Speaking of The Monkees in The Brady Bunch Movie…Davy Jones at the school dance with the “90’s-esque” remix of “Girl” really kicks ass.
Marge Simpson and her therapist were right.
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
Stir of Echoes (1999) got overshadowed by The Sixth Sense, but it’s a genuinely creepy ghost story with that brutal flashback scene still burned into people’s brains decades later. Kevin Bacon completely sells the slow unraveling.
The moose head scene in Arthur took 27 takes because Dudley Moore kept cracking everyone up with relentless ad-libs. Burt Johnson got genuinely angry; his “Why don’t you forget the moose for a moment!” was unscripted, and Moore’s stunned reaction is 100% real
Happy birthday, Dud.
Highly recommend reading Ciara Miller's entire conversation with @hunteryharris for @glamourmag from start to finish. An incredible interview. #SummerHouse
https://t.co/dYMnj5Zp2V
Does anyone remember the weird past-life thriller Dead Again (1991)
Robin Williams shows up uncredited as a disgraced psychiatrist; he didn’t want anyone expecting a comedy. He only has three scenes, and he’s absolutely electric.
Oh, and happy birthday, Emma Thompson
All the President’s Men turns 50 today.
This famous “six‑minute shot” is a masterclass in phone acting and pure technical nerve.
Director Alan J. Pakula and cinematographer Gordon Willis pull off a single, unbroken slow zoom: from a wide, humming newsroom to a tight close-up on Redford. No cuts. No safety net. Tension builds in real time.
Redford carries it with typical quiet confidence. Six minutes of note-taking and talking into a phone, no flashy “Oscar clip.” He even flubs a name (“McGregor” for “Dahlberg”), corrects himself naturally, and Pakula keeps it because it feels authentic.
The background is part of the story. As Woodward hones in on his phone call, everyone behind him huddles around a TV watching Senator Tom Eagleton resign. The contrast is deliberate: they chase the “obvious” headline, while the camera drifts past them to Woodward, and the real story.
To hold Redford and the busy background in focus early on, they used a split‑diopter lens, then had to ease it out as the camera moves in. A technical tightrope. The timing of both actor and cinematographer is spot on.
As Woodward closes in on the truth, the world literally falls away: the newsroom blurs, the noise fades, and we lock into his obsession. It’s one of cinema’s great moments: Redford doing almost nothing—and somehow everything at the same time.
What makes this shot brilliant is the contrast it carves between Redford and the newsroom around him. The visual language does the talking: he’s locked in, disciplined, driven, all focus and fire. He stands apart because the work matters more than anything else.
Forty-six years ago today, THE CHANGELING crept into cinemas.
A Canadian supernatural psychological horror film, it is widely regarded as one of the most influential ghost stories in motion picture history.
Today in 1983, “The Thorn Birds” miniseries began on ABC. It was nominated for 16 Emmys and won 6, including Barbara Stanwyck for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.