Living for the Cinema

We kick off Pride Month 2022 with this Oscar-winning biopic directed by Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting) which delves in the life of slain civil rights activist Harvey Milk who took the city of San Francisco AND the country by storm by becoming the first openly gay politician elected to major office in 1978.  His story is both inspiring and touching, with much of the structure of this film and several highlights coming from the 1984 documentary of his life called “The Times of Harvey Milk” which also won the Best Documentary Oscar that year.  

Sean Penn stars in the 2008 film as the eponymous activist/politician from Woodmere, NY – he also won the Best Actor Oscar that year and is supported by an impressive cast including James Franco, Josh Brolin, Diego Luna, Victor Garber, and Allison Pill.  The documentary was directed by Rob Epstein and was narrated by Harvey Fierstein – both films are very informative along with being quite entertaining, let’s delve into both!

Host: Geoff Gershon
 
 Editors: Geoff and Ella Gershon

Producer: Marlene Gershon

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Apparently the star of this movie has been in the news a lot lately?  Well let's revisit the film and the role that helped cement him into superstar status nineteen years ago....and that would of course be Johnny Depp playing the iconic Captain Jack Sparrow, resulting in not only a blockbuster franchise featuring him at its center but an Oscar nomination he would receive for this VERY role in 2003.  Gore Verbinski directed this rollicking adventure on the high seas also starring Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush, Keira Knightley, and Jonathan Pryce....AHOY MATEY!!!

Host: Geoff Gershon
 
Editors: Geoff & Ella Gershon

Producer: Marlene Gershon

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He still feels the need, the need for speed!  Maverick (Tom Cruise) is back after more than 36 years – he’s still toiling with the Navy as a Captain and still likes flying jets.  He has now been called back to the Top Gun academy at Miramar by his superiors….to train a NEW crop of flyers for a top secret mission.  Those new flyers include various characters with various call-signs including Hangman, Phoenix, Coyote, and…..Rooster (Miles Teller) who is actually the son of Goose, which was his best friend who died during a training exercise in the first movie.  Yes this is indeed a DIRECT sequel to the 1986 smash Top Gun but it’s so much more than just a sequel. 😊 Joseph Kosinski (Tron Legacy) directs this aerial adventure also starring Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Charles Parnell, Glenn Powell, and Ed Harris.

Host: Geoff Gershon
 
 Editors: Geoff and Ella Gershon

Producer: Marlene Gershon

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In honor of Memorial Day, let’s revisit one of the earliest films from a true titan of cinema, the late great Stanley Kubrick – this was only the third feature film he directed, and it came three years before what many consider his true breakout film, Spartacus starring Kirk Douglas.  Douglas stars in this as well as a Colonel in the French Army during World War I who is ordered to lead his battalion into an untenable situation right at the edge of the European Front, though No Man’s Land.  

What results is a tragic incident involving many deaths that only gets more tragic as some surviving soldiers are to be held accountable for what happened – Douglas’ Colonel Dax also takes it upon himself to defend these men in court.  This film is part war drama, part courtroom drama, and ALL compelling!  It also stars Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou, and George Macready in one of THE greatest anti-war films ever made and from the same filmmaking master who would go on to direct A Clockwork Orange, Dr. Strangelove, and 2001: A Space Odyssey…among several other classics.

Host: Geoff Gershon
 
 Editors: Geoff and Ella Gershon

Producer: Marlene Gershon

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We kick off our Second Season with this gem from the mid '90's.  Back in the early ‘90’s, a young aspiring filmmaker from Austin made his first movie for $7,000 with much of the financing coming from selling his body for science – the filmmaker was Robert Rodriguez and his first feature was the celebrated El Mariachi, an inventive action film about a guitar player-turned-assassin seeking revenge.  

A couple of years later, he followed this up with a bigger budget Hollywood version of this story which was originally going to be a remake but ended up being a sequel….this time starring Antonio Banderas as the Mariachi, with a significantly bigger budget, and a pretty stacked cast surrounding him including Salma Hayek, Steve Buscemi, Joaquim de Almeida, and Cheech Marin.  THIS version was called Desperado and it ended up being one of the best action films of the era! 

Host: Geoff Gershon

Editors: Geoff and Ella Gershon

Producer: Marlene Gershon

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Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as Dutch, the head of an elite mercenary extraction squad who are sent deep into the Latin American jungle to “rescue” some high-level US diplomats.  And they are quite the crew also including CIA operative Dillon played by Carl Weathers, Mac played by Bill Duke, Billy played by Sonny Landham, and Blaine played by Jesse “The Mind” Ventura – they have all of the fire-power they could possibly need plus a cast including TWO future governors, so what could go wrong?  

Well there happens to be a special visitor from WAY out of town who’s on the hunt….for human skulls. :o And this visitor has his own firepower, including laser guns which can dismember his victims along with cloaking technology allowing him to sneak up on them among the trees.  What results is ONE hell of a battle between Man AND Alien directed by genre master John McTiernan who would go on to direct Die Hard the following year! 

Host: Geoff Gershon

Editors: Geoff and Ella Gershon

Producer: Marlene Gershon

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Five years ago, acclaimed director Christopher Nolan gave us his first film to be based true events after a career mostly devoted to mind-bending fantasy or science fiction.  And the subject matter is undeniably cinematic: the May 1940 evacuation of more than 400,000 Allied troops from the French coastal town of Dunkirk – this was a key turning point of World War II as these troops were generally trapped around a coastal bottleneck surrounded by Nazi/Axis forces closing in from various directions.  This film was nominated for eight Oscars including Best Picture and ended up winning three – it stars Fionn Whitehead, Harry Styles, Tom Hardy, and Kenneth Branagh among many others.

Host: Geoff Gershon

Producer: Marlene Gershon

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The second part of CLASSIC SEQUEL WEEK brings us another classic franchise entry from the Summer of 1982 – the crew of the USS Enterprise are back and they’re involved in some hairy stuff.  James T. Kirk (William Shatner) is now an Admiral for the Star Fleet and while joining the rest of the crew for what was originally going to be a “routine training mission” he finds out about the return of an old foe who is out for revenge against him.  That foe is Khan played by Ricardo Montalban and not only is he out for vengeance against Kirk but he is now trying to nab a potentially dangerous new piece of technology from Star Fleet….the Genesis Device.  

And what follows is an epic space adventure including the rest of the cast from the The Original Series including Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Nichelle Nichols, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, and George Takei.  This was directed by Nicholas Meyer who modeled the narrative on that of a sea-faring adventure. 

Host: Geoff Gershon

Producer: Marlene Gershon

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It’s CLASSIC SEQUEL WEEK and for the first review of two memorable franchise films which are about to turn 40, we start with this third entry in the Rocky saga – our hero Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) has just defeated Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) for the championship belt and is on top of the world.  But a new threat has emerged, and his name is Clubber Lang played by Mr. T. :o Throw in Hulk Hogan playing Thunder Lips, training montages, a classic rocker from Survivor, and you have one hell of a time!  Stallone also wrote and directed this film which also co-stars Talia Shire, Burgess Meredith, and Burt Young.

Host: Geoff Gershon

Producer: Marlene Gershon

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It’s that time of year when the weather is getting warmer and the days are getting longer, it’s early May so WHAT does that mean?  Of course, it means the NHL Playoffs are just beginning!  And what better way to commemorate the kick-off for professional hockey’s playoff season than to revisit one of THE Most Beloved Hockey Movies of All Time….which happens to star one of THE Greatest Movie Stars of All Time, Paul Newman.  

He stars as player/coach Reggie Dunlop of the minor league hockey team, the Charleston Chiefs – they’re a raucous group filled with goons and/or boozers but they MIGHT have a chance to win this season thanks to their latest addition of the Hanson Brothers.  Jeff Carlson, Steve Carlson, and David Hanson co-star as the Hanson Brothers in this raunchy, raucous sports comedy directed by the legendary George Roy Hill who previously gave us Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid along with The Sting.  

Host: Geoff Gershon

Producer: Marlene Gershon

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