By Yasmina Tawil
The first time I came across Some Call It Loving it scared me. Or, more accurately, its VHS boxdisturbed me with its image of two womenone of them bald and almost alien in appearancecradling each other in bed. Above them: the title of the film rendered in an almost-sinister font. Dropped awkwardly next to them: The image of a disheveled Richard Pryor. Though we grew up deep in the Ohio suburbs of...
By Yasmina Tawil
The first time I came across Some Call It Loving it scared me. Or, more accurately, its VHS boxdisturbed me with its image of two women—one of them bald and almost alien in appearance—cradling each other in bed. Above them: the title of the film rendered in an almost-sinister font. Dropped awkwardly next to them: The image of a disheveled Richard Pryor. Though we grew up deep in the Ohio suburbs...
By Yasmina Tawil
Everyone goes through life dropping crumbs. If you can recognize the crumbs, you can trace a path all the way back from your death certificate to the dinner and a movie that resulted in you in the first place. But research is an art, not a science, because anyone who knows what they’re doing can find the crumbs: the wheres, whats, and whos. The art is in the whys: the ability to read between the...
By Yasmina Tawil
Everyone goes through life dropping crumbs. If you can recognize the crumbs, you can trace a path all the way back from your death certificate to the dinner and a movie that resulted in you in the first place. But research is an art, not a science, because anyone who knows what they’re doing can find the crumbs: the wheres, whats, and whos. The art is in the whys: the ability to read between the...
By Yasmina Tawil
Its been nearly a year since Robin Williams took his life, finally succumbing to the depression he had masked so successfully in comedy for decades. But Ill confess something now that I (and many other critics) couldnt then: I rarely looked forward to a Robin Williams movie. Theres some irony to the fact that eulogizing Williams brought his critics closer to the father he played in one of his best...
By Yasmina Tawil
It’s been nearly a year since Robin Williams took his life, finally succumbing to the depression he had masked so successfully in comedy for decades. But I’ll confess something now that I (and many other critics) couldn’t then: I rarely looked forward to a Robin Williams movie. There’s some irony to the fact that eulogizing Williams brought his critics closer to the father he played in one of his...
By Yasmina Tawil
The Rocky Horror Picture Show flopped in the United States in its original limited release in 1975, but found new life when a shrewd 20th Century Fox executive suggested rebooking the film for midnight shows, targeting a market that back then was becoming increasingly viable. Gradually, a cult developed, consisting partly of movie buffs who loved the B-pictures Rocky Horror was referencing, and...
By Yasmina Tawil
The Rocky Horror Picture Show flopped in the United States in its original limited release in 1975, but found new life when a shrewd 20th Century Fox executive suggested rebooking the film for midnight shows, targeting a market that back then was becoming increasingly viable. Gradually, a cult developed, consisting partly of movie buffs who loved the B-pictures Rocky Horror was referencing, and...
