I love how James Cagney fires his pistol like he's trying to stab someone with the barrel. I also love how Cagney greets people with “Whaddya do, whaddya say,” before slapping them. Maybe I just love James Cagney.
Much of the supporting cast is made up from a group of young actors called the Dead End Kids. They first appeared in the Broadway play Dead End in 1935 and then again in the 1937 film adaptation. Angels with Dirty Faces…
Movies have been a big part of my life to the point where they're a foundational component of my personality. I often have trouble expressing why I enjoy watching them so much, as to me the answer is mostly self-evident. Perhaps it's appropriate how a film so confusing and surreal as Mulholland Drive is the thing that has helped me settle down some of these thoughts. Gathering with people to watch a movie is like sharing a collective dream. We…
Told through five connected stories, The Power of Few examines how a person's choices can have a ripple effect into the lives of others. The different narratives don't weave together as cohesively as the implied thematic significance is trying to suggest, and many of the plot points come across as quite random. Still, we do get to see a homeless Christopher Walken ramble on about cloning Jesus, so there's that.
I became aware of this movie after reading The Colony by John Tayman, which accounts the history of the Molokai settlement from its foundation in 1866 all the way into the 21st century. Though the book has a scope of over a hundred years, a sizable amount of chapters are devoted to the important work of Father Damien. The priest volunteered to live in primitive conditions amongst a colony of leprosy patients simply because he wanted to help them. Through…
