Year: 2020

‘The King of Staten Island’: Davidson and Apatow proudly roll out their royal comedy

Jeff Mitchell

“The King of Staten Island” – “My dad, if you don’t know, was a fireman, and he died on 9/11.  He was a very good dude, and I have a lot of jokes about it.  If you don’t like the first one, you probably won’t like the rest.” – Pete Davidson Yes, “Saturday Night Live” star Pete Davidson’s father died on 9/11, and this talented comic and uber-producer/director/writer Judd Apatow partnered on “The King of Staten Island”, a sprawling comedy (almost dramedy) about an unmotivated, pot-smoking 24-year-old tattoo artist whose…

Celebrate Best Friends Day with ‘Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion’

Jeff Mitchell

Hey, June 8 is Best Friends Day, and in the movie-world, “Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion” (1997) is the first movie that popped into this critic’s mind. Oscar-winner Mira Sorvino and “Friends” legend Lisa Kudrow make up this dynamic duo who brave their 10-year reunion with a game plan.  They also make up a story:  They invested Post-it Notes!   This plan might fool everyone, but then again, maybe not.  Massive corporation 3M actually made this handy invention 20 years earlier…1977. Oh well, Sorvino and Kudrow easily convince us that…

Movie of the Week: ‘The Secret in Their Eyes’

Jeff Mitchell

On March 7, 2010, the 82nd Academy Awards dazzled audiences at the Kodak Theatre and a worldwide audience.  If you made a bet on the Best Foreign Language Film winner that year, the smart money was on “The White Ribbon”.  Already a heavy favorite, Michael Haneke’s bleak German drama won the Golden Globes two months earlier, and AHFW thought that its win was inevitable. Not so fast, because the Academy knew a secret.  Director Juan Jose Campanella’s “The Secret in Their Eyes” took home the big prize and made Argentina…