As a dark being attempts to claim them, a family tries to reconnect and live their lives deep in the forest.
Murderous Trance (2018)
This 2018 film that is finally being released in 2021 is based on true events where a man used his influence, possibly including hypnosis, to push his former cellmate into crime.
Speaking of Garbo
Greta Garbo was a hypnotic yet elusive commodity who continues to intrigue and obsess audiences. In this week’s episode of “The Online Movie Show,” actor-writer Joe Mannetti offers his insight on the never-ending Garbo allure.
You Have to See This! Akeelah and the Bee (2006)
My love affair with writing began with competitive spelling in grade school and evolved right in to middle school where I built my obsession with telling stories. I was always fond of the Scripps spelling bee and I always sought to maybe make it there someday. But you know… puberty happened. In either case, it‘s refreshing to see films in contemporary and modern that portray spelling bees as pure sport. There are more and more movies spotlighting the mental demand of spelling from 2002’s “Spellbound” to “Bee Season,” to “Spelling the Dream.”
Malcolm & Marie (2021)
Sam Levinson is very good about reframing narratives we’ve seen a thousand times to feel new and unique (I love “Euphoria”). While “Malcolm & Marie” doesn’t re-invent the wheel, it’s a stellar two person drama that pits two painfully self absorbed people against each other one night. While Malcolm and Marie may not make it as a couple, they make great adversaries, which might just tie them together for the rest of their lives. And that’s the primary draw of the film.
The Bootleg Files: The Baboons of Gombe
BOOTLEG FILES 756: “The Baboons of Gombe” (1974 documentary by Jane Goodall).
LAST SEEN: On YouTube.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: On a 1978 laserdisc release.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Unavailable for many years.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: It is not likely.
I have a Facebook friend named John Rosa who posts New York-area TV Guide listings from the 1960s and 1970s, and today he shared the selection of programming that was available on February 1, 1974. Over on ABC at 8:00 p.m. was a one-shot special called “The Baboons of Gombe” that featured animal behaviorist Jane Goodall studying a troop of 40 baboons that lived along the shore of Lake Tanganyika.
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Skin: A History of Nudity in the Movies (2020)
Danny Wolf’s newest documentary is notable mostly for being a movie that’s produced by Jim McBride. McBride is famous, of course, for being “Mr. Skin,” the founder of one of the biggest, and first, websites about nudity in film. Aptly titled “Skin,” the documentary about the history of nudity in Hollywood and filmmaking and how it shook the landscape of pop culture, wants to desperately be taken as a bold mix of educational and entertainment, but beyond fleeting insight and fascinating looks at pre-code film, it’s mostly just another nudie reel.