Michelle Keenan’s Pick: The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) A few weeks ago I caught part of William Wyler’s The Best Years of Our Lives on Turner Classic movies, and it has stuck with me since. It’s a film I’ve seen a few times over the years, but notContinue Reading

Chip Kaufmann’s Pick: Blood & Wine (1996) Seeing the new Richard Gere movie Arbitrage (reviewed in this issue) brought back memories of this 1996 modern noir that features Jack Nicholson, Michael Caine and a young Jennifer Lopez. Nicholson plays a successful wine merchant whose life suddenly spins out of hisContinue Reading

Chip Kaufmann’s Pick: The Blue Bird The Blue Bird (1940) It’s always risky for a performer to go against type. Silent movie fans didn’t like it when Mary Pickford stepped out of her little girl roles. When Bill Murray played it straight in the remake of The Razor’s Edge (1984),Continue Reading

Chip Kaufmann’s Pick: Chronicle Chronicle (2012) Since I reviewed the two latest installments of the Spiderman and Batman franchises in this issue (combined budgets: $490 million), it only seems fitting that my DVD pick of the month was a movie that I enjoyed more than both of them and itContinue Reading

Chip Kaufmann’s Pick: Vampire Circus Vampire Circus (1972) Having sat through Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, I came out longing for the B movie vampire flicks of yore where the built in limitations of a low budget often led to tighter scripts, more colorful performances, and a more creative use ofContinue Reading

Chip Kaufmann’s Pick: “The Mill & The Cross The Mill & The Cross (2011) WARNING: This movie from 2011 is not for everyone. It is about the 16th century Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel and one of his more celebrated paintings The Way to Calvary.If you’re not into art and especiallyContinue Reading

Chip Kaufmann’s Pick: “Titanic” Titanic (1953) With all the fanfare surrounding the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic and the release in 3-D of James Cameron’s 1997 film (see Clara Sofia’s Teen Review), it’s a perfect time to revisit Hollywood’s first version of the story, 1953’s Titanic starringContinue Reading

Chip Kaufmann’s Pick: “Brief Encounter” Brief Encounter (1945) With colleague Michelle Keenan having picked Casablanca for her DVD pick, I’ll recommend its British equivalent, Brief Encounter.This 1945 film written by Noel Coward and starring Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson is considered to be the greatest British romance ever made butContinue Reading

Chip Kaufmann’s Pick: “The Changeling” The Changeling (1980) Now that The Woman in Black has successfully added itself to the small but impressive canon of ghost story movies (see review this issue), I thought it would be appropriate to choose as my DVD pick this month the film which isContinue Reading