Trump deems foreign films a threat
For information on the latest announcement by President Trump, go here.
Florida Film Festival to begin Friday
The 34th annual Florida Film Festival is scheduled for April 11-20, at Maitland, Florida’s Enzian Theater and Regal Winter Park Village. Check out my coverage in The Orlando Weekly later this week, including commentary on the opening film, Stolen Kingdom, and an interview with the documentary’s director, Joshua Bailey. I might also have more to […]
Filmapalooza 2025 concludes
Filmapalooza, the international competition of the 48 Hour Film Project, was held March 19-22 in Seattle. For my review of the annual festival, go here.
Love Your Shorts 2025 begins
The 2025 Love Your Shorts Film Festival began last night at the historic Ritz Theater in Sanford, Florida, with Education Day. The fest screened five short films, followed by a discussion panel with four local filmmakers: Albert Gonzalez, Kimberly Di Persia, Jason True and Parissa Glaser. Local filmmaker TL Westgate moderated. The screening and panel […]
Save the penny!
Save the penny! OK, maybe not THIS penny, which doomed Richard Collier in the time-travel masterpiece Somewhere in Time. But, in general, let’s fight Trump’s plan to end production of the mighty penny.
Trump targets the arts
President Trump plans to fire multiple board members of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the preeminent performing-arts institution in Washington, D.C., and install himself as chairman. Though the Kennedy Center is a public-private entity and the president is tasked with appointing board members, this is an unprecedented move, as the Center […]
Clarity vs. ambiguity
Modern cinema loves vagueness and ambiguity, but they should always have a purpose. If a script is vague, confusing and ambiguous for no reason, it’s simply bad. My favorite quote about this is from C.S. Lewis: “Take great pains to be clear. Remember that though you start by knowing what you mean, the reader doesn’t, […]
‘Motion Picture Paradise’
When discussing the history of American film, Florida is often overlooked. I find that depressing not just because I live in the Sunshine State but because, in a small way, I was part of that history in the early 1990s when I worked at the Disney-MGM Studios. That experience helped shape my love of film. […]
Movie heritage up in flames
Amid the physical devastation of the Los Angeles fires lies the cultural devastation, specifically the loss of many famous sites associated with movies and television. To learn more about the losses, I suggest this article from The Los Angeles Times.
Follow MeierMovies on Instagram
I’ve been told all the kiddies are doing it, so MeierMovies is joining the Generation Z bandwagon and creating an Instagram account. (Do Gen Zers even know what a “bandwagon” is? Hey! Get off my lawn!) Go here to follow MeierMovies on Instagram.
8K
No, I’m not talking about the cinematic resolution of the future. I’m talking about 8,000 movies. To the point, I just watched and rated my 8,000th movie. That’s 4,727 features and 3,273 shorts. So what was the 8,000th movie? Mothers’ Instinct (3 stars on 0-5 scale), directed by Benoît Delhomme. It’s a remake of a […]
‘Ben-Hur’ live and in person
Orlando’s Mary, Queen of the Universe Basilica and Shrine held a screening of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, the 1925 silent classic, on Friday, October 25. What made this event unique was the presence of Dr. Steven Ball, who accompanied the film on the shrine’s majestic organ. It was almost like having the fictional […]
Festivalitis hits Orlando
Fall is approaching fast, and that means one thing to cinephiles in Central Florida: festivals. Though film fests happen throughout the year, autumn always seems the busiest in the City Beautiful. The Love Your Shorts Summer Rewind just finished, as did the Orlando Urban Film Festival, and the Orlando 48 Hour Film Project competition is […]
Remember the Alamo …?
Remember the Alamo … Drafthouse, when it was independently owned? Not anymore, as Sony Pictures has purchased the company. Read about it in Variety. This likely would not have happened if the historic Paramount Decree, a 1948 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that broke up the partnerships between studios and cinemas, had not been […]
Take THAT, Variety!
Though Variety magazine was founded in 1905, it initially covered just theatre and vaudeville, not film. You’d have to wait until 1933, when Daily Variety was launched, the read the publication’s coverage of motion pictures. So in those early years of film, many people turned to The Moving Picture World. Looking back at past issues, […]
First dummy/doll horror?
Could The Doll’s Revenge, directed by Cecil B. Hepworth in 1907, be the first dummy/doll horror film? And do the twin dolls at the end of the film remind you of the Grady girls in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining? Hepworth was a pioneering British filmmaker who, in 1903, made what is considered the first movie […]
Let’s get real
Thanks to Turner Classic Movies, I finally saw the directorial debut, from 1979, of one of my favorite writers/actors/comedians, Albert Brooks. The movie, appropriately titled Real Life (3 ½ stars on 0-5 scale), is a groundbreaking mockumentary that predates the Christopher Guest films, Woody Allen’s Zelig (1983) and The Truman Show (1998). The latter, arguably the […]
Florida Film Festival begins Friday
The 33rd annual Florida Festival begins Friday in Maitland and Winter Park, Florida. For my coverage, go here.
Globes are reborn
The Golden Globes were reborn last night in Beverly Hills, sans the Hollywood Foreign Press. And although my own choices disagreed significantly with the Globes’ picks — hey, it wouldn’t be an awards ceremony if that didn’t happen — I am thrilled that Anatomy of a Fall was recognized for best film not in English […]
Farewell, Tom
Tom Wilkinson was known to most as an actor in The Full Monty, for which he won a BAFTA, and In the Bedroom and Michael Clayton, for which he garnered Academy Award nominations. But for me, he was a friend. A school chum and colleague of my dad, Paul, Tom was an immensely talented performer. […]
Top films of the year
As the year draws to a close, critics and audiences alike are compiling their “best of 2023” lists. Though this year has been a challenging one for me personally, with less time to watch films, I’m slowly catching up. In the coming weeks, my list will be changing constantly and probably won’t even begin to […]
Enzian ups its resolution
In a triumph for Orlando-area cinephiles, the Enzian Theater, Central Florida’s premier arthouse cinema, has upgraded its projection from 2K to 4K. See the full story here.
OIF comes to Tampa
The Organization of Independent Filmmakers (OIF), until now confined to Orlando, Florida, will hold their first event in Tampa on September 30. I was proud to be a judge for the competition, which is a great way for beginner, low-budget and independent filmmakers to showcase their talents. The screening will take place at AMC Westshore […]
‘Kes’
For the first time ever, I watched an English-language film with the subtitles on. The film is Kes, director Ken Loach’s wonderful kitchen-sink drama from 1969, with heavy Yorkshire dialect and slang. It’s the best movie I’ve seen so far in my final Netflix disc binge. (The disc program is going away on September 29.)
The end of an era
In a devastating blow to film lovers, critics and historians, Netflix is discontinuing its disc-by-mail program in September. For more information, see my article.
3,000 shorts
In addition to ratings of approximately 4,300 feature films, MeierMovies includes ratings for short films too. And those ratings just reached 3,000! Check out all of these 3,000 short films plus all my other lists on my Movie Lists page.
The best that you can do …
Farewell, Burt Bacharach, composer of several songs from classic films, including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Alfie. But my favorite of his will always be Arthur’s Theme: Best That You Can Do, from one of the greatest comedies of all time, Arthur (1981). That song is a collaboration between him, Christopher Cross and […]
The first movie sequel?
Are you tired of endless film sequels and remakes? Do you long for the early days of cinema when everything was original? Think again. Though sequels and remakes were a bit less prevalent decades ago (if you discount serials), they have been around since almost the dawn of cinema. Case in point: The Little Train […]
Last dance for Cindy Williams
Thanks for the memories, Cindy. (American Graffiti image copyright Universal Pictures / Lucasfilm. Go to CNN.com for more information on her life.)
Get in the CenFlo
Central Florida Film Festival set for Jan. 20-22 in Mt. Dora The 17th annual Central Florida Film Festival (CenFlo) is scheduled for January 20-22 at Epic Theatres in Mount Dora, Florida. This year’s fest will screen more than 160 movies (mostly shorts but some features) in a variety of genres, including drama, comedy, horror/suspense/thriller, science […]
FFCC recognizes Polk Theatre
I’m proud to announce that, upon my suggestion, the Florida Film Critics Circle has recognized the historic Polk Theatre, in Lakeland, Florida, with our top yearly honor, the Golden Orange. Congrats! For more information on this “Mediterranean atmospheric” cinema build in 1928, go here. And for the complete list of the Circle’s year-end awards, visit […]
The best films of 2022
As the year is drawing to a close, the annual scramble to compile “best of 2022” lists is heating up. As usual, I probably won’t be happy with my list until well into the new year. And even then, mine is a list that keeps changing once I discover new films — and that process […]
Orlando welcomes its fall fests
The fall is a good time for fans of film festivals in Orlando. Actually, any time of year is. But the autumn tends to be particularly packed. The Global Peace Film Festival and the Enzian Theater’s South Asian Film Festival just wrapped, and it will soon be time for the Spooky Empire Horror Film Festival, […]
Bill Maher on movie casting
As he has done on countless other topics, Bill Maher offers his valuable take on today’s movie casting while diffusing the political tension with humor. Even if you don’t concur with Maher, I hope you’ll agree that his perspective is important. I put this out here without editorial comment, except to express my desire that […]
Introducing my “New Views” page
Have you ever found yourself wondering, “What has Cameron watched recently?” Well, even if you haven’t, you now have an easy way of finding out. Check out my New Views page, which lists all the stuff (feature films, shorts and TV/web shows) that I’ve seen over the last couple of weeks, plus their star ratings. […]
Into the ‘Outer Limits’
I’ve spent the last several months watching (or, in some instances, rewatching) all 49 episodes of The Outer Limits, the classic science-fiction television show from the 1960s. Check out my end results here.
Odd movie pairings
I’m fascinated with interesting and weird movie groupings, such as films that share actors, directors, writers, themes or stories. And I recently experienced perhaps the oddest pairings ever. I watched two of the original screwball comedy/horror films (directed by Michael Curtiz), from the early 1930s (in two-strip Technicolor): Doctor X (1 star on 0-5 scale) […]
Top 10 directorial debuts
Undercutting the conventional narrative that a novice helmer cannot create a masterpiece, I present my list of the top 10 feature directorial debuts of all time. Surprisingly, all of these movies are in my top 200, which you can find here. Just missing the top 10 (but still in my top 200) are additional masterpieces […]
Farewell to Paul Sorvino, David Warner
The recent deaths of character actors Paul Sorvino and David Warner conjure up very different memories for me. Warner was a fixture of my early movie-watching, with three of his memorable roles haunting my childhood: Henry Niles in Straw Dogs (1971), Jennings in The Omen (1976) and Evil Genuis in Time Bandits. His prolific career […]
Catching up on some classics
Thanks to Netflix discs and Turner Classic Movies (both of which I highly recommend), I’ve been catching up on some classics that I’m ashamed to admit I had never seen: Here Comes Mr. Jordan, (1941, 4 ¼ stars on my 0-5 scale); Rachel, Rachel (1968, 3 ¾ stars); Paris Blues (1961, 3 ¾ stars); and […]
7K
While most people are talking about 2K, 4K or 8K, I’m more concerned with 7K. Specifically, I’m celebrating the rating of my 7,000th movie. That total includes 4,234 features and 2,766 shorts. So, what was the 7,000th? The 1958 Chuck Jones cartoon Robin Hood Daffy. As is the case with a lot of classic shorts, […]
Last call, Joe
I learned today of the passing of the world’s favorite movie bartender, Joe Turkel, who departed this realm on June 27 (Somewhere in Time day), at age 94. Known principally for his performances as Lloyd the drink slinger in The Shining and Dr. Eldon Tyrell in Blade Runner, Turkel has the distinction of being one […]
‘Judgment Night’ for Nehemiah Persoff
In 2020, I wrote of the connection between iconic character actors Nehemiah Persoff and Norman Lloyd, and marveled at the fact that both centenarians were still alive. Sadly, Lloyd passed away last year and Persoff just three weeks ago. (See Deadline.com.) I encourage you to revisit my original post from two years ago and join me […]
Florida Film Festival movie reviews
The 31st annual Florida Film Festival begins this Friday, April 8, and runs through April 17. Go here for my full coverage, including brief reviews of 12 features.
Florida and Sarasota fests reveal lineups
The Florida and Sarasota film festivals revealed their lineups this week. Often considered two of the three best movie events in the state (the other being Miami), the two fests will overlap slightly this year, with Sarasota being held April 1-10 and Florida April 8-17. The Sarasota fest will screen more than 200 films in […]
Why I won’t watch the Oscars
I’ve watched every Oscars ceremony since I was a child, except the 2018 show, when I was in Paris. It was televised during the middle of the night there, but I still tried to watch, frantically flipping from channel to channel at 2 a.m. but failing to find it. So I gave up and went […]
Oscar noms go to the ‘Dog’
Congrats to Jane Campion and the cast and crew of The Power of the Dog on your 12 Oscar nominations, the most of any film this year. I’d also like to commend Fran Kranz and the cast and crew of Mass, the best American film of the year. You don’t need Oscar noms (or lack […]
‘The Iceman’ finally cometh to my house
I just watched all four hours of director John Frankenheimer’s 1973 version of Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh (2 ¼ stars on my 0-5 scale), starring Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, Fredric March and and 23-year-old Jeff Bridges. It’s the first American movie with two intermissions. I’m happy (and ashamed it’s taken me this long) to […]
Getting short at Sundance
Though it saddens me that the Sundance Film Festival went completely virtual this year, the silver lining is more people are able to see the movies. As for me, I’m binging the shorts. If you want some quick recommendations, I suggest Bestia, a darkly disturbing but visually arresting animated tale of suffering, directed by Hugo […]