Thanks for your patience during SBBN’s downtime last week. The site should be stable from now on, though my time here will remain limited because of some life issues; to be both vague and blunt, I have to spend my time making money and not entertaining the masses for free. Speaking of free, here are…
This is the SBBN entry for this year’s White Elephant Blogathon, hosted by Philip Tatler IV of Diary of a Country Pickpocket. – “These terrors are of older standing. They date beyond the body — or without the body, they would have been the same…” – Charles Lamb, Witches and other Night-Fears – To call…
We Are the Best! (Vi är bäst!) (2013) ★★★★★ Dir: Lucas Moodysson Magnolia Pictures (Official Site) 102 minutes U.S. Theatrical Release May 30, 2014 (Limited) – Director Lukas Moodysson’s Together (2000), though lauded as a warm and progressive comedy, indulged in a judgmental tone, mostly directed at gays and women and manifesting as stereotypes invoked…
Cesare Celli (Vittorio De Sica), at the funeral of a good friend, is kidnapped by a group of thieves intent on stealing $50,000 from the former gangster. To his embarrassment, Celli has no money, but merely relies on his long-standing reputation. It’s because of this reputation that he encourages the thieves, led by Harry Price…
There’s a lot of Alibi (1929) in the opening frames of The Big House (1930). There’s the silent marching feet with sound effects overdubbed, the silhouette framing, the long shots of authoritative figures in their cavernous rooms. This aesthetic extends to later scenes, symmetrical with deep blacks in windows, doorways, even on clothes, giving the…
Beneath the Harvest Sky (2013) ★☆☆☆☆ Dir: Aron Gaudet, Gita Pullapilly Tribeca Film (Official Site) 116 minutes U.S. Theatrical Release May 2, 2014 – Casper (Emory Cohen) is a genial asshole, a troubled teen who threatens teachers, gets his young girlfriends pregnant and steals prescriptions for his pill-slinging father (Aiden Gillen); it’s no wonder everyone…
Based on Neil Simon’s Broadway play of the same name, The Sunshine Boys (1975) follows the acrimonious reunion of two former Vaudevillian comedians whose 43-year run as Lewis and Clark — the Sunshine Boys — ended abruptly a decade prior when Clark (George Burns) decided to retire. The cantankerous Lewis (Walter Matthau) is still getting…
Unused poster art for Radioland Murders (1994), courtesy 3B Theater! It’s been a while since I managed to post a little link roundup of my recent articles and reviews plus other innerestin’ things, so this isn’t really a little link roundup at all, but a medium-sized roundup, but it should still fit inside a…
There is no shame in watching a movie because it’s aesthetically beautiful. King David, the 1985 Biblical epic directed by Bruce Beresford, is just such a beautiful film, exciting and epic in scope. But, as Vincent Canby wrote in the New York Times, it is not a good film. The Australian Beresford, whose Breaker Morant…
Beginning in the late 1980s, the newly-launched TNT network, owned by Ted Turner, began to produce their own original programming. Early examples included several documentaries of actors and directors, frequently using clips from the thousands of films Turner owned after his enormous, $1.5 billion purchase of numerous archives and film libraries in 1986. TNT, in…