Top 20 Films of 2022
2022 was, without question, the greatest year of my life. On July 1st, I married the love of my life, Rebecca, while surrounded by so many of our loved ones […]
Tag Archives: The Wizard of Oz
My Favorite Cloris Leachman Performance
When I first heard that the tirelessly brilliant Cloris Leachman passed away yesterday at age 94, my mind immediately flashed back to the performance that made me a lifelong fan. […]
Judy, Marlene and the Elusive Oscar: A Chat with Izzy, the Creator of Be Kind Rewind
Not long before I spent my first night in the Oscar press room, a remarkably insightful show about the ceremony and the history of its Best Actress category premiered online. […]
Ten Gems Worth Streaming on Disney+
2019 may have been an enormously profitable year for Disney, but it also was the studio’s worst purely in terms of creativity. The more money they make through the franchises […]
Indie Outlook: Seventh Anniversary
It’s only fitting that Independence Day has been followed each year by the anniversary of Indie Outlook, my site dedicated to films and artists who are among the finest in […]
John Fricke on the 80th Anniversary of “The Wizard of Oz”
For as long as I’ve loved Victor Fleming’s 1939 Hollywood landmark, “The Wizard of Oz,” John Fricke has been The Man Behind the Curtain, and like the wizard himself, he […]
My Letter from Mister Rogers
Though I attribute my happy childhood wholeheartedly to my parents, there were two people on television who enriched it beyond measure: Jim Henson and Fred Rogers. I simply couldn’t get […]
Top 100 Favorite Films: 2017 Edition
A few years ago, I was asked by a friend to rank my Top Five Favorite Films. It was so daunting to limit my list to only five titles that […]
“The Witch” Reawakens Childhood Nightmares
Witches have always cast a spell on me. The more they frightened me as a child, the more I loved them. A few years ago, I ranked my top ten […]
Seven Scenes by Joe Swanberg
In a recent interview with Moviemaker Magazine, Chicago’s trailblazing indie auteur Joe Swanberg was praised by writer Sean Hood for creating a “sustainable production model” based on creative tribalism. The […]
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