Chuck Bowen

Writing about movies, books, TV. Interviews. Bylines: @Slant_Magazine. @Guardian. @TheAtlantic. @TheAVClub. @Fandor. @Modern_Luxury. @vulture.

[Chuck Bowen @CEBowenJr]

National treasure.

[Variety @Variety]

Keith David gets emotional and says he’s “living his dream” while accepting his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

“I started out as a singer, then I wanted to be a preacher, and I wanted to be a lawyer and a bank president. Then I discovered I could be an actor and be all those things.”

https://t.co/3ZYYSgVgW6

[Chuck Bowen @CEBowenJr]

Watched The Last Stop in Yuma County again recently. A lean and mean, well-acted noir.

[Chuck Bowen @CEBowenJr]

Carlito's Way is better. Much better.

[Gangster Cinema Central @GangsterCinema]

Scarface is widely regarded as a classic today, but when it first came out, the reception was brutal. Steven Bauer, who played Manny, says it was so painful that for years he and Al Pacino barely even spoke about the film. He explains…

“Scarface is great to be a part of now. For years, it was dismal - like everybody associated with Scarface was a leper - people got very wimpy about Scarface really quickly. As soon as the reviews were out…

Our peers came to see the movie in the premiere, right? There were two premieres, one in New York, one in LA, and people came to see it and they were like, ‘Wow, what a movie….

The next day, the reviews are out, and all the papers — this is before the internet, okay? - so you get just the conventional news media outlets - and 90% of them gave Scarface a horrible review. Like horrible, really, really insulting, injurious stuff. Personal attacks on Pacino and Brian De Palma, the director, and on Oliver, the writer...

It was really, really mean because the country was going through a politically correct sort of thing - they were like, "This is like a new wave of violence in the movies, oh!"

It’s nice because when I see Al - we can finally talk about it, because...for years, we couldn’t even talk about it. We’d be like, “Oh yeah, Scarface, yeah, yeah...” It was so sad! Because the movie was so great! And then it was like this thud, and it lasted like 10 years…

Anywhere I’d go, it was like, ‘You’re that guy who was really good in that really terrible movie.’ And I’d be like, ‘How could you say that?’ And they’d go, ‘Well, you were good.’ And I’m like, ‘Okay, but I don’t care. What about the movie?’ And they go, ‘Oh, come on, you gotta admit it. It was like way over the top. It was like so exaggerating,’ blah, blah, blah, blah.…and I’d be like, ‘You’re a pussy!”

[Chuck Bowen @CEBowenJr]

I’ve seen a few people say that Scary Movie 6 is less funny than the Liam Neeson Naked Gun. I didn’t know that was possible until I remembered Scary Movie 2…

[Chuck Bowen @CEBowenJr]

A reminder that you are not required to comment on every single thing that Quentin Tarantino says.

[Don Winslow @donwinslow]

This isn't scientific but based on more than fifty years of driving experience if you have tinted windows there is a high probability that you are an asshole.

[Chuck Bowen @CEBowenJr]

If you want a break from the current horror conversation, try the poetic and authentically disturbing The Outwaters.

[Chuck Bowen @CEBowenJr]

Habit (Fessenden): wounded, poignant, evocatively raw. This feels like how a vampire situation might actually play out somewhere in NYC in the ‘90s.

[David Z. Morris @davidzmorris]

I must admit grudging respect for The New Yorker's continuing commitment to being the premier magazine for people with absolutely nothing to do

[Chuck Bowen @CEBowenJr]

@johnsemley3000 “This third sequel to the third reboot is about everything *except* money…”

[Chuck Bowen @CEBowenJr]

If you’re tired of current horror conversations, watch Larry Fessenden’s cinema. Personal, haunted, haunting, distinctly funny.

[Chuck Bowen @CEBowenJr]

My controversial Coen Bros. opinion is that I find O Brother insufferable and Big Lebowski really funny until it wanders up its own ass in the second half.

The enthusiasm these pictures enjoy should be directed towards Burn After Reading…

[Seán, Master of Wagons @candon_sean]

I know it’s talked about plenty, but Old Man Clint making a literal career-capstone masterpiece with Unforgiven and then just... continuing to direct regularly for the next 30 years, reinventing his style at least three different times, is so fucking funny and cool

[Chuck Bowen @CEBowenJr]

@faceuh8 The # 1 really is Unforgiven, I agree. It might not be a fashionably eccentric choice but the motherfucker simply is that good. Most top and middle shelf Clints are year or every other year watches for me.

[Chuck Bowen @CEBowenJr]

My theory is that 80s/90s absolve them of having to fuck around with cell phones.

[Alexander Thatcher @ThatchEffendi]

Zoomers love setting their movies in the late 80s/90s because it's a time when wearing skinny pants resulted in summary execution.

[Chuck Bowen @CEBowenJr]

Everyone knows Bad Lieutenant is good, but Dangerous Game and New Rose Hotel should experience a renaissance.

[Chuck Bowen @CEBowenJr]

I suspect that people who speak of the magic of theatrical experience haven’t actually had to sit in an auditorium with the public in years.

[naomi @purewrlds]

The way people just casually talk during movies now

[Chuck Bowen @CEBowenJr]

@cwik_greg I’m currently leaning on nicotine (cigars) to lose the weight I gained when I quit drinking several years ago. I presume my vices will be in harmony a few decades from now…

[Chuck Bowen @CEBowenJr]

I’m all for the youth horror movie revolution, but I’m also curious to see future watch on TBS with dad movie, Pressure, too. I contain multitudes.

[Chuck Bowen @CEBowenJr]

@cwik_greg One that has really grown with me over the years is Prince of Darkness.