One of the best ways to begin the day is to list the things – people, beauty, events, personal qualities (e.g. health) etc. – that you’re grateful for. Start with an attitude of gratitude! This technique can help you to de-stress, to stop worrying about yesterday and the future, and focus on today’s ‘gifts’: what [...]

Life With Father (1947) is a delightful, charming, cleverly written and, apparently, underrated gem. In a year in which anti-Semitism was apparently the focal point in Hollywood or at least of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a film about the life of a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant family in 1883 New York City [...]

I watched this Academy Award winning Best Picture again for the first time in decades the other day and, while it’s an entertaining film that features the second & last classic pairing of acting heavyweights Paul Newman and Robert Redford, it was somewhat difficult to watch knowing the ending. There are a lot of movies [...]

Girls gotta flash, and Boys gotta cry What in tarnation?  O.K., so I bastardized Oscar Hammerstein II’s lyric from Show Boat’s “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” to make a point:  when it comes to getting an Academy Award nomination – and even winning the Oscar – actresses  who take off their clothes can enhance their chances and actors [...]

As noted earlier this month in the Personal Journal section of the WSJ, there haven’t been very many sports-related movies nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.  While the sport of boxing has received the most attention from the Academy, only two other sports have had more than a single nominee among the year’s best over [...]

The nature of art is that it produces an emotional response, sometimes it’s loud and obvious but more often than not it’s muted and internalized.  If an art form resonates or touches us in a meaningful way, it’s likely to create a memory of the time when we first experienced it.  As such, we might [...]

Leading up to the 100th anniversary of his birth date (and an unadvertised tribute by TCM), the movie morlocks are writing a week’s worth of articles about the iconic actor Robert Ryan, who is best known for intense performances in films such as these: Crossfire (1947) – for which he earned his only Academy Award [...]

… I have no interest in participating – as a follower or a tweeter – the traditionalist in me has wondered what it would have been like in the old days if today’s computing and communications infrastructures were available back then, if classic Hollywood actors and actresses could regularly share 140 characters of information about their [...]

One of the greatest things about Turner Classic Movies, besides Robert Osborne, is the fact that they show movies that can’t be (readily) seen anywhere else.  Starting Monday, TCM will be featuring some of the best films from fifty-two of (arguably) the most celebrated directors in cinema’s history.  While you’re probably familiar with the classics [...]