Hal Ashby, then an Oscar-winning film editor made his directorial debut with the release of The Landlord. Based on a 1966 novel and starring an almost inconceivably baby-faced Beau Bridges, its plot is fairly run-of-the-mill today but must’ve seemed quite daring for the time: A young man named Elgar (?!), who comes from wealth and lives with his parents at their Long Island estate, decides to buy a “rundown” tenement house in the dicey, gentrifying neighborhood of Park Slope. (Imagine!)
The tenants are black, he’s white, and his scheme is to evict them all so he can convert the property into something posh—a vanity project, if there ever was one.
Things do not go according to (his) plan...
50 years ago today the one and only Hal Ashby, then an Oscar-winning film editor made his directorial debut with the release of The Landlord. Based on a 1966 novel and starring an almost inconceivably baby-faced Beau Bridges, its plot is fairly run-of-the-mill today but must’ve seemed quite daring for the time: A young man named Elgar (?!), who comes from wealth and lives with his parents at their Long Island estate, decides to buy a “rundown” tenement house in the dicey, gentrifying neighborhood of Park Slope. (Imagine!)
The tenants are black, he’s white, and his scheme is to evict them all so he can convert the property into something posh—a vanity project, if there ever was one.
Things do not go according to (his) plan...
- 5/20/2020
- by Mark Brinkerhoff
- FilmExperience
Happy 50th Uma!by Mark Brinkerhoff
There is the world before Uma Thurman, and the world after Uma Thurman—or at the very least for the world of actressexuals (unite!). A movie star like no other, her origins are almost as mythical as her stature. The daughter of an erstwhile Buddhist monk and a former high-fashion model—I kid you not—Uma, as mononymous as any great, was born on this date in 1970 and lived mainly in the rural environs of interior New England and upstate New York. A self-described awkward, introverted child, she nonetheless cut an arresting figure, catching the acting bug early. She followed in her mother’s footsteps as a professional model starting at the tender age of 15. Uma's early Vogue cover. Shot by Patrick "We have Patrick" de Marchelier Soon enough she landed in magazines and on the cover—twice—of British Vogue, where her Amazonian...
There is the world before Uma Thurman, and the world after Uma Thurman—or at the very least for the world of actressexuals (unite!). A movie star like no other, her origins are almost as mythical as her stature. The daughter of an erstwhile Buddhist monk and a former high-fashion model—I kid you not—Uma, as mononymous as any great, was born on this date in 1970 and lived mainly in the rural environs of interior New England and upstate New York. A self-described awkward, introverted child, she nonetheless cut an arresting figure, catching the acting bug early. She followed in her mother’s footsteps as a professional model starting at the tender age of 15. Uma's early Vogue cover. Shot by Patrick "We have Patrick" de Marchelier Soon enough she landed in magazines and on the cover—twice—of British Vogue, where her Amazonian...
- 4/29/2020
- by Mark Brinkerhoff
- FilmExperience
A few volunteers from Team Experience are revisiting Federico Fellini classics for his centennial. Here's Mark Brinkerhoff...
My first recollection of watching La Strada is in a class at school as a youth. Oddly though, I neither can recall which class nor at what age exactly I saw it. But Federico Fellini’s 1954 breakthrough is nothing if not a film that sticks with you, like a bracing force which leaves an imprint that lasts.
A masterwork in Italian neorealism, La Strada (“The Road”) is set largely against the backdrop of a traveling circus, centering on a triangle of sorts between a trio of street performers...
My first recollection of watching La Strada is in a class at school as a youth. Oddly though, I neither can recall which class nor at what age exactly I saw it. But Federico Fellini’s 1954 breakthrough is nothing if not a film that sticks with you, like a bracing force which leaves an imprint that lasts.
A masterwork in Italian neorealism, La Strada (“The Road”) is set largely against the backdrop of a traveling circus, centering on a triangle of sorts between a trio of street performers...
- 1/21/2020
- by Mark Brinkerhoff
- FilmExperience
The Governors Awards (Honorary Oscars) will be held on October 27th, 2019. We've been discussing two of the honoraries: Directors Lina Wertmüller and David Lynch. Here's Mark Brinkerhoff...
Having just retrospected Mulholland Drive, David Lynch’s penultimate film (to date at least), let’s venture back to 1977’s Eraserhead, the debut film of American cinema’s enfant terrible ne plus ultra.
To say that Eraserhead is weird would be a profound understatement. Not only is it deeply weird, but it’s wildly inventive. Made for a tight (even for the mid-‘70s) $10,000, Lynch’s first feature, shot in glorious black and white, seems like both a precursor and a post-script to the legendary director’s storied career...
Having just retrospected Mulholland Drive, David Lynch’s penultimate film (to date at least), let’s venture back to 1977’s Eraserhead, the debut film of American cinema’s enfant terrible ne plus ultra.
To say that Eraserhead is weird would be a profound understatement. Not only is it deeply weird, but it’s wildly inventive. Made for a tight (even for the mid-‘70s) $10,000, Lynch’s first feature, shot in glorious black and white, seems like both a precursor and a post-script to the legendary director’s storied career...
- 10/24/2019
- by Mark Brinkerhoff
- FilmExperience
by Mark Brinkerhoff
After finally having gotten around to seeing 1931’s M, it seemed only fitting to round it out with 1969’s Z, co-record-holder of the shortest movie title ever. Who knew that these two would have more in common than their one-word titles?
Bracingly directed by Greek-born Costa-Gavras, the Algeria-set, French-language Z is a thinly veiled version of the circumstances around the 1963 assassination of a reformist Greek politician by right-wing zealots. Both the fictional and actual events stoked social upheaval and prompted a political crisis. Factor in a shady government coverup, eventually exposed by a dogged team of investigators and journalists, and you have the makings of a thriller that is as timeless as it is unnerving...
After finally having gotten around to seeing 1931’s M, it seemed only fitting to round it out with 1969’s Z, co-record-holder of the shortest movie title ever. Who knew that these two would have more in common than their one-word titles?
Bracingly directed by Greek-born Costa-Gavras, the Algeria-set, French-language Z is a thinly veiled version of the circumstances around the 1963 assassination of a reformist Greek politician by right-wing zealots. Both the fictional and actual events stoked social upheaval and prompted a political crisis. Factor in a shady government coverup, eventually exposed by a dogged team of investigators and journalists, and you have the makings of a thriller that is as timeless as it is unnerving...
- 10/23/2019
- by Mark Brinkerhoff
- FilmExperience
Series Debut! As a kind of dark mirror to our "Over & Over" column, we've invited Team Experience to fill in some of their most shameful film history gaps and tell us about their experience. We all have gaps in our viewing with over a century of film history behind us! To kick things off here's a 'Lang-delayed' encounter for Mark. - Editor
by Mark Brinkerhoff
I first became aware of M, Fritz Lang’s seminal 1931 German thriller, while flipping through Vanity Fair’s Hollywood, a weighty, sumptuous 2000 coffee table book. Therein, opposite a cuckoo photo of Doris Day with half a dozen dyed poodles, is a haunting photo of actor Peter Lorre with the following caption...
by Mark Brinkerhoff
I first became aware of M, Fritz Lang’s seminal 1931 German thriller, while flipping through Vanity Fair’s Hollywood, a weighty, sumptuous 2000 coffee table book. Therein, opposite a cuckoo photo of Doris Day with half a dozen dyed poodles, is a haunting photo of actor Peter Lorre with the following caption...
- 9/24/2019
- by Mark Brinkerhoff
- FilmExperience
by Mark Brinkerhoff
The Coen Brothers have no shortage of veritable classics on their résumé, but somewhat overlooked within their filmography are the quirky, sweet little diversions into optimism, vs. their patented nihilism. And so, sandwiched between the critical and commercial triumphs Barton Fink and Fargo, arrived The Hudsucker Proxy, the Coens’ mid-‘90s ode to the zany, screwball comedies of Hollywood’s Golden Age.
They had me at "You know, for kids.”
I was one of the few who saw The Hudsucker Proxy in theaters—it bombed…hard—at the mall where I worked as a teen. In fact, it wasn’t by chance that I saw The Hudsucker Proxy; I actually sought it out, for reasons I can’t totally recall. But loved it I did, from the very first watch...
The Coen Brothers have no shortage of veritable classics on their résumé, but somewhat overlooked within their filmography are the quirky, sweet little diversions into optimism, vs. their patented nihilism. And so, sandwiched between the critical and commercial triumphs Barton Fink and Fargo, arrived The Hudsucker Proxy, the Coens’ mid-‘90s ode to the zany, screwball comedies of Hollywood’s Golden Age.
They had me at "You know, for kids.”
I was one of the few who saw The Hudsucker Proxy in theaters—it bombed…hard—at the mall where I worked as a teen. In fact, it wasn’t by chance that I saw The Hudsucker Proxy; I actually sought it out, for reasons I can’t totally recall. But loved it I did, from the very first watch...
- 9/20/2019
- by Mark Brinkerhoff
- FilmExperience
Team Experience is sharing FYCs as the Television Academy votes on Emmy nominations over the next two weeks. Here's Mark Brinkerhoff.
The general consensus, if we even can have one in these divisive times, seems to be that Matthew Weiner’s The Romanoffs is an ignoble failure. As his immediate follow-up to Mad Men, the seminal, peak-tv series that gave him pretty much carte blanche to do whatever he wanted to creatively, The Romanoffs arrived last fall on a wave of buzz and eager anticipation. With a star-studded, international cast and intriguing, globe-trotting storyline (made possible by Amazon’s $70 million investment), what would Weiner & Co. ultimately deliver? The answer: Zzzs.
Nevertheless, within this eight-part limited series (which surely was meant to continue?) are elements that succeed better than they ought to quite frankly. Indeed, the parts are greater than their sum, and one in particular stood out to me immediately/in retrospect: Christina Hendricks.
The general consensus, if we even can have one in these divisive times, seems to be that Matthew Weiner’s The Romanoffs is an ignoble failure. As his immediate follow-up to Mad Men, the seminal, peak-tv series that gave him pretty much carte blanche to do whatever he wanted to creatively, The Romanoffs arrived last fall on a wave of buzz and eager anticipation. With a star-studded, international cast and intriguing, globe-trotting storyline (made possible by Amazon’s $70 million investment), what would Weiner & Co. ultimately deliver? The answer: Zzzs.
Nevertheless, within this eight-part limited series (which surely was meant to continue?) are elements that succeed better than they ought to quite frankly. Indeed, the parts are greater than their sum, and one in particular stood out to me immediately/in retrospect: Christina Hendricks.
- 6/14/2019
- by Mark Brinkerhoff
- FilmExperience
by Mark Brinkerhoff
Fontaine and de Havilland in 1967 at a Marlene Dietrich show
“I bequeath all my beauty to my younger sister Joan, because she has none.”
- Olivia de Havilland, according to her “will,” age nine Apocryphal? Who can say. Delicious? 100 percent! Though chronicled to death (at Tfe and elsewhere), the purported feud between the most famous siblings of Hollywood’s Golden Age endures like no other. Why? Because it seems silly and pointless in retrospect, as most sibling rivalries and familial angst do. But rather than dwell on the negative, let’s turn our attention to more positive outpourings of mutual love and respect, shall we? Here are 10 of the more famous (in some cases infamous) siblings over the years on the ties that bind—and unbind—them to each other, not to mention the public’s imagination...
Fontaine and de Havilland in 1967 at a Marlene Dietrich show
“I bequeath all my beauty to my younger sister Joan, because she has none.”
- Olivia de Havilland, according to her “will,” age nine Apocryphal? Who can say. Delicious? 100 percent! Though chronicled to death (at Tfe and elsewhere), the purported feud between the most famous siblings of Hollywood’s Golden Age endures like no other. Why? Because it seems silly and pointless in retrospect, as most sibling rivalries and familial angst do. But rather than dwell on the negative, let’s turn our attention to more positive outpourings of mutual love and respect, shall we? Here are 10 of the more famous (in some cases infamous) siblings over the years on the ties that bind—and unbind—them to each other, not to mention the public’s imagination...
- 4/10/2019
- by Mark Brinkerhoff
- FilmExperience
Please welcome new contributor Mark Brinkerhoff
A simple favor to ask members of the Academy: don’t miss your opportunity to nominate A Simple Favor, simply one of the finest showcases of contemporary costuming in years. How so? Let’s examine.
First off, it’s only natural to zero in on Blake Lively’s character’s frankly stunning series of sharply-tailored suits with vertiginous stilettos. But while my own love of ladies in menswear knows no limits there is much more happening front and center (Anna Kendrick) and around the margins to pique the interest of sartorially-minded viewers...
A simple favor to ask members of the Academy: don’t miss your opportunity to nominate A Simple Favor, simply one of the finest showcases of contemporary costuming in years. How so? Let’s examine.
First off, it’s only natural to zero in on Blake Lively’s character’s frankly stunning series of sharply-tailored suits with vertiginous stilettos. But while my own love of ladies in menswear knows no limits there is much more happening front and center (Anna Kendrick) and around the margins to pique the interest of sartorially-minded viewers...
- 1/14/2019
- by Mark Brinkerhoff
- FilmExperience
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