IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD. Spencer Tracy, Ethel Merman, Milton Berle, Mickey Rooney, Sid Caesar. Dir. Stanley Kramer, MGM, 1963 I do not generally write about films I stop watching halfway. What's the point? I either have nothing positive to say about it or was in the wrong mood. In both cases I'm ignorant of its full length to perhaps do it justice. In the case of Stanley Kramer's 1963 comedy smash, however, I feel compelled to make an exception. My problem with the movie is not my mood, nor disappointment because it's not the movie I once heard. In fact, my biggest problem is that I haven't heard it described in glowing terms, or any, since I was about 9. See, IAMMMMW used to air anually on one or another of the networks, often in December. My parents didn't care for it and never watched it, but my friends watched anytime it aired and talked about it in rapturous terms. Until about 9-10 years old, when it seemed to drop out of conversation, or conv
LONE STAR Chris Cooper, Elizabeth Pina, Joe Morton, Kris Kristofferson. Dir. John Sayles, Warner Bros., 1996 One of the great pleasures of being a movie fan is muttering under my breath, not 10 minutes in, "Oh this movie's GREAT." Another great pleasure is finding it's still great the next time I see it. On those occasions when I discover it's BETTER than I remembered, and I already called it "one of the best of the '90s," that's when I've got something special on my hands. Writer-director John Sayles's LONESTAR was an absolute revelation to me when I first saw it over the summer. Today confirms the earlier response. Indeed, like chili left to steep overnight, LONESTAR was richer in character, meatier in story, and spicier in how relevant & true that story remains today in a world of border crises, critical race theory, and whitewashing entire curricula. Which isn't to say that LONESTAR is a particularly political film, but t