REVIEW: The Beguiled

Directed by Sofia Coppola
2017 Period Drama
1 hour 33 minutes
From Focus Features

Starring
Colin Farrell
Nicole Kidman
Kristen Dunst
Elle Fanning
Oona Laurence
Angourie Rice
Addison Riecke
Emma Howard

Nicholson in the 70s

Jack Nicholson has spent his long career being one of the great movie stars... in my estimation, one of the greats of all time. When it comes to comedy, he's one of the best and his turns at drama render him positively riveting.  As of this writing he has made 60 movies as an actor, three as a director, six as a writer and eight as a producer.  He has been nominated for 12 acting Oscars (the most of any male actor) and won three of them.  He made 19 films before he came to worldwide attention in 1969s Easy Rider. Every decade since he has made a collection of memorable films. Here are those from the 1970s.

REVIEW: The Hero

Directed by Brett Haley
2017 Drama
1 hour 33 minutes
From The Orchard

Starring
Sam Elliott
Laura Prepon
Nick Offerman
Krysten Ritter
Katharine Ross

Madeline Kahn

Someone once described her as a Boticelli cracking a malicious grin.  I regarded her as the high priestess of movie comediennes in the 1970s whose deadpan expressions drove me crazy with laughter and whose voice was truly her best instrument. She was a sensation on Broadway, a multiple Tony nominee, and she admitted she owed her movie career mainly to Mel Brooks with an extra nod to Peter Bogdanovich.  

More Odd Careers

Here we have 10 more actors who indeed had some odd careers.  Some had a famous role... and then nothing.  There are even a couple of Oscar nominees.  Several were young and simply never graduated to adult roles.  Some come from acting families and didn't make the cut.  Some were very talented.  Let's see who they are.

And Then I Wrote

Being as fond of writers as I have always been, it has been fascinating for me over the years to become more aware of what movies come from the pen of the same person.  So, like any good sleuth, I have looked them up, always finding a few surprises along the way.  Of the 25 people listed, some have written an original work, some are adaptations of previously-published works and some are cowritten with others not mentioned.  I have not specified which is which.  Check it out:

REVIEW: My Cousin Rachel

Directed by Roger Michell
2017 Romance Drama
1 hour 46 minutes
From Fox Searchlight

Starring
Rachel Weisz
Sam Claflin
Holliday Grainger
Iain Glen

The Directors: Michael Cimino

With only eight films to his directorial credit, he climbed to the top of the 1970's New Hollywood directors heap and then fell from grace with a resounding thud so noisy and chaotic that his career never recovered. Michael Cimino was always a target for controversy,  He was 5'5" tall, odd-looking and always altering his facial looks.  As a Hollywoodite, he was imperious, contrary, a devil on a movie set and thumbed his new noses at producers, studio heads and Hollywood bigwigs.  He was determined to do it his way... restraint and budgets be damned.

Good 70s Films: Paper Moon

1973 Crime Comedy
From Paramount Pictures
Directed by Peter Bogdanovich

Starring
Ryan O'Neal
Tatum O'Neal
Madeline Kahn
John Hillerman
P. J. Johnson
Burton Gilliam