Christopher Saunders
I do not propose to recount my life in any detail, what is what. No damn business of anybody's, what is what. I am Groggy Dundee, *that* is what!
MY BLOGS
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Nothing is Written: A Film Blog
http://nothingiswrittenfilm.blogspot.com/
Reviews movies from all eras, countries and genres.
LATEST ARTICLES ( 653 )
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Ruby Sparks
One knock against the "indie film" subgenre is the annoying female leads. Nathan Rabin dubbed these strange creatures "Manic Pixie Dream Girls"; I prefer twits. Read more
Posted on 25 April 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES -
The Drum
(1938) was one of the Korda Brothers' vehicles for Sabu, the Anglo-Indian child star who achieved fame with Elephant Boy (1937). Read more
Posted on 24 April 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES -
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
was everywhere the summer of 1997. Not the cultural phenomenon of its predecessor or the same year's Titanic, it was still a triumph of the Hollywood Hype... Read more
Posted on 19 April 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES -
King Solomon's Mines (1950)
H. Rider Haggard created the modern adventure with King Solomon's Mines, whose exotic excitement inspired fictional heroes from Tarzan to Indiana Jones. It's... Read more
Posted on 18 April 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES -
Groggy On Hiatus
Groggy is going to take a break from blogging. I hate to do it, but there's too much going on right now: work is tough, I'm searching for a new apartment,... Read more
Posted on 11 March 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES -
New Flashman Movie
A long, obnoxious Monday capped with great news:Fox is going back to the 1830s and is developing “Flashman,” a movie based on the period novels by George... Read more
Posted on 09 March 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES -
Sound on Sight Article: John Osborne on Film
Why no posts this week? I've been working on a new Sound on Sight piece, discussing John Osborne's Look Back in Anger. We've discussed that play and film here... Read more
Posted on 07 March 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES -
Hitler: The Last Ten Days
An Anglo-Italian co-production, Hitler: The Last Ten Days (1973) is an uneven revisiting of Nazi Germany's destruction. Alec Guinness gives a good... Read more
Posted on 01 March 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES -
Cromwell
One of the traditional epic's last gasps, Ken Hughes's Cromwell (1970) flattens a fantastic story. Alec Guinness and a game supporting cast struggle against an... Read more
Posted on 28 February 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES -
The Theory of Everything
To most people, Stephen Hawking is either an inscrutable genius or Lisa Simpson's robot buddy. The Theory of Everything (2014) reminds us that even scientists... Read more
Posted on 26 February 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES -
Nightcrawler
(2014) was one of the Academy's notable exclusions last night (though let's face it, the right movie won). Dan Gilroy's thriller succeeds in its eerie... Read more
Posted on 24 February 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES -
New Column: The Battle for Lawrence of Arabia
Apologies for my absence! I just started writing for another film site, Sound on Sight, which published my inaugural piece today: The Battle for Lawrence of... Read more
Posted on 17 February 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES -
The King of Marvin Gardens
Bob Rafelson followed Five Easy Pieces (1970) with this high-toned oddity. The King of Marvin Gardens (1972) is a fascinating miscalculation, its overbaked... Read more
Posted on 12 February 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES -
American Sniper
Clint Eastwood's American Sniper (2014) is this season's Gone Girl, an unassuming genre flick generating a thousand think pieces on its cultural significance. Read more
Posted on 08 February 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES -
Chinatown
Roman Polanski's Chinatown (1974) is a very '70s film noir, the plot turning on government corruption, corporate greed and personal coverups. Read more
Posted on 07 February 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES -
Mister Roberts
(1955) seemed a slam dunk to Warner Bros.: John Ford directing Henry Fonda in a reprise of his long-running stage role. It turned into a nightmare, with directo... Read more
Posted on 01 February 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES -
Donovan's Reef
John Ford's Donovan's Reef (1963) is a frivolous oddity that critics love dissecting. Peter Wollen describes it as "a kind of Valhalla for the homeless heroes o... Read more
Posted on 31 January 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES -
Selma
Decades removed from denunciations as a race-baiting Communist, Martin Luther King Jr. ranks alongside the Founding Fathers as a sanctified American. Read more
Posted on 27 January 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES -
Groggy on Moviepilot: Z
Another week, another piece on Moviepilot: this time on Costa-Gavras's Z. Writing this article required some actual research: certainly I know more about 20th... Read more
Posted on 24 January 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES -
Garden of Evil
Henry Hathaway's Garden of Evil (1954) is a badly overblown Western. The movie's graced by beautiful photography and three excellent leads, yet feels clunky... Read more
Posted on 23 January 2015 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES