Browsing: Cinema & TV

A Brief History On December 12, 1967, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, an American comedy-drama film produced and directed by Stanley Kramer, and written by William Rose, was released in the United States of America.  The film stars Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier, and Katharine Hepburn, and features Hepburn’s niece Katharine Houghton. The film was one of the few films of the time to depict an interracial marriage in a positive light, as interracial marriage historically had been illegal in most states of the United States, and still was illegal in 17 states—mostly Southern states—until 12 June 1967, six months before the film was released, roughly two weeks after Tracy filmed his…

A Brief History On December 25, 1962, To Kill a Mockingbird, an American drama film directed by Robert Mulligan, opened in theaters.  The screenplay by Horton Foote is based on Harper Lee’s 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. It stars Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch and Mary Badham as Scout.  The film received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics and was a box-office success, earning more than 10 times its budget. The film won three Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Peck, and was nominated for eight, including Best Picture.  In 1995, the film was listed in the National Film Registry. In 2003, the American Film Institute named Atticus Finch the greatest movie hero of the 20th century. In 2007 the…

A Brief History On January 24, 1940, The Grapes of Wrath, a  drama film directed by John Ford, was released in theaters in the United States of America.  The film was based on John Steinbeck’s 1939 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. The screenplay was written by Nunnally Johnson and the executive producer was Darryl F. Zanuck.  The film tells the story of the Joads, an Oklahoma family, who, after losing their farm during the Great Depression in the 1930s, become migrant workers and end up in California. The motion picture details their arduous journey across the United States as…

A Brief History On November 1, 2017, we look back to last night when we got to see a pre-screening of the new Marvel major motion picture, Thor: Ragnarok. Although we will speak more about it, it is possible to sum up the movie in just a few words:  Blockbuster, A Must See, Colorful, Stunning, Pure Entertainment, Action-Action-Action!, Eye Candy, and probably the biggest grossing movie of 2017 (our prediction).  It is the 3rd in a series of Thor themed movies (Thor, from 2011, and Thor: The Dark World from 2013).  The film follows 16 other Marvel Cinematic Universe films…

A Brief History On October 27, 2017, Paramount Pictures releases Suburbicon, a noir-ish “dramadey” written by the Coen Brothers and directed by George Clooney.  With the star power of Matt Damon and Julianne Moore, the film is sure to make a major splash on the movie scene.  We watched a pre-screening event on October 23, 2017 and will share our thoughts on the film. Digging Deeper The Coen Brothers have brought us a string of somewhat odd, but highly successful films, such as Fargo, The Big Lebowski (one of our favorites), No Country for Old Men, and True Grit (the…