Search for Charles

When it comes to comedians, everyone has their favorite. Mine is John Cleese. In fact, he has held that place in my esteem since the first time I watched an episode of Fawlty Towers on PBS, some twenty years ago. Up to that point, I knew Cle...

In America, we love our gangsters. Even today, nothing captures our attention like a good real-life crime story. The O.J. Simpson saga dominated the news for over a year, and O.J. has none of the allure ascribed to some of the "greats." More Amer...

1950 was a very good year for movies that took a look behind the showbiz scene. Both Sunset Blvd. (films) and All About Eve (theater) collected their share of Oscar nominations, with Eve beating out Sunset in the key Best Picture category. Howeve...

In 1927, with much fanfare, The Jazz Singer was released. As every movie-lover knows, this otherwise unremarkable motion picture possessed one crucial asset: it was the first film to use recorded sound, and ushered in the "talkie" era. The trans...

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, F.W. Murnau's first Hollywood feature, has been cited in some quarters as "the best silent film ever made." Although there may be a hint of hyperbole in that statement, there's no doubting that this film, made during ...

It's a testimony to the enduring popularity of the story of Mutiny on the Bounty that it has been represented cinematically five times. In addition to the Oscar-winning 1935 production, which is arguably the best of the bunch, there are four other...

Against all odds, The Big Short works. In fact, “works” is an understatement for what director Adam McKay has achieved with his improbable adaptation of Michael Lewis’ nonfiction book about the 2008 global financial crisis. Writing ...

Edward Zwick is probably best known for his work on television. Along with Marshall Herkovitz, he was a driving force behind two long-running TV series (thirtySomething and Once and Again). He was also an important contributor to many others (inc...

True Grit, one of the best films of 2010, is a reminder of why remakes are not always bad. The Coen Brothers' interpretation of the 1968 Charles Portis novel is superior in almost every way (except one) to the 1969 Henry Hathaway edition. And, whil...

Grand Illusion looks back on the 20th century’s first global conflict from the perspective of a world on the brink of an even greater war. This film, which was cited by Joseph Goebbels as “Cinematic Public Enemy No. 1” when he sought to ...