Classic Movie Review The Paper

The Paper (1994) 

Directed by Ron Howard 

Written by David Koepp, Steven Koepp

Starring Michael Keaton, Marisa Tomei, Randy Quaid, Glen Close, Robert Duvall

Release Date March 18th, 1994 

Published April 3rd, 2024

The Paper stars Michael Keaton as Henry Hackett, Metro Editor for a New York City tabloid perpetually on the brink of closing. With a baby on the way, with his reporter wife, Martha (Marisa Tomei), Henry is plotting an exit from the paper. On this day, as we join the story, Henry has an interview with a Wall Street Journal style, internationally respected newspaper. Henry doesn't want the job. He wants the money but he'd much rather stay at his current employer where he can get his hands dirty. Instead of being behind a desk with a fat paycheck, Henry needs the excitement of the metro page. 

Making Henry's choice to stay or go at his current gig difficult is his rival, Alicia (Glenn Close). Alicia is a former reporter and editor who is now a bean counter. She makes big decisions based on budgets instead of journalism and Henry resents her for switching sides. Henry doesn't want to end up working under Alicia and her penny pinching, thus another reason he's considering leaving. Holding him in place is his current boss, Bernie (Robert Duvall), a legendary editor and the final word at the paper. As long as Bernie is there, Alicia is mostly neutralized. But how much longer does Bernie have?

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Classic Movie Review Demons

Demons

Directed by Lamberto Bava

Written by Franco Ferrini, Lamberto Bava, Dario Argento, Dardano Sacchetti

Starring Urbano Barberini, Natasha Hovey

Release Date October 4th, 1985

Published March 26th, 1985 

Demons is a shockingly good and utterly silly horror movie from the great Italian tradition of badly dubbed horror movies. Directed by Lamberto Bava, with inspiration and script doctoring from Dario Argento, the film is a meta take on the passive consumption of horror movies and the insidious nature of our constant search for palliatives to keep us distracted from real life problems. It’s that and it’s a very silly movie where a guy on a motorcycle kills Zombie/Demons with a samurai sword. 

The premise in Demons centers on Cheryl (Natasha Hovey) , a college student who decides to blow off class so that she can go to a free movie screening. This comes after a bizarre scene where Cheryl is menaced in the subway by a man in a metal Phantom of the Opera mask. This man stalks and terrifies Cheryl for several minutes only to finally track her down and invite her to a free movie screening at a formerly closed theater called The Metrograph. Recovering quickly from this strange encounter, Cheryl takes two invitations and invites her best friend and classmate Hannah (Fiore Argento) to skip class and join her.

Find my full length review at Horror.Media, linked here. 

Documentary Review Thank You Very Much

Thank You Very Much 

Directed by Alex Braverman

Written by Alex Braverman 

Starring Andy Kaufman 

Release Date March 28th, 2025 

Published March 26th, 2025 

One thing people don’t think about a lot is how many decisions are made out of a sense of insecurity. We also don’t tend to consider how a decision made by someone feeling insecure affects the rest of the world or, indeed, a nebulous future that introduces new people to that decision and the ways it changed the world. The ripple effect of Andy Kaufman’s feelings of insecurity from his childhood into adulthood is massive. 

As a child, Andy Kaufman’s parents chose not to tell him that his beloved grandfather had died. Instead, they told their young, impressionable boy that he was traveling for work. This led Andy to stay in his room and stare out the window for endless hours, hoping that his grandpa would return home. The passage of time led to a deep sadness that could only be sated when Andy was performing, first performing for a fake audience in his bedroom and then, in front of neighborhood kids at birthday parties.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Classic Movie Review Wild at Heart

Wild at Heart 

Directed by David Lynch

Written by David Lynch

Starring Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern, Diane Ladd 

Release Date August 17th, 1990 

Published March, 24th, 2025 

What is Wild at Heart? What is it supposed to be? Few films defy explanation quite the way Wild at Heart does. The myriad references to The Wizard of Oz, Nicolas Cage’s Elvis voice juxtaposed against a repeated heavy metal motif, and the sex and violence to an extreme, all feel like disparate elements from different movies. How they have been combined in Wild at Heart feels a bit like someone cutting puzzle pieces to make them fit into a completely incorrect puzzle. And yet, it does feel strangely cohesive, married via David Lynch’s singular aesthetic that presses against the bounds of reality. 

Wild at Heart stars Nicolas Cage as Sailor, a criminal trying to go straight after falling for Lula (Laura Dern). Sailor’s attempt to straighten up and fly right is undermined by Lula’s scheming witch of a mother, Marietta (Diane Ladd), who tries to have Sailor killed only for Sailor to murder his assailant. Because he was defending himself and Lula, Sailor is only charged with manslaughter and, less than two years later, Sailor is leaving prison and he and Lula are picking up right where they left off. The two are running away together, breaking Sailor's parole and dreaming of life on the West Coast.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here.

Movie Review Disney's Snow White

Disney’s Snow White 

Directed by Marc Webb

Written by Erin Cressida Wilson

Starring Rachel Zegler, Gal Gadot, Andrew Burnap 

Release Date March 21st, 2025 

Published March 21st, 2025 

Disney’s Snow White is exactly the movie we need at this moment. At a time when supposed leaders say things like ‘The fundamental weakness of Western Civilization is empathy,’ Disney’s Snow White takes a stand in favor of empathy. Indeed, the film boils down to a battle of good versus evil where a venal, greedy, oligarch is defeated by empathy, compassion, and courage. And not a single sword pierces flesh, no arrows fly, and no bodies pile up in the process. The triumph of good over evil is a victory of community over the selfishness of the few. 

Disney’s Snow White stars Rachel Zegler as Snow White, the princess of a kingdom run with benevolence, honesty and compassion by her parents, played by Hadley Fraser and Lorena Andrea. When the Queen dies, the King falls under the spell of a newcomer who comes to be known as The Evil Queen (Gal Gadot). When the King goes to war and does not return, The Evil Queen locks Snow White away while she steals the wealth of the kingdom, starving the people, and enslaving the farmer as guards under her magic spell.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Classic Movie Review Candyman Farewell to the Flesh

Candyman Farewell to the Flesh

Directed by Bill Condon

Written by Rand Ravich, Mark Krueger, Clive Barker 

Starring Tony Todd, Kelly Rowan, Timothy Carhart, Veronica Cartwright 

Release Date March 17th, 1995 

Published March 20th, 2025 

The journey to bring Candyman Farewell to the Flesh, the sequel to the hit horror movie, Candyman (1992), to the big screen is far more entertaining than the movie that was the result of that journey. Following the surprising success of Candyman, producers went to Candyman director Bernard Rose to start work on a sequel. Rose was not ready for this request. He had no idea what to do with a sequel as he believed he’d killed the title character at the end of the first film. Indeed, (Spoiler Alert) Tony Todd’s Candyman burns to death alongside Virginia Madsen’s Helen Lyle. So, not only is Candyman destroyed but his legend is passed to Helen who now appears if you say her name five times in front of a mirror. 

So, what to do with a sequel? Candyman is dead and Helen is the new Candyman. Rose had to scramble for an idea. He had a green-lighted movie, he needed to get a story fast to take advantage of this rare Hollywood sure thing. Thinking that since the first story had been based on a Clive Barker short story, Rose began searching through Barker’s catalogue of shorts for a new story to tell. Again, in Rose’s mind, the Candyman is dead. So now, for a sequel, he’s viewing it as an anthology under the umbrella title of Candyman.

Find my full length review at Horror.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review Black Bag

Black Bag 

Directed by Steven Soderbergh 

Written by David Koepp 

Starring Michael Fassbender, Cate Blanchett, Rege-Jean Page, Marisa Abela 

Release Date March 14th, 2025 

Published March 19th, 2025 

Black Bag stars Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett as George and Kathryn Woodhouse, married British spies. George, we are told, is a human lie detector, his job is reading people and weeding out their lies. George’s latest task is locating a traitor within the spy ranks. Someone is trying to steal a dangerous weapon to sell it to terrorists targeting Russia. After a brief meeting with a fellow spy in the field, George is given a list of names of potential traitors. George’s wife, Kathryn, is on the list. 

In order to suss out the traitor, George has invited the people on the list to come to his and Kathryn’s home for dinner. He is going to play a game with them that will reveal their deep dark secrets. The dinner guests include Freddie (Tom Burke), George’s friend and immediate subordinate, Clarissa (Marisa Abela), a computer expert who happens to be dating Freddie, Dr. Zoe Vaughan (Naomie Harris), a psychiatrist who is treating everyone except for George, currently, and Col. Stokes, a rising star in the agency who happens to be dating Dr. Vaughan.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here.