Remakes (or reimaginings, reboots, etc) seem to be all the rage in Hollywood these days, but this phenomenon has been occurring within the realm of cinema for a long time. Most of the time, remakes are pointless and don’t bring anything new or interesting to the table, thus alienating fans of the original work while simultaneously failing to bring new […]
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In cinema, as in all art, sublime beauty can sometimes be found hidden within the most unlikely of places. Such is the case with Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008). Directed by Guillermo del Toro, the film is ostensibly little more than a pulpy, fun, and imaginative superhero film, but it nevertheless contains one of the most heartbreaking and breathtakingly […]
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Film noir is one of the oldest genres in cinema, and one that sort of epitomizes the films of the 1930s and 1940s. Indeed, even modern film noirs are often period pieces, since the genre is so closely linked to those two decades, in which many of the genre’s classics first emerged. As such, the genre often feels quaint, embodying […]
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These days, it seems there is a lot of talk among movie geeks about films being “game-changers.” As an acquaintance of mine on Facebook put it, it’s not enough for films to just be good anymore, instead they have to reinvent cinema as we know it. For example, The Avengers (2012) was touted as such, and was said to represent […]
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Vampires and zombies may be all the rage these days, but for my money, it’s the werewolf that occupies the top spot in the monster pantheon (okay, maybe second place, right behind Godzilla…but that’s another editorial altogether). Unfortunately, the number of good werewolf movies can be counted on one hand, and even then you wouldn’t have to use all of […]
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The holiday season is upon us once again, and as always, we’re kicking it off with the holiday that all the cool and edgy kids like to claim is their favorite. That’s right, Halloween is almost here, and to celebrate, I will once again use both of my columns here at CBR to look at some of the best movies […]
Read moreWe all have gaps in our cinematic knowledge. If we confess our ignorance of some of these films, someone, somewhere will say, “How have you not seen that?!” Catching Up is about these films, and viewing them so long after seemingly everyone else has. Some of these entries may be stunning, some are embarrassing, but all of them are classics. The Wages […]
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Even though he was largely marginalized throughout his career, Orson Welles is nevertheless widely considered one of the best and most important directors in the history of cinema. His first film, Citizen Kane (1941), is an influential masterpiece that spent the better part of 50 years occupying the top spot of the Sight and Sound poll of the greatest films […]
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It’s documentary day here at Cinematic Soulmates. Today we’re going to look at two movies that don’t appear to be all that similar, but are united by their subjects, both of whom are larger than life men who hail from France and set out to accomplish amazing things while presenting heightened versions of themselves to the world. Now, before you […]
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For this installment of Great Moments in Cinema, we’re going all the way back to 1924, to look at a sequence that celebrates the power of cinema, which was at that time was still a young and novel medium, and had not yet evolved the style of film grammar with which we are all familiar today. Nevertheless, Buster Keaton, the […]
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