Movies We Looked Back on with Fondness and/or Bemusement:
Another Woman (1988), the Woody Allen film starring Gena Rowlands (Craig J. Clark)
Baghead (2008) and mumblecore (Craig J. Clark)
Blade: Trinity (2004) was Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool audition (Chauncey Talese)
Carnosaur (1993), Roger Corman’s Jurassic Park (Jeremy Herbert)
Child’s Play (1988) and consumerism (Bill Bria)
Christmas Evil (1980) (Josh Bell)
Doctor Detroit(1983), Dan Aykroyd’s first solo effort (Jeremy Herbert)
Eyes Wide Shut (1999) helping with an asexual awakening (Matt Cipolla)
Foul Play (1978), with Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn (Rob Hunter)
Rob Zombie’s Halloween movies (Josh Bell)
Head (1968), by The Monkees (Craig J. Clark)
The Hellraiser films and their final girl (Bill Bria)
Juice (1992) and Tupac (Q.V. Hough)
Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon (1985) — martial arts blaxploitation (Jeremy Herbert)
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) and its controversies (Zach Vasquez)
Message from Space (1978), a Japanese Star Wars ripoff (Rosie Knight)
Mystery Team (2009) proved Donald Glover was an MVP (Nick Allen)
Narrow Margin (1990), with Gene Hackman in Liam Neeson mode (Jeremy Herbert)
Night of the Living Dead (1968) at 50 (Q.V. Hough)
Ninotchka (1939), gateway to Greta Garbo and Ernst Lubitsch (Q.V. Hough)
Paranormal Activity (2007) and toxic masculinity (Conor Lochrie)
Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), superior to the new miniseries (Peg Aloi)
The Plague Dogs (1982) and its influence on Wes Anderson (Zach Vasquez)
Possession (1981), and its relation to Suspiria (Zach Vasquez)
Redbelt (2008), by David Mamet (Zach Vasquez)
Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and Satanic panic (Peg Aloi)
Rounders (1998) and lessons for gamblers (Q.V. Hough)
The Saint (1997), Val Kilmer’s shot at mission impossibling (Jeremy Herbert)
Schizopolis (1996), the weird Soderbergh movie (Nick Allen)
The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears (2013), in particular its nudity (Craig J. Clark)
The Sum of All Fears (2002), the forgotten Jack Ryan movie (Edwin Arnaudin)
Superman: The Movie (1978) (Eric D. Snider)
Swingers (1996) and its power to heal broken hearts (Jeff Bayer)
X-Files: Fight the Future (1998) (Bill Bria)
Topics and Trends
Dia de Muertos (Q.V. Hough)
Made-for-TV occult movies of the ’70s (Peg Aloi)
The best movie soundtrack music videos (Bill Bria)
Amphibious creatures before The Shape of Water (Craig J. Clark)
Musicians in movies: Buster (1988), Longshot (2000), and One Trick Pony (1980) (Jeremy Herbert)
Solo cops: One Good Cop (1991), One Tough Cop (1998), and Supercop (1993) (Jeremy Herbert)
Speculative literary biopics (Zach Vasquez)
Benign alien invasions (Craig J. Clark)
Dystopian farces (Zach Vasquez)
Drive-in theaters (Jeremy Herbert)
Transgender youth in movies (Caroline Madden)
Toy stores in movies (Jeremy Herbert)
Sun-scorched horror movies (Q.V. Hough)
Realistic teen-girl movies (Talee Mabe)
Gremlins 2 (1990) and The Mask (1994): cartoonish action comedies (Galen Wilson)
Martian-themed Christmas movies (Craig J. Clark)
1988: the summer of Freddy Krueger (Bill Bria)
Conspicuous consumption (Caroline Madden)
Fighters in movies: Thunder in Paradise II (1994), Nemesis (1992), and The Green Hornet Starring Bruce Lee As “Kato” (1974) (Jeremy Herbert)
Rampage and the politics of movie monsters (Kristen Lopez)
Crooked Horror Corner #1 (Scott Weinberg)
Crooked Horror Corner #2 (Scott Weinberg)
Crooked Horror Corner #3 (Scott Weinberg)
Crooked Horror Corner #4 (Scott Weinberg)
Crooked Horror Corner #5 (Scott Weinberg)
Crooked Horror Corner #6 (Scott Weinberg)
The Current Cinema
The value of “screenlife” films like Unfriended and Searching (Amber Friend)
Rom-coms are back, and now they’re in color (Stacey Nguyen)
Moms, dumplings, and sons in Bao and Crazy Rich Asians (Caroline Cao)
The power of rap in Blindspotting (Kyle Kizu)
Tag, Uncle Drew, and the positivity of play (Clint Worthington)
Facts and figures of the Mission: Impossible films (Eric D. Snider)
You Were Never Really Here and white saviors (Zach Vasquez)
A Quiet Place from the mother of a black boy (Stephanie Williams)
Hereditary and other films where the horror is at home (Bill Bria)
Overboard, Ocean’s Eight, Life of the Party: women doing what men usually do (Craig J. Clark)
Lean on Pete and The Rider: the new West (Marshall Shaffer)
Paddington, Peter Rabbit, and Woody Woodpecker: the state of family entertainment (Will Ashton)
Phantom Thread and Lady Macbeth: rebellious women (Zach Vasquez)
Emotional movies directed by actors. (Joseph Allen)
What happened to the Young Adult franchises? (Rob Hunter)
Specific People
Josh Brolin as ideal scene partner (Joseph Allen)
Lynne Ramsay and the horror of the everyday (Peg Aloi)
Saoirse Ronan in Atonement and On Chesil Beach (Caroline Madden)
Taylor Sheridan is the worst (Kristen Lopez)
Spike Lee and Quentin Tarantino feud, but their movies overlap (Zach Vasquez)
Ivan Reitman‘s high-concept comedies (Jeremy Herbert)
Jeremy Saulnier‘s history of violence (Josh Bell)
David Gordon Green‘s lowbrow trilogy (Craig J. Clark)
Peyton Reed‘s Bring It On (2000) and Down with Love (2003) led to Ant-Man and the Wasp (Josh Bell)
Fictionalized versions of Philip Roth (Zach Vasquez)
Keys to Jason Blum and Blumhouse’s success (Max Covill)
James Ivory, screenwriter (Craig J. Clark)
Jennifer Lawrence‘s career as a reflection of her fame (Joseph Allen)
Goldie Hawn and feminism in the ’80s (Kristen Lopez)
Ann-Margret‘s early feminism (Kimberly Pierce)
The Dardenne brothers‘ influence on Sean Baker (Conor Lochrie)
Adrian Lyne‘s anti-valentines (Kristen Lopez)
History Lessons
How the early World War I films affected our view of the war (Peter Bell)
How cheap filmmaking can be a breeding ground for abuse (Jeremy Herbert)
The history of miniaturizing people in movies (Kelly Robinson)
Fake Things
Why we love Rocky Balboa (Curtis Waugh)
Randy Newman’s rejected song from A Star Is Born (Eric D. Snider)
Marketing plans for A Star Is Born (Bill Bria)
Oscar predictions from someone who definitely went to the fall film festivals, for sure (Davey Peppers)
Pitches we rejected this summer (Eric D. Snider)
Shocking spoilers from Solo: A Star Wars Story (Bill Bria)
A shadowy Hollywood necromancer is bringing people back from the dead (Brian Salisbury)
Daniel Day-Lewis’ day planner (Davey Peppers)
Pong: The Motion Picture: an oral history (Bill Bria)
MoviePass is completely sustainable, just like my marriage (Davey Peppers)
Our chat with an anonymous Oscar voter (Eric D. Snider)
Interview with stepbrother film critics Dale Doback and Brennan Huff (Q.V. Hough)
Silly Things
What Happened Next? A Christmas Story (1983) (Eric D. Snider)
Three-named actors of the ’90s: How to tell them apart (Chance Solem-Pfeifer)
Remaking romances with the A Star Is Born formula (Adrianne Frost)
Peppermint vs. other vengeful women (Adrianne Frost)
Odds of surviving encounters with various cinematic sea monsters (Adrianne Frost)
How will Hollywood screw up its effort to cash in on Black Panther‘s success? (Kaia Alderson)
Ideas for new jukebox musicals (Adrianne Frost)
The Marvel Cinematic Universe movies recapped by Bill’s mom (Bill Bria)
A Quiet Place reviewed with Jim Halpert reaction shots (Bill Bria)
2018 movie preview (Eric D. Snider)
Film Festival Coverage
Beyond Fest (Zach Vasquez)
Fantastic Fest (Eric D. Snider)
Toronto Int’l Film Festival: politics (Marshall Shaffer)
Toronto Int’l Film Festival: addiction (Marshall Shaffer)
Fantasia Festival (Eric D. Snider)
Tribeca: parenting (Marshall Shaffer)
Tribeca: female artists (Caroline Madden)
SXSW: horror (Scott Weinberg)
SXSW: coming of age (Jason Bailey)
SXSW: love and sex (Meredith Borders)
Sundance (Eric D. Snider)
Sundance juries’ track record (Eric D. Snider)
