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The Lavender Scare and Ghost Fleet on Monday Morning Diary (June 10)
by Sam Juliano Many thanks to all the writers, comment leavers and page viewers for our successful Third Annual Allan Fish Online Film Festival which concluded on Wednesday after an eight-day window...
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L.A. Confidential
By J.D. Lafrance Prolific crime novelist James Ellroy has only had three of his books adapted into films (Blood on the Moon, L.A. Confidential and The Black Dahlia) while other novels continue to...
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Short Film “Best Picture” screens at BAM Fest in Brooklyn, Franco...
by Sam Juliano The brilliant Jay Giampietro’s “Best Picture” which features Yours Truly as the main character and narrator screened Sunday night as part of the 2019 BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music)...
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Jake Kasdan’s Zero Effect
by J.D. Lafrance Zero Effect (1998) marked the auspicious debut of writer/director Jake Kasdan, son of famous filmmaker Lawrence Kasdan. The film was a quirky blend of detective story, comedy and...
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INGMAR BERGMAN’S ‘AUTUMN SONATA’“People like you are a menace”
© 2019 by James Clark I can’t, for the life of me, regard Ingmar Bergman’s film, Autumn Sonata (1978), as the flat-out domestic clash others choose to believe. What is the real fascination and...
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Toy Story 4, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, and ‘Best Picture’ review...
by Sam Juliano We were so thrilled to get some splendid positive reviews on our short film Best Picture, perhaps most notably from the distinguished critic Steve Kopian who is well known as the most...
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Sidney Lumet’s Running on Empty
By J.D. Lafrance Imagine the scene: a teenager is playing baseball. It’s his turn up at bat and he promptly strikes out. He dejectedly leaves the diamond on his bike — presumably bound for home. On...
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Review: Crisis Hotline
by Sam Juliano The perspective of Simon, a receptionist at a LGBT crisis hotline is that callers aren’t anywhere close to their own demise but rather are venting on the sustained discrimination they...
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The Legacy of Orson Welles: a Consideration of the Ten Best Films of 2018
By Duane Porter With the advent of modernism almost a century and a half ago, art works such as Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, James Joyce’s Ulysses, and now The Other Side of the Wind have...
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Happy Canada Day, tributes, trips, and discoveries on Monday Morning Diary...
by Sam Juliano Posted above are recent photos of my youngest brother Paul with his wife Rita Juliano and daughters at his home with NJ Democratic Governor Phil Murphy and then solo with NJ Democratic...
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Kathryn Bigelow’s Point Break
by J.D. Lafrance We all have Kathryn Bigelow to thank for the Keanu Reeves action movie star currently tearing it up in the John Wick franchise. It all started with Point Break (1991). It was...
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Midsommar, Storm Boy, Pavarotti and Yesterday on Monday Morning Diary (July 8)
Revolting though utterly brilliant horror film “Midsommar” by Sam Juliano Now the 4th is behind us and we move forward with scorching temperatures and air conditioner overtime. Some of us are...
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Robert Altman’s The Gingerbread Man
One of the marks of a true auteur is someone that can take a director-for-hire job and make it their own. They are able to take a project that originated from a major studio and infuse it with their...
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Wild Rose, Echo in the Canyon and The Queen on Monday Morning Diary (July 15)
Soon-to-be-elected Bergen County Democratic Chairman Paul Juliano and Governor Phil Murphy at Cliffside Park’s Villa Amalfi on Wednesday night. by Sam Juliano A rousing event held at the Villa Amalfi...
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Jim McBride’s Breathless
By J.D. Lafrance When Jim McBride’s Breathless (1983), a fast and loose remake of Jean-Luc Godard’s French New Wave Classic A bout de soufflé (1960), was released in theaters, it infuriated cineastes...
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Claire Denis’’35 Shots of Rum’“I feel like…I have wings…”
© 2019 by James Clark These days, an old black and white film about God will find few takers. However, there is a still-practicing filmmaker, namely, Claire Denis, who pulls out all the stops...
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Ophelia, The Other Story and county chairmanship election on Monday Morning...
by Sam Juliano At Union Hall in Paramus, my youngest brother Paul Juliano was elected the new Bergen County Chairman in a unanimous verdict on Wednesday evening in front of jubilant party faithful...
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Mission: Impossible
By J.D. Lafrance A lot was riding on Mission: Impossible (1996) for Tom Cruise. Not only was it the first film he produced (in addition to starring), it was also his first attempt to kick start his...
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Once Upon A Time in Hollywood on Monday Morning Diary (July 29)
by Sam Juliano Right now I can’t help but reference this song from Steel Pulse featured in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing: Otherwise, it is business as usual under the air conditioned interiors as we...
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Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
By J.D. Lafrance Ever since his directorial debut with Reservoir Dogs (1992), Quentin Tarantino has made a point of casting actors that were successful but whose marketability has waned over time only...
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