watching: Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)

There’s not a lot of movies that when I get to the end of it, I want to start it over and watch it through again. But Howl’s Moving Castle is just the right kind of movie. It’s a Studio Ghibli film in association with Disney, so I am not using any screen grabs here [...]

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watching: Dames (1934)

“Your knees in action — that’s the attraction — what good’s a show without you beautiful dames?” That line sums up all the glorious cynicalness of a stage production in 1934. Seriously, I think there have yet to be written decent term papers from aspiring film students, simply studying the dance sequences in Busby Berkeley [...]

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watching: Last King of Scotland, the (2006)

It is very few movies I walk away from thinking, “Wow, that was good!” Ridiculously few. So here I tell you about them, so you might keep an eye out for when one pops up for you to view, too. I picked up The Last King of Scotland because in the back of my head [...]

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watching: Once Upon a Time

On ABC, Sunday nights, Once Upon a Time appeals to the princess-loving girlie in all of us.  Do you have favorite television?  I’ve been pretty blah on most of it lately, but who can resist pretty dresses, handsome princes/huntsmen, and lots of over-the-top good versus evil where everything is black and white? I think there [...]

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Watching: Inception (2010)

I know what you’re thinking: “Wait. TWO movies? You’ve had time to watch TWO movies? What’s up with that?” And I have to say, “I know!” And admit I’m sick with a cold. Or flu. Or something grungy that makes me not able to paint. Or even focus well enough to cut out fabric to [...]

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Watching: Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

First off, I have to say I have been a Danny Boyle fan since Shallow Grave (1994) which I lerved at the time, and which maybe hasn’t stood up so well. Or perhaps my attitude changed. But Danny Boyle, he’s kept up with the times, his flair is self evident, like Alex Proyas and Christopher [...]

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watching: Love Me Tonight (1932)

I mentioned this movie a while ago, but hadn’t really tuned into youtube back then so was not able to add the magic of demonstration clips. Does the web just keep getting better? I am tempted to start a new movie subset tag of Best Opening Sequences. There are so few movies that meet this…well, [...]

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watching: Shall We Dance (1937)

There’s a lot of youtube clips for the roller skating sequence in Shall We Dance, but even if tap dancing in roller skates is technically difficult (and took 150 takes to shoot) I still found this little dance sequence to be more engrossing. This dress is a knockout. At first I thought the sunflowers were [...]

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Watching: No Man of Her Own (1932)

What’s interesting about this one (the story is pretty run-of-the-mill) is that at minute 2 of the above clip is the scandalous scene that provoked the production Code to finally set some standards for common decency. Watch it, then keep reading. Pretty tame, right? It’s not like he could see up her skirt much, maybe [...]

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Watching: Sleuth (2007)

I remember watching the original Sleuth (1972) sometime back in the 1980s, and don’t remember anything about it besides thinking Michael Caine was handsome and that the movie was clever and I liked it. So when I saw Sleuth was remade with Michael Caine again, albeit 35 years older, and directed by Kenneth Branagh, I [...]

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