Comedy

When Adam Schlesinger—bass player of the band Fountains of Wayne—heard that songwriters around the country were invited to write and submit a song for a new movie being made about musicians in the early 1960s, he figured “Why not?” It would be fun to give it a try. He loved 1960s pop music. So, he wrote a catchy, British-invasion style song, with a dash of The Monkees thrown in, and submitted his tape. A few months passed, and then word came that his song had been picked out

Actor Paul Giamatti won a Best Actor award at last month’s Golden Globes ceremony for his memorable performance in The Holdovers, one of the best movies of 2023. In his acceptance speech, Giamatti thanked his director Alexander Payne, whom he called Alexander the Great. And for good reason! Payne has directed a number of terrific films over the past 20 years—strong character-centered dramas often distinguished by dark, comedic touches that vividly bring the struggles of the c

“The Magdalene Laundries” is a haunting song by Joni Mitchell. It’s about the real-life laundries in Ireland where many poor women were sentenced for the “sin” of being a “fallen woman” or for having a child out of wedlock. Incredibly, the laundries operated for centuries and were not shut down until the 1990s! They were oppressive asylums run by Roman Catholic nuns who treated the unmarried, imprisoned women as inmates. For their penance, the women were forced to do the wor

Composer Harold Arlen wrote over 500 songs in his illustrious career. “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from 1939’s The Wizard of Oz is probably his most famous song. But a few years earlier he and lyricist Yip Harburg teamed up to write another classic called “It’s Only a Paper Moon.” And in 1973, that song became the theme and title for the movie Paper Moon, a wonderful film about a con man and a little girl who journey across the lonesome back roads of depression-era America. T

In the history of the Academy Awards, only three films have ever won Oscars in all five of the top categories: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Screenplay. They are 1934’s It Happened One Night, 1991’s Silence of the Lambs, and 1975's One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Directed by Milos Forman and starring Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher and a stunning supporting cast, Cuckoo’s Nest is a wonder. Based on a novel by the great American writer Ken Kes

Recently, I showed my 37-year-old son Dominic the 1975 film Nashville. He’s seen other movies directed by Robert Altman, but this was his first time seeing Nashville, where Altman’s mastery of weaving a menagerie of storylines into a crisscrossing maze of narratives is on full display. When it was over, Dominic exclaimed that it was one of the best films he’d ever seen. he couldn’t believe that a major studio had produced it. He said: “Now I understand why you’re so discourag

Since I recommended the wicked, black comedy Bad Santa as a film to enjoy during this holiday, I thought it only fitting that I atone for that sin by closing out this year with a tribute to a hugely popular and romantic Christmas movie—2003’s Love Actually. Ironically, it was released the same year as Bad Santa. “It seems to me that love is everywhere.” I chose to review Love Actually here, not because I think it ranks as one of my favorite films, but because I cannot think o

Sidney Poitier was the first Black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. The year was 1964. He won the Oscar for his wonderfully engaging performance in the film Lilies of the Field. Lilies is a small, character-driven comedy-drama about an itinerant handyman named Homer Smith who encounters a group of five Catholic nuns—German nuns who have escaped from behind the Berlin Wall and now live in a remote part of the Arizona desert. Homer stops at their place because his

When Monty Python’s Life of Brian was released in 1979, it was advertised as “a motion picture destined to offend nearly two thirds of the civilized world. And severely annoy the other third.” Boy, did it offend and annoy. Many organized religions attacked the movie with a blowtorch of outrage. They condemned it for mocking the life of Christ. But there are only two scenes where Christ appears, and he is only on the periphery. “Blessed are the cheesemakers.” The real target o

The premise is golden. Three women friends are about to escort a group of schoolchildren on a boat ride and picnic. Suddenly a messenger shows up with a letter addressed to the three of them. It’s from a fourth woman who makes apologies to her close friends for not joining them on the outing because…well, because she’s run off with one of their husbands. If that poison letter isn’t devilish enough, she doesn’t bother to say which husband she’s plucked. And since the story tak

It’s fair to say that some of director Martin Scorsese’s best movies are about lonely men, at war with themselves and with the world around them. Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver is a classic example. So is Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull. In both of those films, Robert De Niro portrays Travis and Jake as emotionally isolated human beings, driven by a furious desire for some kind of recognition; to be seen, and to fight their way free of the snakes that haunt them. If there’s a case

Nothing says the holidays for me quite like spiking my eggnog with some good Kentucky bourbon and kicking back to watch one of a favorite Christmas movies. There are so many that I love, but here are three that I always seem to come back to. The one that I’ve seen the most in my life—by far—is White Christmas. Made in 1954, it’s about a popular song-and-dance team—played by Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye—who team up with two showbiz sisters—played by Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ell

Film director Sam Raimi has made no secret of the fact that growing up he adored the films of The Three Stooges, the great comedy team of Moe, Larry and Curly—and later Shemp and Curly Joe. They made nearly 200 short films between 1930 and 1970. For generations of fans, The Stooges’ brand of slapstick, screwball comedy mixed with wonderfully idiotic physical mayhem proved irresistible. For Raimi, the influence of the Stooges was so great that when it was time for him to make

Movie lovers often debate what’s the greatest movie ever made. For me, the answer often depends on what day you ask me. The same goes for what’s the worst movie. Ask me today, and I’d probably say it’s Plan 9 From Outer Space, made in 1957 by the legendary writer-director Ed Wood. If you have not seen this famously dreadful film, let me urge you to see the 1994 bio-pic Ed Wood instead. Wonderfully directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp and a stellar supporting cast,

It’s a one-of-a-kind dark, comic satire. Of the ten or so classic movies that Stanley Kubrick directed and co-wrote in his brilliant career, Dr. Strangelove, or how I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is a favorite. Made in 1964, it’s a one-of-a-kind dark, comic satire about an American brigadier general named Jack D. Ripper who goes bonkers and orders a B-52 plane under his command to drop a nuclear bomb on the Soviet Union. Ripper is played with crazed, rugged gust

Of the 50-some movies that Woody Allen has written and directed in his long career, one of my favorites is Crimes and Misdemeanors. It’s a boldly original, provocative film about crime and punishment and questions of morality. “The eyes of god are always watching”. Made in 1989, the film stars Martin Landau as Judah Rosenthal, a wealthy, happily married ophthalmologist and respected pillar of his community. Raised in a religious family, Judah’s father taught him that “the eye

I’ve never been very interested in gambling. The idea of betting my money and maybe losing was always more painful to me than the imagined pleasure of maybe winning. But movies about gamblers and their compulsion to bet entice me like an ant to sugar, and one of my favorites is 1974’s California Split. Masterfully directed by Robert Altman, the film stars Elliott Gould as Charlie, an easy-going, die-hard gambler who only stops placing bets when he’s asleep….and George Segal i

Hang on. What I’m about to tell you is true. Elvis is alive! And so is President John Kennedy! And both of them are old men living incognito in a cheap East Texas nursing home. But that’s not even the most incredible thing. Elvis and JFK have big trouble on their hands because Ho-Tep—a 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy in a cowboy hat—is stalking the nursing home at night so he can suck out the souls of its residents. And Elvis and JFK could be next! That’s the outrageous premise

In the history of film, the stories of fights between filmmakers and the studios that financed their latest pictures are legendary; legendary and utterly commonplace. Once productions are complete, movies are often taken out of the hands of the frustrated filmmaker and recut into a version that the studio believes will make it more marketable. The results, as you might imagine, are often a mixed bag, or a downright mess. One of the most famous films that ended up in such a do

Film critic Roger Ebert once said that the great comedy writer and director Mel Brooks is so uniquely likeable and funny that he has the ability to “say anything, do anything” and people will let him. For proof, look no further than Brooks’ 1974 box office hit Blazing Saddles. It’s a comedy western made up of such outrageously funny excess that it’s a good bet you’ll laugh out loud at the chaotic humor and firehose of jokes, no matter how irreverent, racist, sexist, and sat