Back in the day, whodunits appeared with great regularity on both televisions and movie screens. With the cinema, audiences ate up mysteries such as Chinatown, Basic Instinct, Gosford Park, The Gift, and In the Heat of the Night. These films didn’t need massive explosions, death-defying stunts, or even high-wattage movie stars. All they needed were […]

Tell me good things don’t emerge from big-budget studio franchises. On the one hand, a good friend of mine has nothing but contempt for cinematic tentpoles. She sneers at the MCU, rolls her eyes at Star Wars, thinks the Jurassic Park/World films are a fool’s errand, and believes the Mission: Impossible franchise is little more […]

I once read that a person’s preferred 007 can be determined by when their father showed them their first Bond movie. This is not a concept that’s supported by any kind of rigorous scientific method, and I know that because of my own experiences. My father was a product of World War II and the […]

Making a movie is hard. Making a good movie? That’s really hard. Making a good mystery? These days that appears to be damn near impossible, given the relative scarcity of mysteries. Horror movies, superhero flicks, action, and dramas are all doing well in theaters and multiplexes. A good old whodunit? They’re a rare breed. But […]

A friend of mine once confidently declared that she only watched movies to relax. Needless to say, I was horrified. I was baffled. I couldn’t let it go. “Let me get this straight. You’re not interested in watching great art.” “No.” “You don’t want to see an amazing performance, an incredible script, or peerless filmmaking.” […]

Ready for a surefire way to start a fistfight? The next time you’re in the midst of a conversation, with great conviction, state the name of your favorite actor to play James Bond. Tell whoever is listening that your choice is clearly the closest approximation to what Ian Fleming had in mind when he created […]