by Sam Juliano
Football fans were treated to a defensive match between the favored Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos, who triumphed in an error prone Super Bowl game that wasn’t always pretty to watch. Still for those of us who traveled to the homes of relatives, where betting pools were run, or stood home to watch the big contest, it offered up a measure of entertainment to close out the nearly six-month football season.
The DGA (Director’s Guild Association) award this past week was handed out for the second year in a row to Alejandro Innaritu, whose The Revenant must now be seen a strong candidate for the Best Picture Oscar, in what is apparently a close race with The Big Short (PGA) and Spotlight. (SAG). The Academy Awards as always are a shameless rat race with building insignificance, but it gives Lucille and I the opportunity to stage our annual awards bash, which this year like last will happen at Fairview’s Tiger Hose Firehouse, with catering again from Dante’s. The affair is an open house.
This past week we attended two movie theater presentations, one the new Coens’ brothers film HAIL CAESAR, and the other the encore HD broadcast of Giacomo Puccini’s TURANDOT, seen at a local multiplex. Lucille and I had seen TURANDOT live at the Met three times prior over the years during our season ticket days. Remarkably, this is the same lavish Franco Zeffirelli production that has been there for over 20 years.
Hail Caesar ** 1/2 (Friday) Secaucus multiplex
Turandot (opera) *****
HAIL CAESAR is the most significant misfire that the Coens have released in many a year. It is all over the map and is largely forgettable.
Because of the Super Bowl and a nagging lower back muscle sprain, I have been unable to update links, but hopefully will revise the old ones:
At Noirish John Grant has penned a superlative review of Julien Duvivier’s “La Chambre Ardente”: https://noirencyclopedia.wordpress.com/2016/01/30/chambre-ardente-la-1962/
John Greco has penned an excellent review on Samuel Fuller’s “Forty Guns” at Twenty-Four Frames: https://twentyfourframes.wordpress.com/2016/01/19/forty-guns-1957-sam-fuller/
Aaron West offers up his twenty-fifth podcast, on D.E. Pennebaker’s “Don’t Look Back”: http://criterionblues.com/2016/01/24/ccu25-dont-look-back-1967/
Laurie Buchanan’s lastest post at Tuesdays with Laurie is a splendid one titled “Bald is Beautiful”: http://tuesdayswithlaurie.com/2016/01/26/bald-is-beautiful/
At a newly-decked out “Patricia’s Wisdom” our erstwhile proprietor has written another lovely book review, this time on “How to Be Alive: A Guide to the Kind of Happiness that Helps the World”: http://patriciaswisdom.com/2016/01/how-to-be-alive-a-guide-to-the-kind-of-happiness-that-helps-the-world-colin-beavan-author-of-no-impact-man/
Pat Perry is back in the blogging business at Part Time Cinephile with a fabulous round-up of 2015 Films: http://parttimecinephile.blogspot.com/2016/01/at-last-these-are-not-20-best-movies-of.html
Filmmaker Jeffrey Goodman offers up his Top 12 films of 2015 in brilliantly written capsules at The Last Lullaby: http://cahierspositif.blogspot.com/2015/12/my-top-twelve-films-of-2015.html
At FilmsNoir.net Tony d’Ambra leads with a fabulous post on Manhattan Transfer 1925: http://filmsnoir.net/film_noir/the-noir-city-manhattan-transfer-1925.html/
At the Creativepotager’s painting blog the incomparable Terrell Welch offers up a sublime work-in-progress post titled “Intention, Composition and Underpaiting are tools of the trade used by the artist”: http://creativepotager.com/2016/01/14/intention-composition-and-underpainting-are-tools-of-the-trade-used-by-the-artist/
At Ferdy on Films Marilyn Ferdinand has offered up a terrific essay on Larissa Shepitko’s “Wings”: http://www.ferdyonfilms.com/2016/wings-%D0%BA%D1%80%D1%8B%D0%BB%D1%8C%D1%8F-1966/27152/
David Schleicher has posted a terrific review of “The Revenant” at The Schleicher Spin: http://theschleicherspin.com/2016/01/11/reverence-for-the-revenant/
At Movie Classics Judy Geater has posted a fantastic review for the “Raoul Walsh and James Cagney’s 4 Films Together” blogathon: https://movieclassics.wordpress.com/2016/01/23/raoul-walsh-and-james-cagneys-4-films-together/
Joel Bocko has penned a terrific review of “Jaws” in his ‘favorite’ series at I Lost It at the Movies: http://thedancingimage.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-favorites-jaws-71.html
At Little Miss Litberry Charity has penned a fabulous review of the non-fiction work “Wonder Garden”: https://littlemisslitberry.wordpress.com/2016/01/20/wonder-garden-a-review/
At De Colores: The Raza Experience in Books for Children Lyn Miller-Lachman has written a fabulous review on Marguerita Engel’s award-winning memoir “Enchanted Air”: http://decoloresreviews.blogspot.com/2016/01/enchanted-air-two-cultures-two-wings.html
At Read It Real Good Alia Jones has penned a terrific review of Marilyn Nelson’s “My Seneca Village”: http://readitrealgood.com/2016/01/20/my-seneca-village/
At American Indians in Children’s Literature Debbie Reese has penned a fascinating feature titled “Where do you shelve Native American stories?” https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2016/01/where-do-you-shelve-native-american.html
Robert Tower has written a terrific review of “Edge of Tomorrow” at It Rains…..You Get Wet: http://le0pard13.com/2016/01/29/edge-of-tomorrow-film-review/
Weeping Sam waxes lyrical on Jacques Rivette’s passing at The Listening Ear: http://le0pard13.com/2016/01/29/edge-of-tomorrow-film-review/
At Attractive Variance James Uhler shows some love for ABBA: https://attractivevariance.wordpress.com/2016/01/19/songs-i-love-watch-out/
Dean Treadway offers up a look at 1973 in his annual series at Filmacability: http://filmicability.blogspot.com/2016/01/1973-year-in-review.html
