Tag: Peter Bogdanovich
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She’s Funny That Way (2014)
Peter Bogdanovich’s final feature is one of the more morose comedies ever made. Whether this is intentional or not remains to be debated. What is clear, however, is the strange mixture of ideas and genres that was so often Bogdanovich’s preference for comedy. He was enthralled with the idea of making old-fashioned screwball comedies set…
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The Cat’s Meow (2001)
The movie industry and its rich history remained a continuous source of inspiration for Peter Bogdanovich’s entire career. Beginning with his many interviews with various Hollywood legends, including John Ford, Howard Hawks and Orson Welles, Bogdanovich sought to pay tribute to these directors by imitating their style in more contemporary stories. Yet, for The Cat’s…
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The Thing Called Love (1993)
In The Thing Called Love, Peter Bogdanovich returns to two of his cinematic roots, country music and young people in love. These have remained mainstays throughout his career and rarely have they been personified better than in River Phoenix and Samantha Mathis. Indeed, one of the biggest strengths of this movie is the energy and…
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Noises Off (1992)
Noises Off is Peter Bogdanovich at his zaniest, but the picture is screwball without substance. The cast is more than capable and willing to give it their all, and the film garners lots of laughs. But the rush of energy that propels this movie forward moves so quickly that by the end, Noises Off has…
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Texasville (1990)
Befallen by hard times on both sides of the camera, Peter Bogdanovich received an opportunity to revisit a familiar place and he took it. Texasville, the sequel to Bogdanovich’s break-out hit The Last Picture Show, is based on Larry McMurtry’s sequel novel, but the tone and feeling of this picture is a far cry from…
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Illegally Yours (1988)
Illegally Yours is an exhausting and boring movie experience. The movie is exhausting because so much happens at once audiences are not able to follow, and boring because what does happen has been seen time and time again. Peter Bogdanovich, who directed the picture, spoke negatively about the filmmaking experience throughout his career and even…
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Mask (1985)
Mask is one of Peter Bogdanovich’s saddest movies, yet also the most uplifting. Despite attempts at various genres and styles, the intersection of tragedy and authenticity is where his greatest achievements lie, and Mask is a tremendous example. The message of the movie is quite familiar to anyone who has ever seen or read these…
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They All Laughed (1981)
Peter Bogdanovich routinely described They All Laughed as “my favorite of my movies” and ” the happiest time of my life.” This does not necessarily imply the film is good, but in this case such a question is less important than the movie’s off-screen drama, which is so often a significant part of Bogdanovich’s oeuvre.…
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Saint Jack (1979)
After three years of sifting through the state of his career in an attempt to understand what went wrong and how, Peter Bogdanovich rediscovered the elements that contributed to his early success. Shooting quickly, on location, with little money and even less time to think, Bogdanovich and his crew crafted a marvelous and insightful movie…
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Nickelodeon (1976)
Nickelodeon represents Peter Bogdanovich’s most extreme attempt to take viewers back into the history of motion pictures, partly because it is his passion but mainly because there is nowhere further back to go. The movie focuses on the earliest years of cinema when theaters were rare, but the public were becoming increasingly interested in this…