The Western Genre and Its Shining Star

By the 1940s, the American film industry had internalized a crucial part of our nation’s history – the settlement of the Wild West – turned it into a familiar movie genre. The tropes of westerns are familiar to us all by now. There were shootouts at the OK Corral, duels in the midday sun and [...]

Movie Concessions

Men tend to enjoy several specific attributes in a movie: violent action sequences, raunchy humor and maybe a bit of full-frontal nudity for variety. But somewhere deep down, even the most rugged man’s man enjoys some special time at home on the couch with a lady friend. And women love their rom-coms. For men, it [...]

The King of ’80s Comedy

His star has faded a bit in recent years, but during a remarkable run of films in the 1980s Chevy Chase was practically untouchable. The comedian earned his stripes as a member of the Saturday Night Live comedy ensemble. But no mere sketch show would be enough to hold him for long. By the start [...]