PODCAST: Mank & The Godfather Coda [The Movie RobCast]

Episode 106 of The Movie Robcast sees Robs Daniel & Wallis joined by friend of the podcast and regular contributor Adrian Zak.

The three discuss the new David Fincher film, Mank, which tells the story of Herman J. Mankiewicz, co-writer of Citizen Kane.…

REVIEW: Mank

Perhaps no movie looms larger in the collective consciousness than Citizen Kane; perhaps no filmmaker more legendary than its multi-hyphenate creator Orson Welles, who directed, wrote, and starred in the film.

One of those credits he shares – that of screenwriter, with Herman J.…

The Nice Guys is Kiss Kiss Bang Bang with a fun ’70s retrofit

 

The Nice Guys is your standard Shane Black neo-noir buddy comedy with a ’70s retrofit but that’s no bad thing.

The film is a wild and seedy ride from the top of the derelict Hollywood sign, through — occasionally literally — the deluxe shag pads of Beverly Hills, and all the way down through the mean streets of L.A.

Hail, Caesar! loses itself on the Hollywood backlot

 

Everyone loves a good movie about the movies.

Hollywood’s fetish for self-mythologizing1 lends itself to tales of stardom2 and scathing satire3 alike, but few films imbue Tinseltown with the same glow or seeming reverence as the Coen Brothers’ latest.

Hail, Caesar!

Trumbo is a barnstorming triumph of cinematic liberalism

 

From Sunset Boulevard to Argo, Hollywood has always been in the business of self-mythologizing.

It’s not often, though, that the industry takes its licks for the mistakes it’s made along the way.

Writ large among them is, of course, the blacklist, which saw scores of talented, Left-leaning film-makers left out in the cold as the paranoia surrounding Communism reached fever pitch.…

Hitchcock has too much makeup and not enough blood

 

“My name is Alfred Hitchcock…”

Thus begins both Alfred Hitchcock Presents, the anthology TV series hosted by The Master of Suspense, which ran from 1955 to 1965, and Hitchcock, the biopic of his life, directed by Sacha Gervasi (Anvil!

Seven Psychopaths; or, F**kin’ Hollywood

 

Hans: As Gandhi said…’An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind’. I believe that wholeheartedly.

Billy: No, it doesn’t. There’ll be one guy left with one eye. How’s the last blind guy going to take out the eye of the last guy left whose still got one eye left?

Argo is Alan J. Pakula without the bite

 

The newest film by Chasing Amy* star Ben Affleck is notable for many reasons, not least in that it has broken the director’s run of continuous 94%s on Rotten Tomatoes.

Whether it is an objectively better film that either Gone Baby Gone or The Town is open to debate.…