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An American in Paris (1951)
What a joy! It's M-G-M's Technicolor musical!
Filmmaker(s): Vincente Minnelli

Jerry Mulligan is an exuberant American expatriate in Paris trying to make a reputation as a painter. His friend Adam is a struggling concert pianist who's a long time associate of a famous French singer, Henri Baurel. A lonely society woman, Milo Roberts, takes Jerry under her wing and supports him, but is interested in more than his art.

Sienna Shoes ‘The Red Shoes’ changed the world of film. It was deeply self-referential (a performance about a performance with the two enfolded) and had the extra advance of sometimes making the camera a dancer. So Gene Kelly tried his own ‘Shoes’. MGM refused to...
Published April 2, 2023
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Alice in Wonderland (1972)
Made in Wonderland, the most magical musical of all!
Filmmaker(s): William Sterling

An all-star cast highlights this vibrant musical adaptation of Lewis Carroll's immortal tale. One day, plucky young Alice follows a white rabbit down a hole and discovers a world of bizarre characters.

Words Without Misunderstanding I am an Alice obsessive. I recently saw the Depp/Burton project and was horrified at the opportunity missed. So I turned to this, surprised that I had not seen it before. This at least has a couple advantages. Though far less colorful...
Published March 8, 2023
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Mr. Holland’s Opus (1995)
Of All the Lives He Changed, the One That Changed the Most Was His Own.
Filmmaker(s): Stephen Herek

In 1965, passionate musician Glenn Holland takes a day job as a high school music teacher, convinced it's just a small obstacle on the road to his true calling: writing a historic opus. As the decades roll by with the composition unwritten but generations of students inspired through his teaching, Holland must redefine his life's purpose.

The Character Lab Ostensibly, this film is an emotional account of a place where strong characters are created. But what I find interesting is the story behind the characters in the film. Disney has the most advanced character lab in the world, a place which...
Published March 5, 2023
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Lady Maiko (2014)
What does it take to be a lady?
Filmmaker(s): Masayuki Suō

Country bumpkin Haruko only ever wanted to become a maiko, an apprentice geisha. Initially rebuffed for lack of references, Haruko's strong accent intrigues a linguistics professor, who undertakes to coach her.

Adaptation The story itself is about adapting from a not ideal Japanese state to the purest state, a Geisha. In Japan, the rural north is considered to consist of country bumpkins, something like in the US we associate with the South. A Geisha’s training includes...
Published February 24, 2023
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August Rush (2007)
An incredible journey moving at the speed of sound.
Filmmaker(s): Kirsten Sheridan

Lyla and Louis, a singer and a musician, fall in love, but are soon compelled to separate. Lyla is forced to give up her newborn but unknown to her, he grows up to become a musical genius.

Yellow Bricks Heard There are three kinds of film that I value and treat differently: those who truly leverage dance, space or sound. I have not yet found one that exploits mathematical space, and would add that when it appears, probably from Ruiz and Greenaway...
Published December 24, 2022
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The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. (1953)
The Wonder Musical of the Future!
Filmmaker(s): Roy Rowland

Young Bart Collins lives with his widowed mother Heloise. The major blight on Bart's existence is the hated piano lessons he is forced to endure under the tutelage of the autocratic Dr. Terwilliker. Bart feels that his mother has fallen under Terwilliker's sinister influence, and gripes to visiting plumber August Zabladowski, without much result. While grimly hammering away at his lessons, Bart dozes off and enters a fantastical musical dream.

Green Eggs I watch so many bad films that I’m worn out for any try at campiness. I never recommend films as jokes, and many seemingly bad films are really good ones with bad production values. But this one is such a disaster it deserves...
Published December 15, 2022
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Elvis (2022)
The Man. The Legend. The King of Rock & Roll.
Filmmaker(s): Baz Luhrmann

The life story of Elvis Presley as seen through the complicated relationship with his enigmatic manager, Colonel Tom Parker.

Whole Lotta Shakin’ Baz reinvigorated film. It was a simple concept, and advanced by others long before: having the camera in the chaos. My first experience with this was “Red Shoes”, which though novel in its time isn’t even notable today. What Moulin Rouge did...
Published December 6, 2022
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The Jazz Singer (1980)
His story will make you cry. His music will make you sing. His triumph will make you cheer.
Filmmaker(s): Richard Fleischer

Jess Robin dreams of a career in popular music, but his father, Cantor Rabinovitch, forbids it, insisting Jess live as a traditional Jew and inherit his position at the synagogue. With the help of friend and professional musician Bubba, Jess gets a chance to go to Los Angeles and have famous singer Keith Lennox record one of his songs. Defying both his father and his wife, Jess leaves New York to pursue his dreams.

No Jazz I like to see remakes, because in many cases you experience two films at once: the film you are watching of course, and the one you recall. Usually that prior one is pretty good. In this case, it IS pretty good, and historically...
Published December 1, 2022
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Jubilee (1978)
Sex, drugs and punk rock. Add violence and time travel and you have Jubilee.
Filmmaker(s): Derek Jarman

Queen Elizabeth I visits late 1970s England to find a depressing landscape where life has changed since her time.

The Deep, Vacuous Meditations of Angels Feeding Dogs I’m amazed that anyone would think this is similar to “Clockwork Orange.” Kubrick’s world was one of too much sense: strong minds of people and institutions creating realities that compete, even clash with each other. His worlds...
Published December 1, 2022
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9 Songs (2004)
2 lovers, one summer, and the 9 songs that defined them.
Filmmaker(s): Michael Winterbottom

Matt, a young glaciologist, soars across the vast, silent, icebound immensities of the South Pole as he recalls his love affair with Lisa. They meet at a mobbed rock concert in a vast music hall - London's Brixton Academy. They are in bed at night's end. Together, over a period of several months, they pursue a mutual sexual passion whose inevitable stages unfold in counterpoint to nine live-concert songs.

Rock and Roll When I saw Scorsese’s “Last Waltz”, I thought that I would never again see a concert film as true. And I haven’t, until now. The Band were the last popular musicians to tell stories, have nearly all those stories be in the...
Published November 30, 2022
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