Young Frankenstein

Blazing Saddles is probably funnier, overall, with its willingness to go way, way, way over the top. Mel Brooks was breaking new comic wind in that one. (It’s hard to remember after films like There’s Something About Mary and American Pie just how shocking it was to have a fart joke in a movie. But it was, and ... Read more »

Young Frankenstein

DIRECTED by Mel Brooks
PRODUCED by Michael Gruskoff
SCREENPLAY by Gene Wilder & Mel Brooks
BASED ON THE NOVEL by Mary Shelley
MUSIC by John Morris & Irving Berlin (song “Puttin’ on the Ritz”)
CINEMATOGRAPHY by Gerald Hirschfeld
PRODUCTION DESIGN by Dale Hennesy

Blazing Saddles is probably ... Read more »

Young Mister Lincoln

John Ford had to convince Henry Fonda to take this part by dressing him up as Lincoln, and by golly, once he puts on that stovepipe hat, he really, really looks the part. It is comical to see him riding into town astraddle a mule, his boots almost dragging the ground. (He wore special lifts in his boots to make him look even taller, and he towers over everyone else in the picture except ... Read more »

Young People’s Concerts

We saw this multi-disc set for sale at the Walt Disney Concert Hall downtown, but it was way out of our price range. Then we subscribed to Netflix…. What a find this was! I had never seen them, but Lee was a music student studying piano and had watched them when they were new. She had a big crush on Leonard Bernstein, and it’s easy to see why. The man was dynamic, charismatic, and ... Read more »

The Young Savages

Three teenage punk gangsters of the wop persuasion attack, knife, ands kill a young spic standing peacefully on his doorstep with his saintly mother and sister. (I used those offensive terms here because that is what they call each other.) Their idiotic claim: it was self-defense. Tough enough to believe when it’s three against one, but the kicker is, the young Puerto Rican was blind. ... Read more »

The Young Victoria

There seems to be genetically mandated need to make one of these “History of England” costume dramas about once a year. Sometimes it’s “History of France,” but it’s still the same movie. If we’re lucky there will be some decent acting and a reasonably accurate historical script, and this is a good one. (Though Prince Albert did not get hit when a madman shot at Victoria.) It’s all a matter ... Read more »

You’re Darn Tootin’

Yet another “tit for tat” howler. The beginning isn’t too interesting, with the boys playing in a band. (Odd subject for a silent film, but remember, there was always a piano player in the pit.) But they finally get into a brawl tearing each other’s pants off, which soon escalates to involve everyone on the street.

You’re Next

Not my usual cup of tea, but this one is done well and has some surprises. A group of people are gathered together in a house in the country, when suddenly a crossbow bolt comes through the window and kills one of them. Before they know it they are under attack by a gang of apparent psychopaths wearing animal masks. But all is not what it seems. I won’t give away the secret that is ... Read more »

Youth

The director of this rather dull and pretentious film was Paolo Sorrentino, who won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2013 for The Great Beauty, a movie which left me mostly unimpressed. (Admittedly, it wasn’t a strong year for foreign language nominees.)

This one concerns two old friends, Michael Caine as a great retired composer and conductor, and ... Read more »

You’ve Got Mail

Here is Hollywood’s third take on the play Parfumerie by Miklós László, after The Shop Around the Corner and In the Good Old Summer Time. Brief recap: A man and a woman work together in a store, don’t like each other, but each is corresponding with an anonymous pen pal whom they adore. Turns out they are each other’s pen pal. They fall ... Read more »