Foster on Film

The best is fun (See Part 1). The worst is more fun. Here are the nominees for Worst in Science Fiction or Fantasy cinema in 2016:   Worst Science Fiction or Fantasy Film: Alice Through The Looking Glass Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice The BFG Divergent Series: Allegiant * Ghostbusters The Huntsman: Winter War

It’s that time of year again to choose the best, and the worst of the year. I’m starting with the worst. Why 7? Because the year isn’t over yet, and there are a few films I haven’t seen yet (though I doubt The Hunger Games 4 will make either my top or bottom list if

I watched the wonderful Hopscotch last night, which made me think of all the great Walter Matthau films and how likely it is that some of my friends haven’t seen them. Matthau’s film career started with him stuck in villain roles. For the gruff actor, that seems the natural fit, but it wasn’t. He was

With his no-nonsense, man’s man persona and natural style, Spencer Tracy was successful in both dramas and comedies. Although he was an alcoholic, he was known for his professionalism. It was with that understanding of addiction that he helped a broken Montgomery Clift give his great performance in Judgment at Nuremberg. Tracy often worked with

Cukor was known as “the woman’s director” as he had a reputation for getting good performances from actresses, but he could have earned the title because of his focus on films targeting women: romances and melodramas. His pictures heavily featured the social elite and often compared life with a performance. He’s a fine director, but

William Holden’s big break came playing a dim young boxer/violinist in Golden Boy, and outside of Barbara Stanwyck, the film is best forgotten. He was as unimpressed by his following string of pretty-boy roles as I am. Everything changed after his return from WWII and Billy Wilder picked him for Sunset Blvd. Time had given his

Genesis started with 4 artsy, well-heeled students (I’ll ignore drummers for now), all of whom thought of themselves as writers, not performers. I don’t think that’s the best way to label them. Tony Banks was The Writer, and I’ll call Peter Gabriel The Artist (with a capital “A”) and Anthony Phillips The (Musical) Talent. And

I’ve already commented on the failure of the Saturn Awards and the Academy Awards always fail. The Razzies were pretty good this year, but still missed a few things, so it’s time to do it right. I’ll call it the Mattys. For a start, the nominees in each category will be the correct ones (can’t

Part 2 of ranking all the Doctor Who episodes (Top 3rd, Bottom 3), and the main thing to take away from the middle 3rd was how close together they all are. The bottom 3rd had far greater range with some terrible eps and some pretty good ones. These are all good, and I wouldn’t have

I made a list for Walter Matthau the other day so it seemed wrong not to do the same for his frequent partner, Jack Lemmon. Lemmon’s filmography is even stronger, with quite a few good films not making this list (and also Airport ’77!). Lemmon was known as a comic, but he was equally good

Stewart had a more varied career than most actors and far more than most leading men of the golden age. He not only was in, but was known for, comedies, dramas, melodramas, family films, romances, thrillers, and Westerns. Early in his career, he was in a string of sentimental Frank Capra movies, with It’s A

Hawks has the most masculine style of any of the great directors. His films were about men and for men. The relationships that matter were between men, and the only way a woman could have power in a Hawks film was by taking on masculine traits and becoming one of the boys. Thus was born