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Category: Happy Birthday

Posted on09/11/202303/02/2024inHappy Birthday, Looking Backby Sara Batkie6 min read

Nothing More Than This: Lost in Translation at 20

Not everything about Sofia Coppola’s second film has aged like a fine wine, but its portrait of two adrift souls is timeless.

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Posted on08/30/202303/02/2024inHappy Birthday, Looking Backby Guy Davis5 min read

Blade at 25: Blazing the Trail for Wick

Before Keanu wreaked havoc on a mysterious, arcane underworld in the John Wick franchise, Wesley Snipes boldly walked a similar path as vampire hunter Blade.

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Posted on08/25/202303/02/2024inLooking Back, Classic Corner, Happy Birthdayby Sara Batkie5 min read

Classic Corner: Roman Holiday

In honor of its seventieth anniversary, we look back at a ‘don’t-make-them-like-they-used-to’ romance that probably couldn’t be made today at all.

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Posted on08/16/202303/02/2024inHappy Birthday, Looking Backby Jeremy Herbert5 min read

Easy Money at 40: Snobs 1, Slobs 0

Forty years on, “Easy Money” remains Rodney Dangerfield’s least celebrated and most honest slobs-versus-snobs comedy because, for once, the slobs lose.

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Posted on08/14/202303/02/2024inHappy Birthday, Looking Backby Edwin Arnaudin5 min read

How Stella Got Her Groove Back at 25: The Rare Joy of Angela Bassett

After a strong run of ensemble and co-lead turns, Angela Bassett finally got the chance to shine as a true lead, delivering a well-rounded, self-empowering performance that viewers have rarely seen in the subsequent quarter-century.

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Posted on08/01/202303/02/2024inHappy Birthday, Looking Backby Anna McKibbin5 min read

The Wedding Banquet at 30: Living Under the Weight of Unexpressed Emotion

Thirty years ago, ‘The Wedding Banquet’ introduced audiences to Ang Lee’s cinematic musings on repression and passion.

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Posted on07/24/202307/23/2023inHappy Birthday, Looking Backby Audrey Fox5 min read

Saving Private Ryan and the World War II Everyman

When Steven Spielberg made ‘Saving Private Ryan’ 25 years ago, the casting of Tom Hanks in a WWII epic was an unconventional one. In retrospect, it was not only inspired but necessary.

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Posted on07/18/202307/17/2023inHappy Birthday, Looking Backby Craig J. Clark7 min read

The Unstreamable Verhoeven

Paul Verhoeven’s early Dutch films laid the groundwork for his Hollywood career, but good luck finding one to watch on his 85th birthday.

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Posted on07/14/202307/13/2023inHappy Birthday, Looking Backby Chelsea Spear6 min read

The Devil in Massachusetts: Hocus Pocus at 30

It’s earned a perennial slot on spooky season TV broadcasts and special-event screenings. Here’s why the horror comedy might be a hard sell if you didn’t grow up watching it.

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Posted on07/10/202307/09/2023inHappy Birthday, Looking Backby Ciara Moloney5 min read

The Cheerfully Dystopian Americana of Hands on a Hard Body

The comic documentary, released 25 years ago, remains a funny but pointed examination of capitalist longing.

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Posted on06/14/202306/13/2023inHappy Birthday, Looking Backby Josh Bell5 min read

The Hair Metal Supremacy of Penelope Spheeris’ The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years

Thirty-five years ago, Penelope Spheeris encapsulated the past, present, and future of hair metal in a documentary filled with glorious excess.

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Posted on06/12/202306/12/2023inLooking Back, Happy Birthdayby Audrey Fox4 min read

The Queer-Coding of George Cukor’s Holiday

On its 85th anniversary, a close reading of the Cary Grant/Katharine Hepburn romance, and what its famously fluid stars and director were trying to tell us.

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