Dear Cinephiles, “I’m dreaming of a White Christmas. Just like the ones I used to know” The song White Christmas had been used in the film “Holiday Inn” (1942) starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. The ballad went on to win the Oscar for Best Original Song. It...
Dear Cinephiles, “Christmas Spirit is about believing, not seeing. If the whole world saw me, all would be lost.” The yuletide comedy “Elf” (2003) has become a perennial favorite of mine. It happens to have the right amount of wit, silliness and warmth while...
Dear Cinephiles, “Traditionally, the Ekdahls give a party to the theatre staff down on the stage. The guests are what you’d call a rather mixed lot. Quite different from what we’re used to here in the theater restaurant. Nevertheless, I don’t want to see any...
Dear Cinephiles, “I’ve been wanting you For so long, it’s a shame” The most rapturous movie moment of 2020 comes in the middle of Steve McQueen’s “Lovers Rock.” I think one of the reasons why it affected me so much was because I didn’t expect something...
Dear Cinephiles, Catherine: “You said, ‘I love you.’ I said, ‘Wait.’ I was about to say, ‘Take me.’ You said, ‘Go away.’ How could I have waited this long to recommend a François Truffaut film – one of the most influential directors, and one of the founders of the oh...
Dear Cinephiles, King-Lu: “It’s the getting started that’s the puzzle. No way for a poor man to start. You need capital or some form of miracle.” Cookie: “You need leverage.” King-Lu: “Or a crime.” The conversation above takes place about one third into Kelly...
Dear Cinephiles, George Bailey: “Now we can get through this thing alright, we’ve got to stick together though. We’ve got to have faith in each other.” I hadn’t sat through Frank Capra’s “It’s A Wonderful Life” (1946) for a very long time until a few days ago, and not...
Dear Cinephiles, “There must be a way to rid this community, and by extension the nation, of this cancer of intolerance.” I was fortunate to attend a high school in New Jersey (The Peddie School) that strived for inclusivity. I look back at the time I attended (from...
Dear Cinephiles, Apu: “Didi, have you ever seen a train?” Durga: “Sure.” Sarbojaya Ray: “Don’t lie.” Apu: “You know where the tracks are? Where?” Durga: “Past the big meadow and beyond the rice fields.” Apu: “Shall we go one day?” And we do go see the train. We...
Dear Cinephiles, “And as each one of you go in your individual lives, I want you take this with you. The Whitfields are a family. We will always be a family. And no one and nothing can change that.” It is indeed a special moment. Right before there’s been a lot of...
Dear Cinephiles, “I want to spend a few minutes talking with you about your relationships okay? Because they can affect your health. Did you know that? “ I can sit through tough subject matter. As long as it is well-made, I will end up exhilarated on the other end....
Dear Cinephiles, Therese: (holding a camera) “A friend told me I should be more interested in humans.” Carol: “And how’s that going?” Todd Haynes’ “Carol” (2015) is an intoxicating love story. It’s swoon-worthy. It casts a spell over you – and you just get swept in...
Dear Cinephiles, Julia: “You seem to be able to make me feel as if everything’s going to be alright.” Dudley: “Well it could be if people could only learn to behave like human beings.” I love the holidays. In particular, I love the feeling of hope that they engender...
Dear Cinephiles, Cecilia: “There’s nothing left for you to take. You’ve already taken it all.” By far, one of the best films of 2020 is “The Invisible Man.” It was released in late February – coincidentally or appropriately – during the same week of the...
Dear Cinephiles, “I know about losing things. But the magic isn’t just in what you’ve lost. It’s in what you still have.” The above lines are spoken in the totally needed new holiday adventure and spectacle “Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey” (2020). I didn’t know...
Dear Cinephiles, Ollie: “Your choices are only as good as your options are.” The Western is one of my favorite genres in movies. I like the classic period of it, representing the spirit of a new undomesticated American frontier with its open landscape mountain ranges,...
Search for: On The Rocks Jan 8, 2021Dear Cinephiles, “And remember don’t give your heart to any boys. You’re mine. until you get married. Then you’re still mine.” Early in Sofia Coppola’s newest gift (and yes, I consider new films from my top five directors to be...
Dear Cinephiles, “Mabel is not crazy, she’s unusual. She’s not crazy, so don’t say she’s crazy.” I don’t know about you, but I have found myself in the last nine months in certain emotional and mental situations that have made me question my...
Dear Cinephiles, “It would not be true to say that I am no longer lonely. I have made myself articulate and understood to people in many parts of the world, and this is something we all wish to do whether we’re crippled or not. Yet like everyone else, I am acutely...
Greetings SBIFF Family! Join the feast and festivities this weekend as Peppermint Patty invites herself and her friends over to Charlie Brown’s for Thanksgiving. Watch Charlie try to create a special holiday while all of the friends learn what is most important...
Dear Cinephiles, “If this is their idea of Christmas, I gotta be here for New Year’s.” “Die Hard” (1988) is hands down one of the best action movies. Since it takes place on Christmas Eve, it has become a great alternative to the classic holiday fare...
Dear Cinephiles, “The heart is a very, very resilient little muscle.” Throughout the years, the line above has caused me to get very emotional – and on this special day – it’s the perfect summation of how some of us may feel. They’re uttered towards the end of Woody...
Dear Cinephiles, “You guys moved to the west long ago. You think one’s life belongs to oneself. But that’s the difference between the East and the West. In the East, a person’s life is part of a whole. Family. Society.” On this eve to what I consider to be my favorite...
Dear Cinephiles, “I think now, looking back, we did not fight the enemy, we fought ourselves. The enemy was in us.” I hadn’t seen “Platoon” (1986) since its release. Oliver Stone’s pulverizing take on our war in Vietnam which went on to win the Oscar for best picture...
Dear Cinephiles, “No growth without resistance. No action without reaction. No desire without restraint. Now give yourself up and find yourself again.” Could those lines be more appropriate to describe this infamous year? In the past months we’ve been tested. I...
Dear Cinephiles, Thatcher: “You always used money to buy things.” Kane: “If I hadn’t been really rich, I might have been a really great man.” “Citizen Kane” (1941) never gets old. When I first started teaching at Santa Barbara City College seventeen years ago, I would...
Dear Cinephiles, “I found a new book which only tells the truth. It’s called Facebook. I learn so many facts there.” – Sandra Jessica Parker Sagdiyev Underneath all of the shock and vulgarity in “Borat Subsequent Film” (2020) there’s a determination from the artist to...
Dear Cinephiles, “Time is what you make of it. Time is unbiased. Time is lost. Time flies. This situation has just been a long time. A really long time,” Justus Rich says about his family’s twenty year wait for dad to be freed from incarceration. Last week the...
Dear Cinephiles, “I am coming, I am coming. Here I am. Neither a woman nor a man. We are joined. We are one with a human face. I am on earth, and I am in outer space. I’m being born and I am dying.” Those words are sung towards the end of Sally Potter’s “Orlando”...
Dear Cinephiles, “You can’t judge them by the way they look.” The big mistrust and division between our two political parties has been at the forefront of the news, alongside Georgia’s sudden, extreme political importance – and all year we’ve been hearing about...
