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Martin Scorsese’s The Color of Money
By J.D. Lafrance The 1970’s saw the rise of the Movie Brats, a collection of filmmakers that had grown up watching and studying films. They made challenging films that reflected the times in which...
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Horror Fest 2019: Arena (1989) and The Bat (1959)
“The Bat” (1959) by Jamie Uhler Another year down, but I’m not stopping. I say that every year and generally do get to most, if not all. This year though, I do want to eventually complete all and do...
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Nitehawk Festival Screening of our film “Best Picture”; Marriage Story, Honey...
by Sam Juliano You wouldn’t think I would be facing a laser iridotomy for normal “narrow angles” in my left eye on Monday morning, Nov. 18th and cataract surgery on my right eye on December 13th by...
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Clint Eastwood’s A Perfect World
by J.D. Lafrance In 1993, Clint Eastwood was enjoying a resurgence in popularity. His revisionist western Unforgiven (1992) won three Academy Awards and he received critical and commercial acclaim for...
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INGMAR BERGMAN’S ‘THE PASSION OF ANNA’“Real security…Security…”
© 2019 by James Clark Why do the films of Ingmar Bergman concentrate upon difficulties so few people care about? Some might rush to claim that his genius was all over the most pressing dilemmas...
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Caldecott Medal Contender: Field Trip to the Moon
by Sam Juliano On Star Trek it is referred to as “the final frontier” but humankind has barely scratched the surface in regard to space exploration, and only rarely has an American set foot on our...
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A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, 2019 Horror Fest and Thanksgiving Day on...
by Sam Juliano Jim, J.D., Jamie and the rest of the staff here at Wonders in the Dark would like to extend to our friends and readers Thanksgiving Day wishes. Though Jim and J.D. are Canadians who...
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Caldecott Medal Contender: The Bluest of Blues: Anna Atkins and the First...
by Sam Juliano Just a little over three years ago an entry in the 2017 Caldecott Medal Contender series featured a resplendent picture book biography on Ana Lovelace titled Ada’s Ideas who was dubbed...
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Knives Out; Queen and Slim; Dark Waters; Frozen 2 and Horror Fest 2019 on...
Screen cap from fabulously stylish murder-mystery “Knives Out” by Sam Juliano I trust that everyone stateside had a fabulous Thanksgiving Day as we did in a grand gathering in Butler, New Jersey on...
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Caldecott Medal Contender: The Scarecrow
by Sam Juliano I would not be just a muffin’, My head all full of stuffin’, My heart all full of pain -E.Y. Harburg, Harold Arlen, The Wizard of Oz (1939) The inveterate bird-scarer known as...
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Bruce McDonald's Roadkill
by J.D. Lafrance Growing up in Canada I never fully appreciated Canadian cinema. Oh sure, I liked the films of David Cronenberg, Atom Egoyan and Strange Brew (1983). They were able to break out of the...
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Waves and The Two Popes on Monday Morning Diary (December 8)
by Sam Juliano The cataract surgery on my right eye is set for this coming Friday (December 13) at a Fair Lawn, New Jersey eye center. Aside from that frightening date I will be attending that...
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Sidney Lumet's Night Falls on Manhattan
By J.D. Lafrance In a prolific and diverse career, some of Sidney Lumet’s best films dealt with police corruption. It was a theme that the filmmaker was drawn to as far back as the 1970s with Serpico...
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Caldecott Medal Contender: Vroom!
by Sam Juliano He’s off and flyin’ as he guns the car around the track He’s jammin’ down the pedal like he’s never comin’ back Adventure’s waitin’ just ahead. Go Speed Racer Go Speed Racer Go Speed...
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INGMAR BERGMAN’S ‘THE SERPENT’S EGG’“You’ve been thinking much too much,...
© 2019 by James Clark The films of Ingmar Bergman are all of a piece. They endeavor, from many angles, to make sense of the powers that be. This concern is particularly pressing in regard to the work...
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A Hidden Life and Teacher’s Xmas Party on Monday Morning Diary (December 16)
by Sam Juliano The cataract surgery is completed. All went well but vision restoration is seemingly still a ways off. Some people need two to three weeks for it to return and I am waiting (im)...
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Whit Stillman's Metropolitan
By J.D. Lafrance The early 1990s marked the emergence of two independent filmmakers who were seen as possible heirs to Woody Allen’s cinematic legacy: Noah Baumbach (Kicking and Screaming) and Whit...
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Caldecott Medal Contender: I Can Write the World
by Sam Juliano Urban neighborhoods steaming with life, culture and creativity are too often the subject of misguided perception and racist profiling by those who make generalizations about high crime...
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Cats, Bombshell, Richard Jewell and ‘Merry Christmas’ on Monday Morning Diary...
by Sam Juliano The Wonders in the Dark staff (James Clark, J.D. Lafrance, Jamie Uhler) as well as Lucille and I would like to wish our dear friends and loyal readers a very Merry Christmas this coming...
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DYLAN THOMAS, JAMES HERRIOT, AND THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS
© 2019 by James Clark Our return to an old Christmas blog, from 2013, must (due to corporate regulations)stand without the YouTube referred to. But the point of two great writers at this season...
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