The Buddy Holly Story (1978, Steve Rash) (3)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 3, 2019
There are three different things going on throughout The Buddy Holly Story. Well, more than three but there are the three big different things. There’s Robert Gittler’s screenplay, which has one narrative gesture for most of the film. There’s Gary Busey’s lead performance, which is resolute read more
The Buddy Holly Story (1978, Steve Rash) (4)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 3, 2019
There are three different things going on throughout The Buddy Holly Story. Well, more than three but there are the three big different things. There’s Robert Gittler’s screenplay, which has one narrative gesture for most of the film. There’s Gary Busey’s lead performance, which is resolute read more
Alexander wept
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 2, 2019
I did really well with Summing Up back when I started it. Really well. Then the 2016 election happened. It wasn’t just the election; doing a blog dedicated (partially) to Somerset Maugham was also a bit of a stretch. Like, he’s all right–and sometimes great, sure–but I could read more
Having Wonderful Crime (1945, A. Edward Sutherland) (2)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 1, 2019
Having Wonderful Crime is a perplexing comedy-mystery. The mystery itself is perplexing because it’s so exceptionally convoluted; three screenwriters and four or five red herrings and the picture only runs seventy minutes. The comedy is perplexing because Crime hinges its comedic potential on lead read more
Having Wonderful Crime (1945, A. Edward Sutherland) (1)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 1, 2019
Having Wonderful Crime is a perplexing comedy-mystery. The mystery itself is perplexing because it’s so exceptionally convoluted; three screenwriters and four or five red herrings and the picture only runs seventy minutes. The comedy is perplexing because Crime hinges its comedic potential on lead read more
Having Wonderful Crime (1945, A. Edward Sutherland) (3)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 1, 2019
Having Wonderful Crime is a perplexing comedy-mystery. The mystery itself is perplexing because it’s so exceptionally convoluted; three screenwriters and four or five red herrings and the picture only runs seventy minutes. The comedy is perplexing because Crime hinges its comedic potential on lead read more
Having Wonderful Crime (1945, A. Edward Sutherland) (4)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 1, 2019
Having Wonderful Crime is a perplexing comedy-mystery. The mystery itself is perplexing because it’s so exceptionally convoluted; three screenwriters and four or five red herrings and the picture only runs seventy minutes. The comedy is perplexing because Crime hinges its comedic potential on lead read more
Why Do Fools Fall in Love (1998, Gregory Nava)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 30, 2018
The most impressive thing about Why Do Fools Fall in Love isn’t how well Tina Andrews’s script does with exposition. Not just exposition as it plays out, but how Andrews foreshadows later revelation. The film is and isn’t a biopic of singer Frankie Lymon, focusing instead on his three widows–and read more
Great Balls of Fire! (1989, Jim McBride)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 28, 2018
There’s no point to Great Balls of Fire! As a biopic it’s shaky–lead Dennis Quaid only gets to be the protagonist when he’s not being too despicable, which isn’t often and the film has to distance itself from Winona Ryder, playing Quaid’s love interest. And thirteen year-old cousin. So it’s read more
La Bamba (1987, Luis Valdez)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 26, 2018
La Bamba is a perfectly adequate biopic of fifties rock and roll singer Ritchie Valens, who died at seventeen in a plane crash. Very twenty-five year-old Lou Diamond Phillips plays Valens. He’s adequate. He lip-synchs all right, though the performances (Los Lobos covers Valens’s songs) almost never read more
Aquaman (2018, James Wan)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 25, 2018
Just because you can get Patrick Wilson to say “Call me, Oceanmaster!” over and over again with a straight face doesn’t necessarily mean you should have Patrick Wilson say “Call me, Oceanmaster!” over and over again. Unless director James Wan was just trying to get my wife to laugh uproariously. read more
Seven Days in May (1964, John Frankenheimer)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 23, 2018
Screenwriter Rod Serling really likes to employ monologues in Seven Days in May. John Frankenheimer likes to direct them too. And the actors like to give them. Because they’re good monologues. The monologues give all then actors fantastic material. Everyone except George Macready, who isn’t the read more
Puss Gets the Boot (1940, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 20, 2018
Until the exceptionally racist caricature of “Mammy Two-Shoes” arrives, the most distinguishing thing about Puss Gets the Boot is the exceptional cruelty of the cat. Puss is the first Tom and Jerry cartoon, before Tom is named Tom (he’s Jasper here) and Jerry doesn’t get an onscreen name. For read more
The Predator Holiday Special (2018)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 20, 2018
At two minutes, The Predator Holiday Special runs long. The joke runs out. It starts as a rather fun riff on the original Predator movie, with the same music and some familiar action motifs, and the Rankin-Bass stop motion holiday specials. Sure, the stop motion isn’t great and the Predator appears read more
Snoopy's Getting Married, Charlie Brown (1985, Bill Melendez)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 18, 2018
Right after Snoopy decides to get married–appropriate since the special’s titled Snoopy’s Getting Married, Charlie Brown–Charlie Brown (Brett Johnson) worries about how Snoopy will handle the responsibilities of marriage. Now, Charlie Brown finds out Snoopy is getting married because read more
It’s Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown (1984, Bill Melendez and Sam Jaimes)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 16, 2018
It’s Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown has to be seen to be believed… but also doesn’t need to be seen at all. The special is a Peanuts-riff on… Flashdance. Like, Snoopy saw Flashdance and has become inspired to go out dancing until dawn every night. Meanwhile the Peanuts kids are into dancing read more
Tumbleweeds (1999, Gavin O’Connor)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 14, 2018
Despite excellent lead performances, Tumbleweeds is almost entirely inert–dramatically speaking. Janet McTeer is a thirtysomething single mom with bad taste in men who drags tween daughter Kimberly J. Brown all around the country after her latest romance goes bad. The romances never go too bad beca read more
It’s an Adventure, Charlie Brown (1983, Sam Jaimes, Phil Roman, and Bill Melendez)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 13, 2018
Despite being an anthology of eight different stories, It’s an Adventure, Charlie Brown does not have many adventures. Well, not in the adventurous sense. They’re still good, they’re just not… adventures. The special runs forty-seven minutes, with the eight stories having differing lengths. read more
What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown? (1983, Bill Melendez)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 13, 2018
What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown? is exceedingly intense. It doesn’t start intense, though it does start a little different. There’s this gradual shot–with Judy Munsen’s lovely score accompanying–moving through all the toys in Charlie Brown’s house before it gets to his bookshelf. read more
Is This Goodbye, Charlie Brown? (1983, Phil Roman)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 11, 2018
Is This Goodbye, Charlie Brown? opens with this gag of Linus and Snoopy fighting over Linus’s blanket. It doesn’t relate to the special’s story and has a completely different tone–and an almost cruel Linus (Jeremy Schoenberg)–but it does echo later on a little. Goodbye is about Linus read more