Background They say write what you know. Malcolm Braly (1925-80) knew prisons. Orphaned as a teenager, the Oregon native spent the majority of his years aged approximately 17-40 behind bars. A career burglar and multiple parole violator, he was in a reform school at 17 and in the facility at San Quentin for the crux…
In his book Reinventing Comics, Scott McCloud points out that hand-drawn static-image super hero stories can’t compete against first-person power fantasies presented in film, video games, or on television—that action is much more exciting on a screen than in a comic book. If you don’t believe him, check out how many people have seen the…
When Sweet Girl debuted on Netflix on August 20th, it instantly became the most popular offering on the site, enticing viewers with its medley of dynamic fight sequences combined with a crime thriller story, throwing in a twist worthy of an early-career M. Night Shyamalan. Jason Momoa plays a sympathetic dad going after the big…
What is noir? It’s legendarily hard to define but you know it when you see it: Dark streets slick with rain. Seedy hotel rooms lit by a reddish neon glare. A wisp of smoke curling up from a cigarette in a shadowy corner. Desperate men and women with obscure motives and shifting loyalties. In Asia,…
If someone who’s seen Samuel Fuller’s 1953 film Pickup on South Street was asked to describe it using just a few words, they might say it’s “a Cold War spy thriller.” On the surface, that way of characterizing the movie is apt enough. The story does involve a ring of traitorous Americans who steal their…
From its very inception, Margaret Truman’s Capital Crimes series has excelled at stitching tales of murder and mystery with Washington, D.C. as a backdrop. Look no further than the title of each of the now 31 entries to find a particular setting in the Capital where a murder sets off a high stakes game or…
Sherlock Holmes was, is, and likely will remain a solid fuel source for the entertainment industry, and the very latest offering is the Netflix film Enola Holmes, based on the Edgar Award-nominated YA series by Nancy Springer. Millie Bobby Brown, who launched her career playing Eleven on Stranger Things, dives into the part of Sherlock…
When I watched Be Water, ESPN’s new 30 for 30 documentary on the life of legendary martial arts master and actor Bruce Lee (1940-73), I kept waiting for the topic of Quentin Tarantino’s portrayal of Lee in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood to come up. I figured it might get mentioned by Bruce’s daughter…
Crime movies are often deeply linked to the settings in which they take place. The prohibition era of speakeasies and bootleggers gave us The Untouchables. The glittering casinos of Las Vegas gave us Ocean’s Eleven. The gritty streets of Los Angeles have given us everything from Training Day to Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. In…
If you’re like me, you’ve long had an interest in Bollywood movies, but haven’t explored this corner of cinematic history much. The problem is, where do you start in trying to learn about such a vast pool of films that haven’t been part of your cultural life? Well, in a situation like this, sometimes the…
