Pennies from Heaven (1981)

Pennies from Heaven (1981)

After his famous stint on Saturday Night Live and critically-acclaimed stand-up act, Steve Martin made his way into films in the late 1970s. Securing a solid (if completely bonkers) hit with The Jerk (1979), Hollywood seemed to feel Martin could only fill a very particular niche: the retro movie. Maybe it started with Sgt. Pepper’s…

Spies (1928)

Fritz Lang’s magnificent Spies (1928) is so obviously the precursor to the post-modern spy thriller that I can’t help but wonder why more people don’t discuss it.  One of the things that is so fabulous about the film is that it rarely delves into stereotype, but that is most certainly because the now-well-known elements of…