Leonard here. The following column is written by my colleague Mark Searby highlighting British cinema past and present. Please enjoy A Bit of Crumpet. Beauty is only skin deep, as the saying goes. And as one of the characters in Stolen Face says. This 1951 Hammer Films movie has a lot to say about looks and how many would go to great lengths to change how they look, and some do. Especially here as faces are changed, for better and worse. British plastic surgeon Philip Ritter is jilted by a concert pianist after a whirlwind romance. Still clinging to her memory, he remakes disfigured criminal Lily in Alice’s image. But Ritter soon discovers that what’s underneath did not change for the better. If this film had…

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Leonard here. The following column is written by my colleague Mark Searby highlighting British cinema past and present. Please enjoy A Bit of Crumpet. Daniel Farson isn’t a name familiar to many. Even I wasn’t aware of him. Granted he was before my time. However, his work has rippled through the lifestyle documentary maker world for decades. Seen as a precursor to the likes of Louis Theroux (who in turn had worked with Michael Moore early on in their respective careers), Nick Broomfield and Jon Ronson. A young, modern-day equivalent to Frason is probably Andrew Callaghan. But Farson was operating in the 1950s. When Britain had a stiff upper lip and didn’t talk about anything remotely personal like sex, drugs or… alien invasions. Farson did…

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THE FOLLOWING WAS WRITTEN BY MY FRIEND AND COLLEAGUE ALONSO DURALDE. YOU CAN LEARN MORE ABOUT HIM HERE. WHAT’S NEW ON 4K/BLU/DVD IN FEBRUARY: NOW YOU SEE ME 3, SCARLET WARNING 666, NETWORK, AND MORE! NEW RELEASE WALL Now You See Me: Now You Don’t (Lionsgate): A movie about magicians seems like an anomaly in this era of digital effects, where anything is possible on the screen. (I’m reminded of the character in Radio Dayswho gets annoyed with his wife’s love of Charlie McCarthy: “He’s a ventriloquist on the radio! How do ya know he isn’t moving his lips?”) Still, the legerdemain capers of the Now You See Me crew have captivated audiences enough to get to a third entry, and this time, the Horsemen…

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Two thousand fans packed the Arlington Theater in Santa Barbara last week to see Adam Sandler in person. After forty years of comedy records, TV appearances and movies he’s still on top of his game. It was my happy assignment to interview him on stage for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. We hit it off right away and he gave thoughtful answers to my questions, punctuated with comic asides that met with roars of approval. . He was a teenager when he started performing in comedy clubs, and 22 when he hit the big time on Saturday Night Live. That’s when I first became aware of hm, because my young daughter showed me his performance of “The Chanukah Song,” which meant so much to…

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THE FOLLOWING WAS WRITTEN BY MY FRIEND AND COLLEAGUE ALONSO DURALDE. YOU CAN LEARN MORE ABOUT HIM HERE. WHAT’S NEW ON 4K/BLU/DVD IN JANUARY: ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, CAUGHT BY THE TIDES, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN THE FABULOUS STAINS, AND MORE! NEW RELEASE WALL One Battle After Another (WBD): One of this year’s Oscar front-runners is also one of the year’s best films, and those two match less often than you might think. Loosely adapting a novel by Thomas Pynchon (whom he previously brought to the screen more faithfully with Inherent Vice), writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson weaves a multi-generational tale of revolution and restriction, examining ongoing political divides in this country while also delving into the specifics of father-daughter relationships. Oh, and he kinda redefines the…

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Film scholars and researchers now have one more reason to make their way to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin–they’ve acquired Olivia de Havilland’s papers and memorabilia. The two-time Oscar winner lived to be 104—long enough to sue the producers of the television miniseries Feud: Bette and Joan, in which she was portrayed by Catherine Zeta-Jones. The actress’s daughter, Gisèle Galante Chulack, made the donation, which was officially announced today, January 21st. In addition to scrapbooks, stills, correspondence, and everything you would expect to find in a star’s possession, there is thorough documentation of her groundbreaking lawsuit against Warner Bros in 1943, which resulted in a seismic change in the way studios did business with actors. No longer could the duration…

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If you lived in or around Indianapolis in the late 1970s you probably know the real story that inspired this film, but it was new to me. The versatile Bill Skarsgård plays a man who has grown so furious with his local mortgage company that he takes the owner’s grown son hostage. He fashions a noose-like rope around his neck and attaches it to a rifle, all in broad daylight. His brazen act stirs what we now call a media circus. It’s an absurd and desperate desire for revenge against the businessmen who have wronged him, but he is nothing if not determined. With a passing nod to Dog Day Afternoon, young screenwriter Austin Kolodney fleshes out the narrative with incidents and character quirks that make…

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