Month: August 2021

Movie of the Week: ‘Marathon Man’

Jeff Mitchell

“Marathon Man” (1976) – In director Sydney Pollack’s NYC comedy “Tootsie” (1982), Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman) runs around Manhattan a bit.  One scene, actually.  He’s in a hurry, but not a desperate one.  This struggling actor lost a part in “The Iceman Cometh” to a rival, and he’s hustling on foot to his agent’s (Pollack) office to vent.  In director John Schlesinger’s NYC thriller “Marathon Man”, Hoffman runs as well, but for two very different reasons.  First, Thomas Levy (Dustin Hoffman) – nicknamed ‘Babe’ – is a marathon runner, so…

Spend two hours to experience ‘Nine Days’

Jeff Mitchell

“Nine Days” (2020) – “Our house is a very, very, very fine house.” – “Our House” by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young  (1970) Will (Winston Duke) lives in a fine house.  At first glance, his place is a turn-of-the-20th century (or ballpark, a 1930s) one-story ranch coated with mustard-yellow paint, and a white-post fence decorates the front.  Actually, this residence seems ordinary, but its chosen lot is a little bizarre. The abode sits on an ambiguous, desolate desert with distant nondescript granite mountains in the background, and a completely flat…

‘The Suicide Squad’ kills

Jeff Mitchell

“The Suicide Squad” (2021) – And you thought a talking tree was weird. Writer, director, producer, and occasional actor James Gunn pulled off some pretty darn impressive cinematic magic in 2014.  He directed and co-wrote “Guardians of the Galaxy”, and stirred millions of moviegoers to passionately care about his Marvel Studios’ space adventure, one starring an NBC sitcom actor, a pro wrestler, Uhura from the new “Star Trek” films (but donning green makeup), a talking raccoon, and the aforementioned tree.  Gunn’s film raked in 733 million dollars at the box…