We knew on Jan. 1, 2000, that the hysteria surrounding Y2K had been overblown. But before that, the fears that the so-called “Millennium Bug” would cause computers to cease working (or, at the very least, display the wrong date) had engendered a hundred-billion-dollar cottage industry of...

Ever since the proliferation of the mobile phone, horror filmmakers have to go out of their way to explain why their characters can’t use them to get out of whatever horror-movie scenario they’ve landed in. Either someone complains they can’t get a signal – prompting everyone else in the...

The fictional metropolis of Gotham has long been a stand-in for New York City, and with Joker, director Todd Phillips borrows (you might even say outright steals) from several New York movies of the 1970s and early ‘80s that showed the city’s skuzzier side, including The King of Comedy (1983),...

Quiz Show opens with a sale. Its first scene follows investigator Dick Goodwin (Rob Morrow) as he speaks with a car salesman about the latest and greatest Chrysler 300. He learns about its features: a state-of-the-art radio, 17 coats of paint, and more power than anyone in Washington. The salesman...

Perhaps the most notable example of a prominent movie genre that disappeared almost entirely is the Western. Once inescapable — there were close to 100 Westerns released in 1949 alone — nowadays Westerns are usually seen as retro or niche. The fading prevalence of the genre was observantly...

“It’s 1927. We’re modern folk!” Lady Edith’s husband Bertie (Harry Hadden-Paton) declares in Downton Abbey when he and his wife (Laura Carmichael) arrive at the Crawley family estate without any servants in tow. That’s one of the few nods to changing times in the feature-film...

Long before he corralled some of the screen’s most skilled improvisers to make such classic mockumentaries as Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, and A Mighty Wind, Christopher Guest served his apprenticeship as a performer with the National Lampoon. As the magazine branched out into other media...

1999 is considered one of the strongest years of cinema in living memory. There will no doubt be countless articles in 2019 marking the 20th anniversaries of that year’s greatest hits and examining their impact and legacy. But this column isn’t about those movies. This column is about the...

The idea of people pushed to their limits serves as the bedrock for countless works of art, from revenge tragedies to superhero blockbusters. But the idea that someone can learn the most about themselves in extreme circumstances is itself pushed to the limits in two films celebrating their 40th...

Tim Burton's 1994 biopic Ed Wood introduces its title character during his days operating on the fringes of the Los Angeles theater scene in the late 1940s. As the film opens, Ed's directing a performance of his own World War II-themed play, The Casual Company, at an obscure little playhouse with a...

In Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, Sharon Tate gleefully catches a showing of her biggest movie yet — The Wrecking Crew. It’s a great scene. Too many people are talking about that already. So let’s talk about The Wrecking Crew and the proto-Austin Powers franchise it...

We’re the scarecrow people, have we got lots in common with you. And if you don’t start living, well, you’re all going to wind up scarecrow people, too. — XTC, “Scarecrow People” In the past few decades, killer scarecrows have become such a common horror staple that Drew Goddard and...

Being a teenager is tough, but it’s also thrilling, and the best teen movies capture the angst and the exuberance of adolescence in equal measure. Released 40 years ago this month, Allan Arkush’s Rock ’n’ Roll High School may have started out as a cynical, trend-chasing cash-in from...

(Editor’s Corner is where Eric talks about overlooked gems, film history, or whatever else he wants to talk about because he’s the boss and no one can stop him.) It didn't take long for eager young filmmakers to imitate the success of Halloween (1978) by producing cheap, bloody slasher movies...

I don't always remember specific experiences I had watching movies in the theater, but I distinctly remember seeing Open Water at a multiplex in the suburbs of Chicago in August 2004. Shot on digital video on a budget of only $120,000 and featuring no recognizable actors, the movie had nevertheless...