September 14th, 2016
Building his narrative around a pair of onstage conversations between directors and friends Mike Nichols and Jack O’Brien just four months before the death of Nichols in 2014, Douglas McGrath creates an intimate, pleasurable portrait of the early years and first two movies of the emergent filmmaker and future EGOT collector.
While several critics, including Guy Lodge in “Variety,” have cited the film’s abbreviated 72-minute length as a liability, McGrath’s sharp focus on the…
September 14th, 2016
Last month Kino Lorber released a pair of Randolph Scott westerns to Blu-ray, recently restored with some difficulty to their original Cinecolor hues. Cinecolor was a less-costly alternative to Technicolor, based upon two complementary colors instead of three primary colors. It was still relatively rare for lower-budget movies to shoot in color 65 and more years ago, and later reissues by other distributors were often in black-and-white. The camera negatives had been lost over the years…
September 7th, 2016
Race relations have been hot topics in the news lately, as have problems concerning economic class, sexual abuse, drugs, and alcohol, often all interrelated. Hollywood movies tend to avoid such themes as anything other than secondary plot points in mainstream action-adventures, except for a few instances of self-consciously serious films hoping for Academy Award recognition.
This was even more true during the heyday of the classic studio system from the 1920s through the 1940s. Seventy…
September 7th, 2016
Jon Spira’s “Elstree 1976” rounds up a group of bit players, extras, and background performers who just happened to be part of “Star Wars” before anyone had a clue that the film would become a popular cultural juggernaut.
In the North London studio location where many sets had been constructed, some of the actors labored under the impression they were working on a minor entertainment designed for television broadcast. Others, however, grasped the possibility that George Lucas…
August 31st, 2016
This past May, restorations of two long-forgotten film noir classics made their Blu-ray and DVD debut from Flicker Alley. Both films focus on strong female leading characters rather than the male detectives, gangsters, small-time crooks, and/or unwitting schlemiels who typically get lured by a scheming woman to their doom or near-destruction. The reputations of both films had suffered or been ignored over the decades due to the mediocre to poor condition copies available until recent…
August 24th, 2016
A pair of above-average horror/sci-fi films from the fifties debuted on Blu-ray this spring, both dealing with obsessed brain surgeons, each with elements of “Frankenstein.”
Their titles and promotional material make them seem like typical drive-in filler but both are a large step above their more lurid competition. Unlike most horror/sci-fi from that decade, neither giant monsters nor invaders from another planet are to be found in either film.
One of them is a modern-day (1950s)…
August 24th, 2016
Finally making its way to HBO following a 2015 Cannes premiere and a festival run, Kent Jones’s “Hitchcock/Truffaut” demands attention from cinephiles of all ages. Bringing to life the 1966 book that emerged from a detailed series of face-to-face interviews conducted by Truffaut in Hollywood, Jones and co-scripter Serge Toubiana build a hagiographic monument to the filmmaker least in need of one.
Even so, Jones makes a compelling case for Hitchcock’s lasting appeal as a master…
August 17th, 2016
Last month two new Blu-ray releases featured low-budget sci-fi movies about monsters we cannot see (thus helping keep the budgets low). Neither is a “classic” but both are able to hold attention with their earnest acting that belies their budgets and rapid shooting schedules, as well as their expression of 1950s paranoias, safely and metaphorically dramatized within fictional fantasy. Both incorporate the familiar clash between scientists seeking new knowledge and military experts…
August 17th, 2016
Filmmaker David Ayer’s “Fury” featured muscular action, effective use of screen space, coherent storytelling logic, and — even though we knew they were doomed from the first trailer — a ragtag group of soldiers with distinct personalities.
Not surprisingly given the nonstop tales of creative second-guessing and executive interference, virtually none of these qualities are on hand in the frustrating “Suicide Squad,” a critic-proof franchise rocket launcher affiliated with…
August 10th, 2016
“The Big Sleep” (1946), Howard Hawks’ mystery-thriller starring Humphrey Bogart, is one of the best movie adaptations of Raymond Chandler’s detective Philip Marlowe, mainly thanks to Lauren Bacall figuring prominently in the cast and her obvious chemistry with Bogart. It’s packed with snappy, witty dialogue, sexual innuendoes with daring implications for the era (like the outrageously clever bookstore sequence), and a mystery so convoluted that the process of the investigation…
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By Alicia Underlee NelsonThe public and the North Dakota congressional delegation, including Senator John Cramer, Senator John Hoeven and Representative Julie Fedorchak, are invited to a town hall meeting on Saturday, April 26 from…
By Prairie Rose Seminolems.prairierose@gmail.com I was a child who walked behind my parents into classrooms and kitchens, spaces of song and prayer, where teachings lived in the air and settled on my shoulders. I didn’t yet have…
Saturday, April 26, 1:30-3:30 p.m.Rourke Art Gallery + Museum, 521 Main Ave., MoorheadThings are coming up rosy at the Rourke in a true feast of the senses during the third annual “Gallery in Bloom” exhibit. The pop-up…
By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.com I feel like reading a newspaper is the equivalent of listening to music on vinyl. Not only is it analog, it’s an experience. I might be a little biased, but there's something about the rustling…
By Ed Raymondfargogadly@gmail.comThe wizards and kleagles in whites now wear blue suits and red tiesA hundred years ago, more than 30,000 members of the Ku Klux Klan from virtually every state in the Union wearing their white…
By Rick Gionrickgion@gmail.com Holiday wine shopping shouldn’t have to be complicated. But unfortunately it can cause unneeded anxiety due to an overabundance of choices. Don’t fret my friends, we once again have you covered…
By Rick Gionrickgion@gmail.com After a very inspiring conversation with Kayla Houchin of Sonder Bakehouse a few weeks ago, I decided that it’s an appropriate time to write a column about some of the sweet people who are involved…
Mooncats and Pert Near Sandstone play Empire TheatreBy Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.comThe MoonCats describe themselves as “Americonscious Campfire Folk.” They have a clear acoustic folk sound with a sense of whimsy — think…
By Greg Carlsongregcarlson1@gmail.comRyan Coogler goes big and bold with “Sinners,” a sweaty, bloody vampire movie set in 1932. The filmmaker stuffs this universe with enough ideas to serve a limited-series season of episodic…
By Raul Gomez Modern Man was a gentle soul. If you were down or just wanted a friend, he’d be there for you. I remember the first day I met Modern Man. It was Jeremiah Fuglseth and me. He wanted to write about this legendary…
By John Showalterjohn.d.showalter@gmail.comHigh Plains Reader had the opportunity to interview two mysterious new game show hosts named Milt and Bradley Barker about an upcoming event they will be putting on at Brewhalla. What…
By Annie Prafckeannieprafcke@gmail.com AUSTIN, Texas – As a Chinese-American, connecting to my culture through food is essential, and no dish brings me back to my mother’s kitchen quite like hotdish. Yes, you heard me right –…
By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.comNew Jamestown Brewery Serves up Local FlavorThere’s something delicious brewing out here on the prairie and it just so happens to be the newest brewery west of the Red River and east of the…
By Josette Ciceronunapologeticallyanxiousme@gmail.com What does it mean to truly live in a community —or should I say, among community? It’s a question I have been wrestling with since I moved to Fargo-Moorhead in February 2022.…
By Alicia Underlee NelsonProtests against President Trump’s policies and the cuts made by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are planned across North Dakota and western Minnesota Friday, April 4 and…
By Faye Seidlerfayeseidler@gmail.com In 2023, the Superintendent of Fargo Public Schools, Rupak Ghandi, gave a passionate plea to the Fargo School Board to follow federal law, because a recently passed state law would increase…
