Category: First Time Watches
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First Time Watch: Casualties of War (1989)
In the pantheon of great war movies, you probably hear the same titles thrown around in a discussion. Saving Private Ryan, The Deer Hunter, Platoon, Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, The Thin Red Line, Born on the Fourth of July, etc. I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard Brian De Palma’s Casualties of War, and…
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First Time Watch: La Cage Aux Folles (1979)
Édouard Molinaro‘s La Cage aux Folles comes at an unfortunate disadvantage: I have seen Mike Nichols’ The Birdcage so many times (so, so, SO many times) that I had a hard time not picturing it as I was watching La Cage aux Folles, which was of course the source material for The Birdcage (which was…
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First Time Watch: Sundown (2022)
Michael Franco’s Sundown is an interesting movie. I don’t know who this movie is for, I’m not sure why it was made. I’m not sure what story Franco was trying to tell, and I don’t know who to recommend it to. But I am recommending it because I found it beautifully filmed, audaciously unpredictable, wholly…
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First Time Watch: The Bad Guys (2022)
When it comes to current family entertainment, I’m kind of out. It typically has to be a Pixar movie, or else I’m just otherwise a snob. Even that’s getting to be a little tricky though, seeing as Pixar’s slate this year included Lightyear, which was gorgeous but evaporated from the mind as I was watching…
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First Time Watch: Resurrection (2022)
Guys, when are we going to give Rebecca Hall her due? From The Prestige to Vicky Cristina Barcelona to The Town to The Gift to Christine to Professor Marston and the Wonder Women to as recent as last year’s underseen The Night House, I typically leave a Rebecca Hall movie impressed by the movie, but…
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First Time Watch: Not Okay (2022)
I’m probably always going to be in when it comes to a premise like the one in Not Okay. You may recall my… well, let’s just call it, slight generosity, towards last year’s Dear Evan Hansen. As a movie it of course really didn’t work because of the songs and because of the glaring, obvious…
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First Time Watch: “Lightyear” (2022)
Disney/Pixar’s Lightyear is the first Pixar film to be on the big screen since the great but divisive Toy Story 4. Since then, we’ve had Luca, which wasn’t really my cup of tea. We had this year’s Turning Red, which was a good time until like the last 20 minutes. The brightest spot though was…
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First Time Watch: HBO’s “The Comeback” (2005-2014)
Demi Lovato announced earlier this week that she is switching back to her “she/her” pronouns, as opposed to when she announced she was going to be going by “they/them.” This stands out to me for a few reasons. One is that this information was actually reported by news outlets. Another is that Lovato felt the…
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First Time Watch: Switch (1991)
I’m a pretty big fan of the work of the late Blake Edwards. Edwards is of course the Academy Award nominated filmmaker of The Pink Panther, 10, and Victor/Victoria, and he was the husband of Julie Andrews, which makes him all the more cool. I won’t lie though, having just finished his penultimate film Switch,…
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First Time Watch: Parental Guidance (2012)
Parental Guidance is a movie that absolutely nobody talks about. Seriously, who talks about it? Truth is, when the film was released on Christmas Day nine years ago (the same day as Best Picture nominees Les Miserables and Django Unchained), the trailers looked… well, not good. Billy Crystal is a gem, Bette Midler is a…
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