Martin Scorsese On Making “Killers Of The Flower Moon”
The story of the Osage Nation and its people is a stain on America’s history and the casual, systemic genocide of indigenous people. Based on the novel, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by journalist David Grann, it shines a harsh spotlight on America’s history of crime […]
What Makes Gangster Stories So Endlessly Fascinating?
With The Irishman, Martin Scorsese has once again made a gangster movie that’s earning big box office bucks and capturing a ton of Oscar buzz. Cinema fans love the genre, going back to the early 1930s when stars like James Cagney (The Public Enemy) and Edward G. Robinson (Little Caesar) made films about the underworld […]
Martin Scorsese Meditates on Age and Regret in “The Irishman”
Much has been made about the technology director Martin Scorsese used in The Irishman to de-age stars Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino. Indeed, it is a marvel, if not a distraction at first, to see the decades digitally erased off of the stars, but it actually helps the idea of the film […]
The Revisionist “Joker” Challenges the Norms of Comics and Villainy
********* SPOILER WARNING ********* Searing onto the screen as both a revisionist backstory of an iconic villain character and a pointed commentary on the cuddlier aspects of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the new Joker movie is bold, violent, and unnerving. There have been many exceedingly dark takes on the greatest foil of Batman’s through the […]
The Hurdles of Writing ‘The King of Kings’ for the Big Screen
It’s Easter week, and appropriately, a movie about the life of Jesus Christ is opening this weekend. This one stars Joaquin Phoenix in the role of ‘The King of Kings,’ even though the main emphasis, and title character, is Mary Magdalene (played by Rooney Mara). Among other strengths of the movie, this one rights the […]
