Tag Archives: films

Book Review:  Charlie Chaplin vs. America: When Art, Sex, and Politics Collided by Scott Eyman

When you think of iconic film makers of the early twentieth century few, if any, shine as brightly as Charlie Chaplin. The man was a comic genius and helped to define an art form. My personal favorite among his films … Continue reading

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Book Review:  Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: A Novel by Quentin Tarantino

I am normally not a fan of novelizations of films, but this one, after all, is written by Tarantino himself, so I figured it was worth a read. It turns out that the book is not really a novelization; that … Continue reading

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Book Review:  Chasing the Light: Writing, Directing, and Surviving Platoon, Midnight Express, Scarface, Salvador, and the Movie Game by Oliver Stone

With its subtitle in place, this book has a long, long title. I’ve found that most nonfiction books have subtitles; publishers probably figure that buyers browsing in bookstores won’t pick up a book unless a bombastic title spells out the … Continue reading

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Book Review:  Rock Me on the Water: 1974: The Year Los Angeles Transformed Movies, Music, Television, and Politics by Ronald Brownstein

Whether or not its premise is entirely accurate, this book is brilliant. The premise is embodied in the subtitle. According to Brownstein, 1974 was the pivotal year in which Los Angeles became the epicenter of the entertainment industry and radically … Continue reading

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Book Review: Chaplin: His Life and Art by David Robinson; Part 1: The Early Years

One of my favorite films of all time is Richard Attenborough’s Chaplin starring Robert Downey, Jr. Another is Modern Times by Charlie Chaplin. We’ll get to Modern Times in another review, because I haven’t got to the part of the … Continue reading

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Book Review: The Writers: A History of American Screenwriters and Their Guild by Miranda J. Banks

After my six-week stint at Clarion West science fiction writing workshop in 1973, my epic hitchhiking journey down the West Coast, through Mexico and into Guatemala, my return to Seattle, and my abortive attempt to get normal jobs, I got … Continue reading

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What Movies Mean to Me

I am writing this essay because I am in the midst of reading Roger Ebert’s memoir Life Itself, a review of which will appear soon.  Ebert loved films, and he is one of the few film critics (perhaps the only … Continue reading

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