Michael W. Freeman

Why didn't Janet Margolin (#BOTD) become a bigger star? She had a great debut as mentally ill Lisa in David And Lisa and played Holocaust survivor Esther with Marlon Brando in Morituri. She was hilarious as Louise in Woody's Take The Money And Run. Sad that cancer got her young

#OTD in 2003 we lost John Schlesinger. He got a well deserved Oscar for Midnight Cowboy, a superb film that holds up beautifully. The rest of his career was a mixed bag but 2 of his most underrated: the Hollywood tragedy Day Of The Locust and the spy drama Falcon And The Snowman

How insane did it sound when a producer said "Hey Stephen King, you should direct a movie?" Odd thing is, Maximum Overdrive (released today, 1986) is fun junk food about homicidal trucks, a guilty pleasure in its badness. So you tell me: Who wants Stephen King to direct more?

Caddyshack (released today, 1980) is a pure SNL movie; you either see it as really dumb or ingeniously funny - can it be both? I find its skewering of the nouveau riche funnier from Ted Knight and Rodney Dangerfield than Chevy Chase and Bill Murray. Proves that golf is humorous

A Celebrated Horror Film With a Near-Perfect Rotten Tomatoes Score Is Now on Paramount+ comicbook.com/movies/news/ro…

For pop fun Spielberg, there's Jaws or Raiders; for artsy Spileberg, it's Schindler's List. So where does Saving Private Ryan (released today, 1998) fit it? After the gut-punch D-Day opening, some feel the rest of this WW2 film meanders; has it lost its luster as Stevie Does Art?

Is Blow Out (released today, 1981) Brian De Palma's best film? Along with Greetings and Casualties Of War, it's his most political; the Chappaquiddick-esque conspiracy is riveting. And John Lithgow is superbly menacing here. A box office flop, it looks better than ever today.

Night Passage (released today, 1957) is a small gem of a western, with Jimmy Stewart out to find the man who stole his money, and rescuing child Brandon de Wilde from the baddies. Great cinematography and Jimmy plays the accordion - Fab! Anthony Mann dropped out as director.

Was High Noon (released today, 1952) the inspiration for films like Dirty Harry & Death Wish, where the lone brave gunman takes on villainous scum while the rest of the town becomes wimps? I think so, but it's hard to beat Gary Cooper in his Oscar winning role. A classic western

A sad but fond farewell to Ozzy Osbourne. Remember him claiming to be "Iron Man" and railing about "War Pigs" in Vietnam? Black Sabbath was central casting for cool heavy metal, and Ozzy's voice was haunting and sublime. By the time of his reality show, he was a big teddy bear!

#OTD in 2022 we lost Bob Rafelson. Was he stuck in the 1960s? Head had the Monkees savage old Hollywood; Five Easy Pieces was the new kids giving a finger to older values. Pure 60s. The King Of Marvin Gardens was a breakthrough: a surreal character study not rooted in an era

#OTD in 1966 we lost Montgomery Clift. He had great Oscar nominated roles, but a few others deserved a nod: in the cattle drive as Matt Garth in Red River, then his two fab shrink roles: as Dr. John Cukrowicz in Suddenly Last Summer, and the bio of the famed neurologist in Freud

The Haunting (released today, 1999) is the perfect example of the remake gone bad: Robert Wise's scary but subtle original gives way to some of the most boring special effects ghosts in movie history, although this one is becoming a camp classic. Stick with the original instead.

Robin Williams was the star but the thunder in The World According to Garp (released today, 1982) went to Glenn Close for her radfem mom and John Lithgow, superb in a pro-trans role. George Roy Hill's film is busy busy, but usually interesting; I don't know if I understand it

It's a shame Monkey Shines (released today, 1988) didn't find an audience, because it's a smart, highly effective attempt by George Romero to expand beyond zombie horror. Jason Beghe is excellent as the quadriplegic who channels his rage to his service monkey, with scary results

Teen comedies were the rage in the 1980s, and I think Class (released today, 1983) holds up better than expected. Rob Lowe and Jacqueline Bisset do well at prep school nookie, plus this one has early John and Joan Cusack and Virginia Madsen. While it ain't The Graduate, it's fun

Wes Craven learned a lot making the "civil people turn nasty" film Last House On The Left, so he remade it as The Hills Have Eyes (released today, 1977). His desert mutants make a good Vietnam War metaphor; Michael Berryman became a cool horror icon. Revenge was never so sweet

Would Marnie (released today, 1964) have worked better if Sean Connery had been gay, in love with a dude named Barnie? I don't think so, either. But folks keep guessing at what "went wrong" with this one; I say, not much. I enjoy Hitch's sexual trauma mystery and Tippi is fab

Few could make a cinematic fantasy as intoxicating as Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger; The Red Shoes (released today, 1948) is Exhibit A. Their take on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale of a ballerina who must perform is brilliantly experimental; we share her obsession

Is a bit of the glow fading off Oppenheimer (released today, 2023)? This BP winner, with those fab performances by Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr., seemed to charm everybody in 2023, but now voices are saying it was over hyped, too long, etc. It still works for me - and you?