Looking Down on Theatricality

A mercifully brief addendum to Episode 26 ("Undeserved Oscar Winners"), where I respond to some comments about that episode (and offer some thoughts on the very-much-deserved Oscars for The Godfather movies and The Best Years of Our Lives) and talk about a movie (the Farrelly brother's great Green Book)  that I would have talked about in that episode if it hadn't already been a billion hours long.

A discussion of some of the film critics (and other kinds of critics and writers) who have had an influence on my own approach to thinking about and talking about movies.

I discuss some of the reasons people like to argue about the Oscars, and focus in on arguments about undeserved winners. I discuss why I think movies such as How Green Was My Valley, Dances with Wolves, and Going My Way, still "deserve" their best picture wins, despite winning over arguably better movies. I also white knight for some movies that aren't quite as good but still strike me as being unfairly targeted as undeserving (like Crash and The Greatest Show on Earth). I still end up not finding too much good to say about Shakespeare in Love, though.

A quick and dirty compare and contrast between The Hunger and Near Dark, two stylish vampire movies from the 1980's, made early in the careers of directors who would go on to achieve great things.

I attempt to push back against and deconstruct the widely held idea that cinema in the 1980's represented a tragic falling off from the greatness that was cinema in the 1970's. Also, I make fun of Goonies.

In this one, I talk about the difference between the way normal people watch movies and the way that (some) egg-head movie buffs like myself watch movies. I discuss my thoughts on some beloved-by-me and not-well-liked by most normal people movies, including Howard Hawks' A Song is Born, Michael Mann's Public Enemies, and Hitchcock's Topaz.

In which I go from the ridiculous to the sublime and recommend a couple of movies currently available for streaming.

A tour through Martin Scorsese’s filmography.

I clarify some of my thoughts on several Brian De Palma movies, and try to explain what’s so great about Blow Out and Mission: Impossible.

In which I try to answer the question of why some people say that theatricality in movies is a bad thing.