movie Glossary
Overhead Hitchcock Rule
All films showing a car passing a vacant country intersection will shoot the intersection from an above angle. This angle is a direct homage to Hitchcock's influential establishing shot for the crop duster sequence in "North by Northwest." See "Road To Perdition," "One False Move," "O, Brother, Where Art Thou?," "Cast Away," etc. STEVEN DALLI, LOS ANGELES
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Cadillac Records (R)
by Roger Ebert
An argument could be made that modern rock 'n' roll was launched not at Sun Records in Memphis, but at Chess Records, 2120 S. Michigan, and its earlier South Side locations since the early 1950s. The Rolling Stones even recorded a song named after the address. The great Chess roster included Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Etta James, Willie Dixon, Chuck Berry and Little Walter. They first made Chicago the home of the blues, and then rhythm and blues, which, as Muddy said, had a baby, and they named it rock 'n' roll.
The Exiles (No MPAA rating)
by Roger Ebert Newly restored, "The Exiles" plays this week at the Gene Siskel Film Center. Homer is already three-quarters smashed. He buys a beer, sprawls in a booth, and looks over the crowd in the bar. Through his eyes, we see them too: Down-and-out alcoholics, loosely or happily or angrily tilting the long-necked bottles of beer to their mouths. One old man has something wrong inside, and has to drink sideways, at a tilt. Another old man peers out from under his hat, taking it all in without eye contact. A young white guy is rock-and-rolling with a small Chinese man, in a movement that seems poised between dancing and fighting. Most of the others are Native Americans. Homer rolls his bottle off the table, and it smashes.
Q. I recently came across a post on gawker.com which claimed to contain an excerpt from the worst movie review of all time. The review is for the new Paul Rudd comedy "Role Models" and was written by (name withheld) of FHMOnline.com. Could this be the worst review ever done by a "professional" writer? Also, the article claimed (name withheld) was paid handsomely for writing this drivel.
Magnolia (R) (1999)
'Magnolia" is a film of sadness and loss, of lifelong bitterness, of children harmed and adults destroying themselves. As the narrator tells us near the end, "We may be through with the past, but the past is never through with us." In this wreckage of lifetimes, there are two figures, a policeman and a nurse, who do what they can to offer help, hope and love.
by Roger Ebert
I went searching on the web for a photo, and this was the one I found. Where do you think it was taken? If you have lived in this city for any time at all, you thought Chicago even before I could ask you. How did you know? You just knew, that's all.
By Roger Ebert
Sometimes I realize something, and it astonishes and delights me. I was admiring the key performance of a young aboriginal boy named Brandon Walters in the new film "Australia," and I got to thinking about how child actors can sometimes embody a directness and clarity that is beyond the reach of even the best adult actors, because it never seems premeditated. It seems as if it's being filmed as it happens.
by Roger Ebert (1986)Jersey City, NJ – “This guy came and rang the bell, and said his name and that he was from MGM,” Mrs. Delores Brady was explaining. She stood in the center of her kitchen floor, and you got the impression she had played this scene before. “Did he say they’re gonna blow up a house?” asked her uncle, Anthony Rokoszak.
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I've been accused of refusing to review Ben Stein's documentary "Expelled," a defense of Creationism, because of my Darwinian agenda. Here is my review.Ben Stein, you hosted a TV show on which you gave away money. Imagine that I have created a special edition of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" just for you. Ben, you've answered all the earlier questions correctly, and now you're up for the $1 million prize. It involves an explanation for the evolution of life on this planet. You have already exercised your option to throw away two of the wrong answers. Now you are faced with two choices: (A) Darwin's Theory of Evolution, or (B) Intelligent Design.
A newspaper film critic is like a canary in a coal mine. When one croaks, get the hell out. The lengthening toll of former film critics acts as a poster child for the self-destruction of American newspapers, which once hoped to be more like the New York Times and now yearn to become more like the National Enquirer. We used to be the town crier. Now we are the neighborhood gossip.
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