Month: October 2026

AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (1957)

by Miguel E. Rodriguez

DIRECTOR: Leo McCarey
CAST: Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Richard Denning, Neva Patterson
MY RATING: 8/10
ROTTEN TOMATOMETER: 65% Fresh

PLOT: A couple, both attached to other people, falls in love and agrees to meet in six months at the Empire State Building – but will it happen?


First, a word to devotees of this film:

No, I have not yet watched Sleepless in Seattle.  Yes, I am aware of the deep connection between the two films.  No, Sleepless is not currently on my watchlist radar, but rest assured I will post a review of it if or when I finally watch it.  Today is not that day.  Tomorrow’s not looking good, either.

All good?  Okay, let’s move on.

Leo McCarey’s An Affair to Remember is a grand old melodrama that would have been a perfect example of its genre if only it had ended differently.  As it happens, McCarey’s filmography does include a perfect example of melodrama: Make Way for Tomorrow (1937), not quite as romantic as An Affair to Remember, but packing a devastating gut-punch of an ending that other films can only aspire to.  If Affair had had the nerve to stick to that kind of an ending, I would absolutely have given it a perfect 10 out of 10.  But, while I don’t believe it’s perfect, it still belongs on your watchlist.

Cary Grant plays Nickie Ferrante, an incurable playboy who is nevertheless engaged to be married to an industrial heiress.  Deborah Kerr is Terry McKay, an “everywoman” type – or as everywoman as one can be while looking like Deborah Kerr.  She is also romantically attached to another man (NOT engaged, which plays a crucial factor later in the film).  The two have a pleasantly non-contrived meet-cute aboard a transatlantic cruise to Europe.  As fate would have it, they are both traveling solo for various reasons.

Their connection is immediate and unforced, reminding me a bit of two of my favorite films, Lost in Translation (2003) and Dodsworth (1936).  Grant and Kerr have a wonderful, breezy onscreen chemistry.  Their conversations, especially when they’re alone in her stateroom, are positively gravid with subtext, but they are careful not to let things get out of hand, even when it’s clear they would both like that very much.  It’s a wonderful balancing act that is rarely successful, so it’s a pleasure to watch when it is.

The development of their relationship unfolds perfectly, so I won’t spoil it.  As their ship pulls back into New York Harbor, they make a hasty, almost teenager-esque pact: meet in six months to see if their connection is still as strong as it is now.  The location: the top of the Empire State Building, still the tallest building in the world in 1957.  “It’s the nearest thing to heaven we have in New York,” gushes Terry.  It’s a tribute to how pervasive this movie is in the pop culture zeitgeist that I knew exactly what would happen just prior to that fateful appointment, but I nevertheless gave a little gasp when it happened.

For me, it’s the second half of An Affair to Remember that shines.  The first half is no slouch, but I masochistically perked up when the possibilities of a tragic romance reared its head.  There’s something about heartbreaking tragedy that makes for a sensational film.  There’s nothing wrong with happy endings, don’t get me wrong, but my favorite Broadway musical of all time isn’t My Fair Lady…it’s Jesus Christ Superstar. When done right, tragedy is strangely cathartic.  I’m thinking of movies like Atonement (2007) or The Remains of the Day (1993) or Brokeback Mountain (2005), movies that will never top anyone’s list of feel-good films, but which are somehow more powerful because…well, I find myself unable to articulate why.  They just are.

And that’s why An Affair to Remember does not quite reach the level of perfection attained by Make Way for Tomorrow.  There was a moment in the final reel when I thought it would, but it goes for the happy ending instead.  That’s right, I begrudge the movie’s happy ending just a little bit.  Sue me.  I fully acknowledge that the moment when Nickie sees a particular item in a particular room during the final scene is a thing of brilliance and beauty.  (Treading carefully here…)  It’s a lovely moment capping a sensationally written and performed scene.  …but it just didn’t strum my heartstrings.  I wanted it to, I really did.  I wanted my heart to swell and feel like it’s going to burst, but it never happened.

(For the record, I also could have done without the multiple musical interludes, especially the two with the kids singing…although I did enjoy Nickie’s flashback/memory when he revisits his grandmother’s house in France.)

Does this make me a curmudgeon?  I don’t think so.  I just feel there was an opportunity here to pull out all the stops for some real reach-for-the-hanky moments.  But, hey, what do I know?  See it and judge for yourself.  An Affair to Remember is a pleasure to watch and listen to, just like the stars themselves.  And, hey, if the ending reduces you to a blubbering mess like Meg Ryan in Sleepless in Seattle, then it did its job.  I won’t judge.  Promise.

SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES

By Marc S. Sanders

Neil Simon has always been a huge influence on me.  I grew up watching Randall & Klugman spar as his Odd Couple.  I recognized the northeastern Jewish vernacular of his B-trilogy semi-autobiographies that run through Brighton, Biloxi and Broadway, and I’ve performed and directed a number of his winning stage plays (Rumors, Lost In Yonkers, Chapter Two).  The comedic mind and personal pains of live theater could not continue without hearkening back to the great Neil Simon.

One of his lesser celebrated works told only in the form of a screenplay (a rare achievement of Simon’s) is Seems Like Old Times.  Released in 1980, it’s the writer’s sendup of classic screwball comedies like Bringing Up Baby and equipped with fast talking dialogue from one character to the next like you would find in His Girl Friday or It Happened One Night.  I’m not much of a Chevy Chase fan, but when he’s in the right properties, he’s a master at tossing one quip away after another while earning the chuckle. Neil Simon tweaked his script to cater to Chase’s timing along with his co-star, Goldie Hawn.

Seems Like Old Times is remembered as the second team up for Chevy Chase with Goldie Hawn, who was everyone’s favorite adored actress of the time.  Audiences followed her from giddy flower child in Laugh-In and an Oscar in Cactus Flower with Walter Matthau, over to Foul Play with Chase and then on to her fish out of the army swamp in Private Benjamin.  She was an absolute hit, and while these pictures appear dated by today’s standards, they still hold up. Seems Like Old Times even feels like it could garner a Jennifer Aniston remake today.

Chevy Chase is Nick Gardenia, a writer working on a book in a mountain rental home overlooking the Pacific near Carmel, California.  When he’s taken hostage at gunpoint, he’s forced to rob a bank.  This may or may not affect Ira Parks’ (Charles Grodin) campaign for State’s Attorney.  Ira is married to Public Defender Glenda (Goldie Hawn) who used to be married to Nick.  When Nick shows up in the middle of the night in the Parks’ garage, it’s up to Glenda to hide Nick from Ira and figure out a way to get him exonerated.  It’s not easy when the couple will be hosting the Governor and his wife for dinner, along with a litter of six lovable dogs who happily express themselves and intrude at the most inconvenient times.  They range in size from St. Bernard to tiny terrier with the jingling bells on the collar.

Seems Like Old Times is a perfect marriage of Neil Simon’s unending wit with easy to swallow, but complicated scenarios that beautifully complement Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase comedic specialties. Charles Grodin was actually nominated for a Razzie for his performance.  An absolute insult to a well suited antagonist for clean, escapist lunacy.  It’s Grodin being Grodin, but it works so well.

Jokes thankfully run on repeat with cars getting stolen over and over while Glenda upholds her career of winning in the courtroom by employing her small time crooks to help them stay out of trouble.  T.K. Carter is great as Chester, her limo – rather station wagon driver, who just can’t put down an inviting bottle of wine.

Robert Guillaume delivers his Benson sitcom timing and partners well with Grodin. Harold Gould is the exasperated judge who knows Glenda all too well.

I recommend you dig up Aurora’s (the Parks’ illegal immigrant maid) recipe for chicken pepperoni and saddle up for an old-time romantic comedy at home. Seems Like Old Times is a fun romp for the whole family to watch, but especially with the one you love, or maybe the one you used to love.

BIGFOOT WOODS

By Marc S. Sanders

There’s a moment in Bigfoot Woods where a character describes Paul (Rich Sommer) as just a science teacher, not a scientist.  It’s clear that Paul is more than irked by the regard, especially because this person is a believer in the legend of Bigfoot – a Sasquatch fur covered, monstrous figure who’s never been proven to exist beyond its never ending myth.  Paul is a scientist though.  He studied the principles of science.  He researched evidence that describes all the various natures of science.  He’s a high school teacher in the small town of Steamer, Minnesota, but he’s most definitely a certified scientist.  It’s therefore unfortunate his identity is not taken seriously.

This occurs midway through Elizabeth Chatelain’s film.  Paul is already roiling with Bridget, his conflicted fourteen year old daughter (Ambrose Velasco Jenkins).  They are realizing that they are not in fact non-binary.  Bridget is coming to the conclusion that they/them are not the appropriate pronouns.  Going forward, Bridget is certain of being addressed as he/him, and is unequivocally ready to be identified as Jonah.  Paul, and his wife Taylor (Tristen MacDonald) realize they’ll have to adjust.

It’s not even a question of options.  Paul and Taylor love their child.  It’s still a struggle, but that’s okay.  A new job or school or living situation can also require time and patience while adapting.

Chatelain’s film is smart because while Jenkins’ character occupies the most screen time, Bridget/Jonah is not the only one affected by this transition.  How does mom and dad feel about this?  What about friends?  Actually, how does the whole town of Steamer respond when there is primarily a unified mantra in believing in the  Christian values that come with the influence of the church and an ultra conservative mindset of what Jesus Christ stands for?

Steamer, Minnesota is hardly found on a map.  At best, it’s known for being a possible resting place for Bigfoot.  Paul and Bridget have father/child time together by roaming the woods and documenting discoveries in nature.  At best, maybe fifty people watch their series of You Tube videos.  However, that number explodes into the thousands when someone notices a rustling in the trees that could very likely be Bigfoot.  At last, certifiable evidence may exist in Bridget’s footage and attract a wider scope that’ll bring welcome recognition to town.  The folks are giddy over this discovery.

However, Bridget does not stop at what they share with Paul.  Bridget is making a new declaration of self identity when Jonah is introduced, but many folks in Steamer are quick to change their tune.

Bigfoot Woods is simple in its cinematography and editing.  It may operate like an Afterschool Special but that may also be its greatest achievement.  The script by father and trans-son Bruce and Abel Pavalon brings a transparent honesty to trans youth who are developing into who they really are and how family and environment responds.  Despite talent or accomplishments, some will overlook all of that when a trait feels unacceptable.  Others will not get up in arms over how someone chooses to live and will simply welcome the change.  It’ll justifiably become concerning, but they’ll need time.  The script covers a wide range with a small cast and a condensed script.

Bridget/Jonah also suffers from a habitual side effect of cutting.  I’m not here to minimize the character’s physical and mental ordeals.  However, at only a running time of an hour and twenty minutes, I did not think there was ample material to address this ingredient of the story.  Cutting is a very real symptom that needs serious attention.  Either more could have been expounded on that, or it should have been excised from the final product.

One factor I’m grateful for is that Paul, the scientist, does his research on trans topics.  He discovers the anatomical studies that upholds the need for transitioning down to how XX or XY chromosomes operate when another gene comes into play with a person’s DNA.  A majority of those opposed to the idea of transitioning fail to do the research and neither uncover validity or the material that could repute it.  People just make up their minds like it’s an opinion. Bigfoot Woods hinges on facts found in science, not instinctual prejudice.

In all fairness, I’ve done no research on the topic.  Still I trust what’s included in Chatelain’s film.  It’d be foolishly bold of her and the Pavalons to deliver a story that champions transition with unproven or false material.

The performance from Ambrose Velasco Jenkins is winning because there are multiple dimensions to the role.  I didn’t really care for Bridget who was not connecting with their loving parents.  Bridget is off putting and insensitive to mom and dad.  Jonah is very likable though.  It has to come down to an internal peace that Jenkins eventually delivers.  Very good work.

I also really felt for Rich Sommer’s interpretation of a dad who’s a good, well educated father but also confused and lacking the confidence to deal with a change in his family’s dynamic.  Too often men are expected to have all the answers.  This man doesn’t.  Yet, he will not cry about it or give up.  He applies skills that will aid him into deciding for himself with confidence.

Tristen MacDonald offers another kind of identity struggle.  A breast cancer survivor who opted for a double mastectomy.  I recall stories where women feel less of themselves once they have gone through this kind of trauma. Bigfoot Woods tackles a wide berth of identity struggle.  It’s not exclusive to members of the LGBTQ+ community.  MacDonald only has a few lines that address her character’s background but she’s impactful enough to demonstrate self-identity does not stop with gender identity.  It’s a mindset that depends on various factors and situations.

Bigfoot Woods is smart and insightful.  It’s a straightforward account of a teenager ready to recognize internal thoughts beyond outside influence while figuring out who they want to be.  With a curious story of the Bigfoot legend wrapped around it, there’s an intriguing aspect to this collection of three characters who are accepted by some while dismissed by others.  A perfect button on the picture is a nice wink and nod that crosses the last caption before the credits arrive.  I was smiling by the end.

THE BAND WAGON (1953)

by Miguel E. Rodriguez

DIRECTOR: Vincente Minnelli
CAST: Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Oscar Levant, Nanette Fabray, Jack Buchanan
MY RATING: 9/10
ROTTEN TOMATOMETER: 95% Fresh

PLOT: An aging song-and-dance man reluctantly teams up with a prima ballerina to headline a Broadway musical, but the pretentious goals of its director threaten to sink the show before it even opens.


The Band Wagon has officially been added to the list of my favorite backstage films, along with The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), 42nd Street (1933), and Singin’ in the Rain (1952), to name just a few.  Even aside from the “meta” aspect of the plot, the scenes of a stage show in various stages of rehearsal hit close to home…sometimes TOO close.  After a disastrous tech rehearsal, one actress asks, “Are we really supposed to open tomorrow night?”  If I had a nickel for every time I’ve said or thought that when performing in a stage show…I’d have a lot of nickels.

Fred Astaire plays Tony Hunter, an aging song-and-dance man whose best days and best movies are behind him.  This is made poignantly clear in an opening scene where Tony’s famous top hat and cane are being auctioned off – and they don’t get a single bid.  He’s in New York because he’s been offered a role in a brand-new musical comedy written by his two good married friends, Lester and Lily Marton (Oscar Levant and the perky Nanette Fabray).  The catch: they want to pair him with Gabrielle Gerard (Cyd Charisse), a top-tier ballerina who can handle the challenging dance moves from the show’s choreographer, Paul Byrd (James Mitchell), with whom she’s involved romantically.  Tony, an old-school soft-shoe hoofer, is not confident he’ll pair well with a tall, leggy ballet dancer and “modern” choreography.

To top it off, the new show will be directed by Broadway darling Jeffrey Cordova (Brit comedian Jack Buchanan) whose artistic sensibilities run more towards Camus and Goethe than Comden & Green.  Will Tony and Gabrielle overcome their differences?  Will Jeff Cordova see the light before turning a light comedy into a long dark night of the soul?  Will Lester and Lily kill each other before opening night?  If you don’t know the answers to these questions being posed in an MGM musical from the height of the Arthur Freed era, you need to see more movies.

The plot of The Band Wagon could be blown over by a smoke ring, but it is extremely perceptive when it comes to backstage life during a stage production.  As an amateur actor, I eat this stuff up with a spoon.  There’s the audition scene: do we go with the seductive blonde or the girl who can actually dance?  There are the seemingly endless dance rehearsals.  There’s the ambitious director who fills the stage with special effects and forgets about the actors.  There are the threats of quitting, the fights over changing a line, the show-mance, and the gallows humor following a disastrous performance.  The Band Wagon, like 42nd Street, should be required viewing for anyone involved in live theater, especially musicals.

But that’s all just background for the main attraction: Astaire and Charisse.  While Gene Kelly was pure athleticism, Astaire was grace personified.  While Ginger Rogers was unquestionably (and literally) Astaire’s equal, Charisse brings a sensuousness to her duets with Astaire that is unmatched.  In fact, I got the sense in their dances together that Astaire, intentionally or not, was there to make Charisse look good, or even better, I should say.  Or maybe it’s just that Charisse is all I look at in their numbers together.  Little of column A, little of column B.  The highlight of their pairing is the justly celebrated “Girl Hunt Ballet”, a dazzling showcase for Astaire, Charisse, and choreographer Michael Kidd, which serves more or less as the movie’s finale.  A verbal description wouldn’t do it justice, but even if you’re not a fan of The Band Wagon, chances are good you’ve seen one or two YouTube videos that compare this scene to Michael Jackson’s video for “Smooth Criminal.”  Good stuff.

There are other highlights, as well.  This movie gave us the immortal showbiz anthem, “That’s Entertainment”, which was reportedly written in 45 minutes.  There’s also the famous “Triplets” number where Astaire, Fabray, and Buchanan use visual trickery to appear as infants in three little high chairs.  There’s the opening number where Astaire dances through a penny arcade on 42nd Street, incorporating an all-too-brief double act with a shoeshine man whom the producers literally pulled off the street when they saw him dancing for his customers.  Everything is done in the broad, brassy, Technicolor fashion for which director Vincente Minnelli was famous.

That’s really about it.  Astaire has been quoted as saying The Band Wagon was his favorite film of his career, and it’s not hard to see why.  Many moons ago, I watched this movie and, as I recall, slept through most of it.  I was younger and stupider back then.  As a devotee of theater and of classic films, The Band Wagon is one of my favorite musicals overall.  Check it out whenever and wherever you can.

DISCLOSURE DAY (2026)

by Miguel E. Rodriguez

DIRECTOR: Steven Spielberg
CAST: Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, Colman Domingo, Wyatt Russell
MY RATING: 9/10
ROTTEN TOMATOMETER: 79% Certified Fresh

PLOT: A cyber-security expert goes on the run from his own shadowy employer; a TV weatherperson exhibits odd behavior after a close encounter with a cardinal; and an 80-year-old secret ties them both together.

[THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.]


First of all, yes, I’m late to the party for this one, but I didn’t feel qualified to write a review after watching this the first time in June, and I didn’t get around to watching it again until last night.

Second, I am a Gen-Xer whose adolescent life was irrevocably impacted by the films of Steven Spielberg, starting with Jaws (1975) through to Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List (both 1993).  I know enough to realize that his body of work is not perfect, but I am a fervent admirer, so if some of that bias comes through in this review, c’est la vie.

Disclosure Day, released when Spielberg was 79 years old, is so full of ideas that the weight of them occasionally threatens to derail the film’s momentum in some earlier passages, and makes some of the later “revelations” a little less wondrous than they might have been if I had seen this movie when I was a pre-teen or teenager.  But the headlong energy of Spielberg’s direction and the powerhouse acting on display from Emily Blunt swept me along and kept me (mostly) breathless for nearly two-and-a-half hours.  This should go at or near the top of anyone’s list of “thinking-man’s thrillers.”

(I won’t bother summarizing the plot…I’m just going to assume you’ve seen the movie.  If you haven’t, apologies for any spoilers below.)

My favorite aspect of this film is the way it draws straight connecting lines between its sci-fi elements and their religious counterparts, much like The Matrix did in 1999 and Contact did in 1997.  Does that make Disclosure Day an unoriginal rehash of similar ideas from thirty years ago?  Absolutely not.  The fact that everything is filtered through the Spielberg lens permeates every scene, reminding me that this story of paradigm-shifting contact with extra-terrestrials is being presented by the man who brought us Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982).  I got the feeling that Disclosure Day is loaded with things that Spielberg has wanted to say for a long time.  I don’t know if that’s factually true, but that’s what it feels like.

I grew up in a Baptist Christian home from kindergarten through four years of Christian college.  This movie spoke to me in a way that Contact touched on, but much more directly.  At one point, the character Jane Blankenship (Eve Hewson) asks a nun: “If you found out we weren’t alone, if someone showed you, PROVED it to you…would that frighten you?”  Contact has a theoretical answer which seemed pretty reasonable, but Disclosure Day adds an extra dimension by asking this question to a nun, whose conviction that we are, in fact, NOT alone is central to her identity.  (She has a great answer that I won’t spoil here.)

I wondered about this question.  Any religion I can think of is centrally based on faith, which, according to the book of Hebrews, is “the evidence of things not seen.”  Well…would happen if, one day, at the Vatican or Jerusalem or Mecca, the clouds parted, the skies opened up, and a celestial figure descended to Earth and told everyone present that, yes, I am God, you’ve been right this entire time, congratulations.  How would the faithful react?  I believe many would bow or kneel and weep with joy…but would they ALL react that way?  Might there be some who became even more fearful than before?  Would some believers rebel at the thought that faith is no longer needed?  After all, there He is.

This question occupied my mind for weeks and months after watching Disclosure Day for the first time.  I drew parallels between religion and the belief in extra-terrestrial life.  If someone proved to me, PROVED it beyond the shadow of a doubt, that alien civilizations are real and have been visiting Earth since 1947…how would I respond?  Would I rejoice in the fact that something I’ve hoped for since childhood was actually proven correct?  Or would this revelation make me feel even smaller compared to the vast cosmos?  If I had that kind of information, would it be my responsibility to tell everyone, to spread the word, as it were?  Or would it be more prudent to keep that information to myself, lest it create a panic?

When a movie makes me ask those kinds of questions, without necessarily providing stone-cold answers, I celebrate it.  Too many films lose faith in the viewer’s intelligence from the get-go.  Spielberg never talks down to his audience with this film.  Right from the beginning, he and screenwriter David Koepp demonstrate their trust in the audience’s ability to keep up by starting the movie in the middle of the action.  No set-up, no narrated prologue, just boom, here’s a guy with a backpack getting kidnapped and there’s his girlfriend and why is everyone scared of a stick of silver metal and who are these people, anyway?

Watching this movie a second time, I was once again blown away by Emily Blunt’s performance.  I am not 100% sure she’ll get an Oscar nomination or anything, but she is heartbreaking when she acquires these abilities she can’t understand or explain, then breaks down late in the film when others look to her as some kind of spiritual figure.  She doesn’t like these abilities.  She doesn’t WANT these abilities, and she certainly doesn’t want anyone revering her because of them.  “I will NOT be anyone’s religion!” she cries out, and I was immediately reminded of the Biblical story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, raging against God for forcing Him to go through the unimaginable trials to come.

There are many other scientific/religious parallels in the film.  Even the concept of demon possession comes into play when the main bad guy, Scanlon (Colin Firth), is able to “dive” on people remotely, either speaking to them across vast distances or able to literally control their bodies.  When Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo) explains to someone that the aliens believe that empathy is the highest form of evolution, as a former practicing Christian, how could I not think of the Golden Rule?  (“Love thy neighbor as thyself.”)

On the surface, Spielberg is asking people to consider the idea that alien life need not be a scary proposition (War of the Worlds [2005] notwithstanding, of course).  Below the surface – not exactly hidden, of course – he’s asking us to consider the idea that empathy for our fellow man could literally save the world.  Impractical?  Maybe.  But a hopeful message regardless.

Disclosure Day is a worthy addition to Spielberg’s impressive filmography, and one of my new favorite films, not because it’s as thrilling as a roller coaster (which some parts of it are), but because it’s as cerebral and rewarding as solving a crossword puzzle in pen.