Author: Jeff Mitchell

‘The Happy Prince’ sheds light on Oscar Wilde’s cheerless years

Jeff Mitchell

“The Happy Prince” – “Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.” – Oscar Wilde Rupert Everett (“My Best Friend’s Wedding” (1997), “The Importance of Being Earnest” (2002)) wrote a screenplay about Oscar Wilde and shopped it around, but he could not find a director willing to bring his work to the big screen.  Well, he took control of his own destiny and decided to film it himself, and this first-time director delivers a troubling and tragic portrayal, and in the process, Everett delivers a most absorbing performance. The film’s title…

31 Scary Movies: ‘Rosemary’s Baby’

Jeff Mitchell

“Rosemary’s Baby” (1968) – When a movie begins and ends with a soft lullaby, and the film’s title features the word, baby, one might guess “Rosemary’s Baby” is a warm family film about a young couple’s journey into parenthood. Rosemary (Mia Farrow) is a gentle, soft-spoken 20-something from Omaha – and living in New York City with her husband Guy (John Cassavetes) – but director Roman Polanski’s horror masterpiece is anything but a light-hearted affair. This brooding and twisted mystery burns slowly while carefully peeling away the facade along the way.  Curiously,…

31 Scary Movies: ‘Night of the Living Dead’

Jeff Mitchell

“Night of the Living Dead” (1968) – Director George A. Romero certainly had brains in 1968, because his groundbreaking zombie (who were actually called ghouls) movie turned out to be the great-grandparent to about 114,000 imitators over the next 50 years.  His film, of course, features an endless supply of dead people coming to life and who are hungry for the living. For unsuspecting 20-something siblings Johnny (Russell Streiner) and Barbra (Judith O’Dea), their actual destination is intentionally-filled with dead people. A cemetery. They make their annual trek of 200 miles…