|Ed Dykhuizen| During the first half of the twentieth century, there was no bigger star than Charlie Chaplin. At a very young age he rose from English music halls to American comedy shorts. His defining character The Little Tramp debuted in only his second film, the 1914 Keystone… Continue reading
|Brad Bellatti| For the better part of 15 years, the above image of Chaplin has bothered me. No matter how many times I watch this sequence, the finale of Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator (1940) shakes me up. I’ve tried many times to find the right words to express this sentiment… Continue reading
|Matthew Christensen| My husband Luka and I have divergent tastes in movies. If I am sitting in the living room watching an old Hollywood musical or a period piece, he takes one look at the television, announces in a mix of Turkish and English, “Tamam. I will be in bed reading a book. Hadi… Continue reading
|Ben Jarman| My mom is back with her take on another film that would normally disinterest her: Godzilla vs. Gigan. My mom never watched Godzilla films with me when I was a kid, but she never stopped me from watching or pretending I was a giant creature in my backyard. A giant to her is… Continue reading
|Ben Jarman| Before prequels and sequels, kids used to tell me Return of the Jedi is the best Star Wars movie. I used to tell the same thing to adults just after the movie came out. Then I grew and my body cracked, forming a chip on my shoulder. Return of the Jedi was suddenly just a… Continue reading
|Devin Warner| Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is unquestionably my favorite film of all time, although I have never seen it in a movie theatre, only on VHS, DVD, Blu Ray, and 4K but by god with this Trylon series that will finally change. My love of Star Wars started when I was… Continue reading
|John Costello| Dear H., I’m writing you about a work featuring a bold woman, a man with a fast vehicle, and an ominous edifice, Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, in the hope that I can relate your interest in that book to another work. You love the social dynamics of Regency Britain, the… Continue reading
|Finn Odum| “It’s Bleak” | The 1970 Peter Boyle film Joe is not part of our Bleak Week programming—though you’d be forgiven if you thought it was. Joe, which we programmed to kick off our Cantankerous Peter Boyle series, follows a wealthy advertising executive (Dennis Patrick) Continue reading
|Jillian Nelson| Rogue One follows a ragtag group of Rebels who fight to obtain Imperial Death Star plans that reveal a self-destructing weakness in its system. At its core, the film is a story about finding hope in revolution against fascism. It explores this theme through three character… Continue reading
|John Costello| I’m supposed to write about the problem with science fiction tropes—mainly space Westerns—but I keep thinking about Peter Boyle’s portrayal of Sheppard in Outland (1981). Sheppard spends much of his time playing golf in his office, looking like he can’t afford a haircut, a beard trim… Continue reading
