Crazy Sweaty Cool: Thirteen of Our Favorite Paranoid/Conspiracy Movies
If you are a fan of conspiracy theories, you are living in the right era. Pizzagate, Epstein, personality cults, furniture retailers selling children in armoires… It’s all so weird and dumb, and belief in this stuff is terrifyingly widespread. But we didn’t start the fire. Cinema du Conspiracy has been thriving since the ’60s, amply […]
Streamers: AFS Programmers’ 2020 Streaming Faves
2020 was the year of not going to the movies, and of discovering great movies on our small screens. We’ve been sharing some of our very favorite films of the year via our virtual cinema, which is playing some of the year’s must-see films (We’ve said it before but we’ll say it again: COLLECTIVE! LUXOR! […]
Critics’ Year-End Lists Are Out: Watch the Best 2020 Films with Us
In what has been perhaps the strangest and most disruptive year for movies ever, there have still been a great many excellent films. Even before the pandemic hit, more and more titles were going direct to the streaming television services and the bells seemed to be tolling for mainstream movie theaters as viewers chose the […]
Streamers: Family Style Programmer Stacy Brick Recommends Holiday Films
Our friend Stacy Brick, programmer of the AFS Family Style series, is a sought-after movie list maker of late. The New York Times has published a pair of articles from her, 7 Films to Help Children Dealing With Grief and Family-Friendly Movies Made by Diverse Filmmakers, and she has been kind enough to share a […]
Celebrating 40 Years of the Radical Feminist Comedy 9 TO 5
Forty years ago this week a film hit American theaters that would do its part to change the fabric of American culture, though people who saw it at the time might be forgiven for failing to notice it was anything but a raucously funny comedy. But for millions of women 9 TO 5 illustrated some […]
Holiday Movie Refresh: 20 Classics That Are Not ‘IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE’
Every year at this time we start getting into the holiday spirit with some classic films. There are some movies that get a lot of play at this time of year – both because they’re movies that have long been in heavy rotation on television and because they’re really good. IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, A […]
Watch This: Gordon Parks’ DIARY OF A HARLEM FAMILY
Gordon Parks (born on November 30, 1912) was renowned in many fields. He wrote books and directed films large and small, from deeply personal documentaries to the massive action hit SHAFT. But perhaps his most abiding work is his photojournalism. One landmark photo essay of his was “A Harlem Family,” commissioned by LIFE magazine in […]
Browse This: The Evolution of Film Stocks
Even as the internet rots our collective brain with politically irresponsible conspiracy theories and confusion about whether or not hot dogs are sandwiches (they are), it also plays host to some pretty remarkable resources, such as Barbara Flueckiger’s database, Timeline Of Historical Film Colors. This site is a great place to dive in and learn […]
Museum Of Home Video Presents: The Incomparable Susan Tyrrell
“Orgies?! Anyone will tell you they’re the LONELIEST PLACE IN THE WORLD!” – Susan Tyrrell in conversation with Skip E. Lowe During the last five of so years of her life, the great actress Susan Tyrrell (1945-2012) called Austin her home. “Su-su” as she was known to her many friends, was an accomplished screen performer, […]
The Precode ’34’: AFS Favorites from Uncensored Hollywood
Back in 1934, when Hollywood’s self-censoring Production Code began to be enforced zealously, no one would have dreamed that nearly a century later the phrase “pre-code” would be a rallying cry that would drive audiences to repertory theaters en masse, or occasion reveries of nostalgia about hard drinking and adultery among otherwise mild mannered TCM […]
Spotlight on Nebraska’s Greatest Interviewer: Leta Powell Drake
Recently, film Twitter has been on fire with a supercut of interviews by Lincoln, Nebraska TV personality Leta Powell Drake. There are some big laughs in the edit, which of course compiles the most awkward moments from a number of interviews. It’s true that Drake has a unique style, and a big personality, but she’s […]
Watch This: Fellini On LSD
2020 is the Centennial of the Italian Director Federico Fellini’s birth. For many years his name was synonymous with the outré in film, before his acolyte and great admirer David Lynch assumed that mantle in the public discourse. Fellini’s visual style, which brought together great beauty and grotesquerie in the same gorgeously composed frame, greatly […]
