60 Years of Lost in Space: "Danger, Will Robinson!"

Today is the 60th anniversary of the network television premiere of the science fiction cult classic, Lost in Space. Can you believe it? Why, only ten years ago it was the 50th anniversary of Lost in Space!

Time flies.

I wrote extensively on the subject then — some eleventy jillion words, by my count — and if you want, you can read every one of them here (and here and here and here — it was in four parts, an epic!).

I won't rehash that mammoth exercise in boomer nostalgia except to say I think Lost in Space was much better than its detractors gave it credit for and its catchphrase "Danger, Will Robinson" is still part of the culture. Why, it even got a laugh on Young Sheldon a while back. Take that Petticoat Junction!



The original is available to stream on Hulu, may be purchased digitally from Amazon-Prime and shows up for free every Saturday night on MeTV. The Blu-Ray box set is pretty nifty, too! (Note: In 2019, the series was digitally remastered in widescreen for DVD. I don't own this set so I can't review it but I am intrigued ...)

But for Pete's sake, you don't want to watch all of it — even Will Robinson isn't that fond of the show.

Instead, allow me to recommend a single season's worth of the best Lost in Space has to offer, my highly subjective list of 24 Grade A to B-plus episodes in the order that they originally aired.

The Reluctant Stowaway — The first episode. Set in the distant future of 1997, the Robinson family and their pilot Don West (Mark Goddard) blastoff on a five-and-a-half year voyage to colonize the Alpha Centauri star system. A saboteur, Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris), is trapped on board and when the mission's environmental control robot goes berserk, the ship becomes hopelessly lost in space!

The Derelict — The Robinson family encounters what appears to be a derelict spaceship in deep space. This episode features the best special effects sequence in the series' history — and maybe anybody's history.



Island in the Sky — Thanks to sabotage at the hands of the villainous Dr. Smith, first John Robinson (Guy Williams) then the Jupiter 2 crash land on an alien world.

There Were Giants in the Earth — As the Robinsons struggle to survive on their new home, they encounter a giant cyclops, mutant snap peas, and a malfunctioning robot hellbent for murder. This episode and the next one rely heavily on re-purposed footage from the unaired pilot.

The Hungry Sea — More challenges face our intrepid band of pioneers including earthquakes, electrical storms, cave-ins and an ocean cruise that makes the Titanic look like The Love Boat. This was the last of what I call the Origin Story Miniseries, five interlocking episodes that established the foundation of the show.

My Friend, Mr. Nobody — A rare episode that centers on Penny (Angela Cartwright), this is a poignant fairy tale about a lonely little girl and her not-so-imaginary imaginary friend. The sort of thing Rod Serling and The Twilight Zone excelled at.

Invaders from the Fifth Dimension — Mouthless, disembodied aliens need a brain to replace a burned-out computer component and notice Will (Billy Mumy) has a pretty good head on his shoulders. So they task Dr. Smith with bringing it to them on a metaphorical plate. The show would recycle this plotline over and over but the first time out, it feels fresh. Plus their spaceship is cooler than anything Star Trek ever served up.

The Sky Is Falling — Paranoia and xenophobia is the order of the day when colonists from another planet arrive on the Robinsons' world. Wait until ICE hears about this!

Wish Upon a Star — Filled with the first season's signature elements, this is a top-notch morality tale about the dangers of getting everything you want. Features wonderfully weird expressionistic cinematography, unexplained alien artifacts, and Dr. Smith's self-absorbed jack-ass-ery.

One of Our Dogs Is Missing — Way back in the series' first episode, June Lockhart's character is introduced as "Dr. Maureen Robinson." Apparently she got her PhD in Space Laundry because aside from baking the occasional chocolate cake, washing clothes is all you ever see her do. This is just about the only episode centered on Maureen, here battling an unseen monster terrorizing the camp. It's not perfect — the men are condescending [jerks] and Dr. Smith has never been sillier — but June Lockhart is one tough cookie.

Attack of the Monster Plants — As daughter Judy, Marta Kristen rarely got a chance to shine but here she showed off a saucy bite as her own evil doppelgänger. Like much of season one, there's a dream-like quality to the mood and cinematography that papers over some of the episode's nuttier flights of fancy.

Return from Outer Space — Will borrows an alien transporter and beams himself to 1997's equivalent of Mayberry RFD. Apparently the internet is down because nobody recognizes Will or believes his story that his family is lost in space. This is probably Bill Mumy's best work on the show and maybe the best thing he did after that Twilight Zone episode where he kept wishing people into the cornfield.

The Keeper (Parts 1 and 2) — The only two-parter during the show's run, this one stars Michael Rennie (The Day the Earth Stood Still) as an intergalactic zookeeper looking for two new specimens for his exhibit — Will and Penny! This was the high watermark of the show's original (serious) concept of a family struggling to survive in a hostile environment. After this, the camp crept in with mixed results.

War of the Robots — The first episode where the Robot crosses over from a mere machine, no matter how clever, into a fully-conscious Turing-Test artificial intelligence. Featuring Forbidden Planet's Robby the Robot. If Will was the show's hero, and Smith its plot-driving irritant, the Robot was its soul.

The Magic Mirror — Penny falls through a magic mirror into a dimension with a population of one — a boy (Bonnie and Clyde's Michael J. Pollard) who promises she'll never have to grow up. A beautiful and bittersweet fairy tale about coming of age on the final frontier.

The Challenge — Kurt Russell plays a young prince from a warrior planet trying to prove to his father (Michael Ansara) that he's worthy of his respect and love. A good story about father-son relationships, plus Guy Williams gets to show off the fencing skills that earned him the title role as Disney's Zorro.

A Change of Space — Will takes a ride in an alien space ship and winds up with the most brilliant mind in the galaxy. And still he has to brush his teeth before bedtime! This is one of those episodes that underscores my contention that not all of the trouble Will found himself in was of Dr. Smith's making.

Follow the Leader — The spirit of a long-dead warrior possesses Professor Robinson and turns this warm, rational man into a vicious, unpredictable bastard. Dark, moody, occasionally terrifying. Pop-culture critic John Kenneth Muir called this episode a parable of "alcoholism in the nuclear family." The last episode of season one, and the last in glorious black-and-white, this was one of the series' very best.

Wreck of the Robot — The only season two episode on my list, here three faceless aliens in bowler hats lust after the Robinson's robot for undisclosed and no-doubt nefarious purposes — I'm guessing as research for Elon Musk's next sex partner. Who knows. But it's a good episode and for once it's not Dr. Smith's scheming that drives the plot.

Condemned of Space — The Robinsons are captured by a prison spaceship and Major West winds up hanging by his thumbs. With Marcel Hillaire as a charming murderer who strangles his victims with a string of pearls.

Visit to a Hostile Planet — The Robinsons finally make it back to Earth only to discover it's 1947 and everyone thinks they're alien invaders. A cross between Star Trek and any given day on Fox News.

The Anti-Matter Man — An experiment gone wrong transports Professor Robinson into a parallel dimension where he meets his own evil self. The scenery is summer stock by way of Dr. Caligari, and Guy Williams (having the most fun as an actor since Zorro) gets to chew on all of it. The best episode of the show's third and final season.

The Great Vegetable Rebellion — Featuring a giant talking carrot played by Stanley Adams (of Star Trek's "The Trouble with Tribbles" fame), this is, in the words of Bill Mumy, "the worst television show in primetime ever made." TV Guide respectfully disagrees, ranking it 76 on its list of the 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time. This is either the apotheosis of camp or gloriously awful must-see tv. Don't miss it.

Trivia: Originally, the episode was to co-star a trained llama but it kept biting Jonathan Harris and he refused to work with it. Watching with me one day, the long-suffering Katie-bar-the-door muttered, "This would make more sense with an actual llama!" It was that kind of show.

And check out these episodes on your own time:
Season one — All That Glitters.
Season two — The Prisoners of Space, Trip Through the Robot.
Season three — Flight Into the Future, Space Creature, Target Earth, Time Merchant.

Well, that's it. Gosh, I sure do hope I'm around in ten years to do this all again!

Happy Birthday, June Lockhart!

June Lockhart is 100 years old today. And, yep, she's still with us!

A personal favorite of mine, she was in the 1938 version of A Christmas Carol, 1944's classic Judy Garland musical Meet Me in St. Louis, played Timmy's mom on Lassie ...

And here's a little known fact — the Allman Brothers, when they were known as the Hour Glass, were the house band at June Lockhart's wild parties in the 1960s!

Katherine and I saw her on stage at the Kennedy Center in Steel Magnolias, 35+ years ago.

But for me, I'll always love her best as Dr. Maureen Robinson on television's Lost in Space. Week-in and week-out, she lived a marginal existence on the raggedy end of the final frontier, cooking dinner, folding space laundry, and fretting on cue as her precocious son Will, the troublesome stowaway Dr. Smith, and a wisecracking Robot stole the show out from under her. All without a discouraging word.

One of the few episodes that featured her was "One of Our Dogs is Missing." Although set in 1997, the show usually ignored the fact that Betty Friedan was already a household name by 1965, but here June Lockhart got to show off her acting chops when Maureen is left in charge of the ship while the men are away. Threats abound and she handles them all with brains, bravery and quiet resolve.

Happy birthday, Ms. Lockhart!

The Ten Best Movies Of The Past Ten Years

Well, my favorites, anyway. Fun stuff, guaranteed. No indie art films here. In reverse chronological order.

Sinners (2025)

Ryan Coogler's woke Delta Blues vampire masterpiece stars Michael B. Jordan in a dual role as twins Smoke and Stack, a couple of gangsters looking to establish the best juke joint in the Jim Crow South during the depths of the Depression. Monsters, monsters everywhere — not all of them with sharp, pointy teeth.

Barbie and Oppenheimer (2023)

A.k.a. Barbenheimer, the most-unlikely double feature in movie history, with Greta Gerwig fashioning a billion dollar phenomenon out of a plastic doll while Christopher Nolan finally won a long overdue Oscar for his biopic about the father of the atomic bomb. Barbie is pure genius, Oppenheimer, engrossing.

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

The sequel you didn't know you needed (or wanted) with Tom Cruise reprising his 1986 star-making role as a hotshot pilot, now older, wiser, and puffier around the jowls. A surprisingly-moving adrenaline rush with a heartbreaking cameo from the late, great Val Kilmer.

Little Women (2019)

The umpteenth (and best) remake of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel about the trial and tribulations of four sisters during and immediately after the American Civil War, Greta Gerwig revisits a recurring theme in her work: what is the role of an ambitious woman in a society that only values her for one thing? Featuring an all-star cast (Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Emma Watson, Timothée Chalamet, Laura Dern, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper), Little Women is my favorite movie on this list and one of my favorites of all-time.

Jojo Rabbit (2019)

Taika Waititi's Jojo Rabbit is a wildly-funny and deeply-moving comedy about a goofy ten year old Hitler Youth (and his imaginary pal, Adolf) who discovers the Jewish girl hiding in the attic and learns what it really means to be a Nazi.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

An insider's look at Hollywood at the end of the 1960s, Once Upon a Time is the story of a washed-up television actor (Leonardo DiCaprio), his long-suffering stunt double (Brad Pitt in an Oscar-winning role) and the real-life Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) who cross paths with the Manson family. But if you think you know where this is going, well, clearly you've never seen a Quentin Tarantino movie.

Paddington 2 (2017)

A shockingly fabulous comedy about a talking bear with a taste for marmalade, Paddington 2 features the best performance of Hugh Grant's career as a narcissistic has-been actor who stops at nothing to stage the musical of his dreams.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

The best Star Wars movie since the first one back in 1977 — and just between me and thee, better than that. A rip-snorting adventure about a ragtag band of outsiders who take on an evil empire and spark a revolution.

The Man from UNCLE (2015)

Guy Ritchie's stylish Cold War spy thriller that teams a dapper American thief, a brutish Russian cutthroat and a beautiful East German auto mechanic against a well-dressed family of Nazi war criminals. Fun stuff!

Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation (2015)

One of the eight movies starring Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, a secret agent tasked with the dirty jobs no one else can handle, this one involves a rogue spy hellbent on taking down the world's intelligence community. Or something like that. Mission: Impossible features amazing stunt sequences, a great supporting cast (Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner) and Rebecca Ferguson in her first turn as British super spy, Ilsa Faust.

Finally, a special shout out to A Complete Unknown (2024)

Timothée Chalamet should have won an Oscar for his turn as a young Bob Dylan. Certainly he won my eternal gratitude for turning Katie-Bar-the-Door from a lifelong Dylan detractor to one of his biggest fans. Thanks, Tim!

I Too Became A Dissident

dis·si·dent
noun
a person who opposes official policy, especially that of an authoritarian state.

I see that Google agreed to set fire to the Reichstag call the Gulf of Mexico something other than what it is in order to appease the latest whims of the Toddler in Chief. But don't fret — we here at the Monkey will continue to live in the real world, at least until they drag us off to the gulag.

Apparently it doesn't take much to become a dissident these days ...



Coming soon: 2021 Alternate Oscars

2020 Alternate Oscars

You may have heard about 2020. The worldwide Covid-19 pandemic killed millions, wrecked the world's economy, and of least importance, but for the purposes of an alternate Oscar blog, of most relevance, shut down movie theaters for most of the year.

To say it was a thin year for movies would be an understatement. Not only did Hollywood punt many premieres into 2021 but studios also took the opportunity to beef up their streaming platforms by releasing movies directly into your living room, bypassing theaters altogether.

Back in the day, this would have precluded a film from Oscar consideration, but times change and so, apparently, did the rules. I'm sure Netflix was thrilled (although we now know the streaming boom was a mirage) but it leaves me wondering what counts as a movie and what doesn't.

Did any movies nominally released in 2020 enter the public consciousness? Or will that year forever be a black hole in our memories filled only with death, Zoom calls and the yammering of nitwits claiming that science isn't real?

For once I don't offer an opinion as to who and/or what should have won — most of these are what I have previously referred to as "consensus picka." Some are starting to trickle out onto basic cable (e.g., Promising Young Woman, The Personal History of David Copperfield), but many remain hidden behind various streaming paywalls.

Hard to tell what's catching the public's eye.

(I miss the communal experience of my youth, the Beatles in real time, a new movie hitting theaters. Now the culture is completely Balkanized. "The Moon Landing — exclusively on Apple TV!" No wonder we share no common ground.)

I did include a couple of my personal favorites (Enola Holmes, The Gentlemen) that were largely ignored come award season, but which I liked. My blog, my rules.

And I will say that declining to give Chadwick Boseman (nominated in two categories) a well-deserved posthumous Oscar when it had the chance is all the proof I need that the Academy is willfully hostile to its own audience and has long outlived its usefulness as an arbiter of what is good and great about motion pictures.

A note: From this point forward, I'm changing up the alternate Oscar format. Instead of ten best picture nominees and five in the other categories, I'm rounding up twice the usual number of suspects and hoping that somewhere among them is one deserving winner. Because, let's face it, at this point I'm just taking the proverbial wild-ass guess at what movies are actually going to emerge as all-time greats.

We can always revisit the issue later ...

My choices are noted with a ★. A tie is indicated with a ✪. Historical Oscar winners are noted with a ✔. Best foreign-language picture winners are noted with an ƒ. Best animated feature winners are noted with an @. A historical winner who won in a different category is noted with a ✱.

Your New Year's Resolution: A Movie A Week (Part 7 of 7)

To read Part 1, click here. Read Part 2 here. Read Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here and Part 6 here.

A dozen International films to choose from — but no heavy lifting, no spinach. The Monkey doesn't do spinach (although I do eat spinach from time to time).

Nosferatu (1922). Horror (Germany). A vampire relocates to the big city and samples the local cuisine. Dir. F.W. Murnau. Starring Max Schreck, Alexander Granach. More German Expressionism: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), Der Golem, Waxworks, Faust, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, The Man Who Laughs, Pandora's Box, Vampyr. See also M and Fritz Lang.

M (1931). Crime (Germany). A serial killer preys on children on the eve of Hitler's rise to power. Dir. Fritz Lang. Starring Peter Lorre. More Lang: Dr. Mabuse the Gambler, Metropolis, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, You Only Live Once, Scarlet Street, The Big Heat.

Rashomon (1950). Drama (Japan). Witnesses to a murder — including the killer and the ghost of the victim — tell conflicting stories about the event. Dir. Akira Kurosawa. Starring Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura. More Kurosawa: Ikiru, Seven Samurai, The Hidden Fortress, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Ran.

Tokyo Story (1953). Drama (Japan). An aging couple's children don't have time for them. Dir. Yasujiro Ozu. Starring Chishu Ryu, Chieko Higashiyama, Setsuko Hara. More Ozu: I Was Born But, Late Spring, Early Summer, Floating Weeds, Late Autumn.

The Seventh Seal (1957). Fantasy Drama (Sweden). A medieval knight plays chess against Death with his life riding on the outcome. Dir. Ingmar Bergman. Starring Max von Sydow, Bengt Ekerot. More Bergman: Smiles of a Summer Night, Wild Strawberries, Persona, Cries and Whispers, Scenes from a Marriage, Fanny and Alexander.

The 400 Blows (1959). Drama (France). Ignored by his parents, a boy slides into delinquency. Dir. Francois Truffaut. Starring Jean-Pierre Leaud, Albert Remy, Claire Maurier. More French New Wave Cinema: Hiroshima Mon Amour, Breathless, Shoot the Piano Player, Lola, Last Year at Marienbad, Cleo from 5 to 7, Jules and Jim, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.

La Dolce Vita (1960). Comedy Drama (Italy). A debauched tabloid reporter spends seven wild days and nights in the fleshpots of Rome. Dir. Federico Fellini. Starring Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aimee. More Movies From Italy: Ossessione, Rome Open City, Bicycle Thieves, Umberto D., La Strada, L'Avventura, Rocco and His Brothers, 8½, The Leopard, The Gospel According to St. Matthew, The Conformist.

Wings of Desire (1987). Romantic Fantasy (Germany). An angel sacrifices immortality to become human. Dir. Wim Wenders. Starring Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander, Curt Boise, Peter Falk. More Movies From Germany: Aguirre the Wrath of God, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, Das Boot, Run Lola Run, Downfall, The Lives of Others, The White Ribbon.

In the Mood for Love (2000). Romance (Hong Kong). Two lonely people with cheating spouses meet and fall in love. Dir. Wong Kar-wai. Starring Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung. More Movies From Hong Kong: The Way of the Dragon, Fist of Fury, Drunken Master, The Killer, Hard Boiled, Chungking Express, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Infernal Affairs.

Amelie (2001). Comedy Fantasy (France). A shy waitress helps lonely people in a candy-colored Paris. Dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Starring Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Serge Merlin. More Comedies From France: Le Million, A Nous La Liberte, Boudu Saved from Drowning, Zero for Conduct, L'Atalante, The Rules of the Game, Monsieur Hulot's Holiday, Mon Oncle, Playtime, La Cage aux Folles.

Spirited Away (2001). Animation (Japan). When her parents are magically transformed into pigs, a ten year old girl takes a job in the spirit world to set them free. Dir. Hayao Miyazaki. More Japanese Anime: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Akira, Grave of the Fireflies, My Neighbor Totoro, Porco Rosso, Ghost in the Shell, Princess Mononoke.

Pan's Labyrinth (2006). Dark Fantasy (Spain/Mexico). In Franco's Spain, a ten year old girl enters a labyrinth leading to the underworld. Dir. Guillermo del Toro. Starring Ivana Baquero. More Spanish Language Cinema: Los Olvidados, The Exterminating Angel, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Like Water for Chocolate, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Volver, Roma.

Your New Year's Resolution: A Movie A Week (Part 6 of 7)

To read Part 1, click here. Read Part 2 here. Read Part 3 here. Read Part 4 here. Read Part 5 here.

I'm sure somebody has written about this at length, but movie poster art has gotten a lot less interesting over the last thirty years or so. I'm sure there are a lot of reasons for that — newspapers stopped carrying ads for movies (or shall we just admit, "newspapers stopped"), multiplex theaters don't have room for lobby cards, movies don't rely on word of mouth anymore (it's all blitzkrieg style advertizing then straight to streaming), etc.

And maybe those cheapskates at the studios figure any intern in the marketing department with access to Photoshop Elements can noodle together a poster. Well, they can't. But they keep trying ...

Goodfellas (1990). True-Life Crime. The rise and fall of wiseguy Henry Hill, from the lows to the lowlifes. Dir. Martin Scorsese. Starring Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco, Robert De Niro, Paul Sorvino. More Scorsese: Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Age of Innocence, The Departed.

Malcolm X (1992). Bio-pic. The true story of African-American human rights activist Malcolm X. Dir. Spike Lee. Starring Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett, Albert Hall, Al Freeman, Jr., Delroy Lindo. More Lee: Do the Right Thing, Get on the Bus, 4 Little Girls, Inside Man, BlacKkKlansman, Da 5 Bloods.

Groundhog Day (1993). Comedy Fantasy. An egocentric weatherman relives the same day over and over and over ... Dir. Harold Ramis. Starring Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott, Stephen Tobolowsky. More Ramis: Animal House (writer), Caddyshack (writer-director), Stripes (writer), Ghostbusters (writer).

Pulp Fiction (1994). Neo-Noir Comedy. Two half-smart hit men chase down a glowing MacGuffin in a briefcase, crossing paths with a gangster's moll, a washed-up boxer, and a pair of petty thieves. Dir. Quentin Tarantino. Starring John Travolta, Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman. More Tarantino: Reservoir Dogs, Jackie Brown, Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

The Shawshank Redemption (1994). Prison Drama. Two convicts forge an unlikely friendship over a poster of Rita Hayworth. Dir. Frank Darabont. Starring Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton, William Sadler, James Whitmore. More Movies Based On Stephen King: Carrie, The Dead Zone, Stand By Me, The Green Mile.

Toy Story (1995). Animation. A rivalry between two toys tests loyalties and strains friendships. Dir. John Lasetter. Starring the voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, John Ratzenberger, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn. More Post-Walt Disney Animation: Yellow Submarine, Beauty and the Beast, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Spirited Away, The Incredibles, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Up, The Lego Movie, Coco, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

The Big Lebowski (1998). Screwball Noir. The world's laziest man is drawn into L.A.'s seamy underworld in a quest to recover a rug that really tied the room together. Dir. Joel and Ethan Coen. Starring Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, David Huddleston, Julianne Moore, John Turturro, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Sam Elliott. More Coen Bros.: Miller's Crossing, Fargo, O Brother Where Art Thou?, No Country for Old Men, True Grit (2010).

Lost in Translation (2003). Comedy. An aimless actor and a lonely expat pal around Tokyo. Dir. Sofia Coppola. Starring Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson. More Movies By Women Directors: Suspense (1913), The Hitch-Hiker (1953), A League of Their Own, The Piano, Sleepless in Seattle, The Hurt Locker, Selma, Girls Trip, Little Women (2019).

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014). Comedy. Between the world wars, the concierge of Europe's finest hotel creates a bubble of civilization for his well-to-do guests. Dir. Wes Anderson. Starring Ralph Fiennes, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Saoirse Ronan. More Anderson: The Royal Tenenbaums, The Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, Isle of Dogs, Asteroid City.

Get Out (2017). Horror. A young Black photographer visits his White girlfriend's liberal parents only to discover the new politics is a just fresh way of expressing the same old evils. Dir. Jordan Peele. Starring Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford. More Movies By Black Directors: Within Our Gates (1920), Shaft (1971), Super Fly (1972), Car Wash, Boyz n the Hood, Menace II Society, Devil in a Blue Dress, 12 Years a Slave, Selma, Straight Outta Compton, Creed, Moonlight, Girls Trip, Black Panther, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Summer of Soul, American Fiction. See also Malcolm X and the Films of Spike Lee.

Jojo Rabbit (2019). Anti-Hate Satire. A goofy ten year old (with an imaginary friend named Adolf Hitler) learns what fascism is really all about when he discovers a Jewish girl hiding in the attic. Dir. Taika Waititi. Starring Roman Griffin Davies, Thomasin McKenzie, Scarlett Johansson, Taika Waititi, Sam Rockwell. More Anti-Hate Satire: You Nazty Spy, The Great Dictator, To Be Or Not To Be (1942), The Producers (1968), Inglourious Basterds.

Little Women (2019). Historical Family Drama. The March sisters come of age during the American Civil War, facing love, tragedy and comic misadventures along the way. Dir. Greta Gerwig. Starring Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen, Laura Dern, Timothée Chalamet. More Gerwig: Frances Ha (actress), To Rome with Love (actress), 20th Century Women (actress), Lady Bird, Barbie.

Tomorrow: Part 7.

Your New Year's Resolution: A Movie A Week (Part 5 of 7)

To read Part 1, click here. Read Part 2 here. Read Part 3 here. Read Part 4 here.

Next Sunday at this time, I'll be posting the alternate Oscars for 2020. Or maybe the Sunday after that. Stay tuned ...

The Godfather (1972). Crime Family Saga. The attempted murder of a mafia don draws his war hero son into the family business. Dir. Francis Ford Coppola. Starring Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, Diane Keaton. More Coppola: Patton (screenwriter), The Godfather Part 2, The Conversation, Apocalypse Now.

The Sting (1973). Caper Flick. Two con men set out to scam a vicious gangster. Dir. George Roy Hill. Starring Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw, Charles Durning, Ray Walston, Eileen Brennan, Harold Gould. More Caper Flicks: The Asphalt Jungle, The Lavendar Hill Mob, Rififi, Bob le Flambeur, The Italian Job (1969 and 2003), Kelly's Heroes, Le Cercle Rouge, A Fish Called Wanda, Out of Sight, The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), Snatch, Ocean's Eleven (2001), The Town, Rogue One, Hell or High Water, Baby Driver.

Chinatown (1974). Neo-Noir Mystery. A cynical private eye with a taste for the good life bites off more than he can chew in pre-war Los Angeles. Dir. Roman Polanski. Starring Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, Burt Young, Perry Lopez. More Nicholson: Five Easy Pieces, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Reds, Batman, A Few Good Men, About Schmidt, The Departed.

The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976). Western. At the end of the American Civil War, a guerrilla fighter flees the authorities and picks up a makeshift family along the way. Dir. Clint Eastwood. Starring Clint Eastwood, Chief Dan George, Sandra Locke, John Vernon. More Eastwood: Dirty Harry (actor), High Plains Drifter, Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby.

Annie Hall (1977). Romantic Comedy. A neurotic New Yorker falls for a Midwestern eccentric and remakes her in his own image. Dir. Woody Allen. Starring Woody Allen, Diane Keaton. More Woody: Sleeper, Love and Death, Hannah and Her Sisters, Midnight in Paris.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Action Adventure. A whip-wielding archeologist races Nazis to find the Lost Ark of the Covenant. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Starring Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ronald Lacey, John Rhys-Davies, Denholm Elliott. More Spielberg: Duel, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, The Color Purple, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, Minority Report, Catch Me If You Can, Lincoln.

The Terminator (1984) Science Fiction. A spunky waitress battles a robot sent back from the future to kill her. Dir. James Cameron. Starring Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, Paul Winfield. More Science Fiction: The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), The Thing From Another World, The War of the Worlds (1953), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), 2001: A Space Odyssey, Planet of the Apes (1968), Star Wars (1977), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Blade Runner, Aliens, The Matrix, Interstellar.

The Princess Bride (1987). Fantasy Comedy Adventure. A dotty grandfather reads his skeptical grandson a story filled with fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, miracles and true love. Dir. Rob Reiner. Starring Peter Falk, Fred Savage, Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Chris Sarandon, Wallace Shawn, Mandy Patinkin, Andre the Giant, Billy Crystal, Carol Kane. More Reiner: This is Spinal Tap, The Sure Thing, Stand By Me, When Harry Met Sally, Misery, A Few Good Men.

Bull Durham (1988). Sports Comedy. A career minor leaguer and a baseball groupie tutor a rookie phenom on the finer points of the game. Dir. Ron Shelton. Starring Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins. More Sports Movies: The Pride of the Yankees, The Hustler, The Endless Summer, Brian's Song (1971), The Bad News Bears (1976), Rocky, Slap Shot, Caddyshack, Raging Bull, Chariots of Fire, Victory, The Natural, Hoosiers, A League of Their Own, The Sandlot, The Big Lebowski, 42, Creed, Ford v. Ferrari.

Tomorrow: Part 6.

Your New Year's Resolution: A Movie A Week (Part 4 of 7)

To read Part 1, click here. Read Part 2 here. Read Part 3 here.

It's Saturday night, right? and you're sitting on the couch saying, "What do you want to watch?" and the person next to you says, "I don't know, what do you want to watch?" Well, cut it out and pick a movie off this list! The first one you haven't seen!

Remember: Life is too short not to watch a movie.

Singin' in the Rain (1952). Musical Comedy. Silent film stars struggle to adapt to the sound era. Dir. Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly. Starring Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor, Jean Hagan. More Donen: On the Town, Funny Face, Charade.

Rear Window (1954). Suspense. A bored photographer can't convince anyone he's seen a murder from his apartment window. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. Starring James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Thelma Ritter, Wendell Corey, Raymond Burr. More Hitchcock: The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes, Rebecca, Shadow of a Doubt, Notorious, Strangers on a Train, To Catch a Thief, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, The Birds, Marnie.

Ben-Hur (1959). Historical Action Drama. In the time of Christ, a Jewish prince seeks revenge against the Roman officer who sentenced him to life as a galley slave. Dir. William Wyler. Starring Charlton Heston, Stephen Boyd, Jack Hawkins, Hugh Griffith. More Wyler: Dodsworth, Wuthering Heights, Mrs. Miniver, The Best Years of Our Lives, The Heiress, Roman Holiday.

Rio Bravo (1959). Western. A sheriff and his alcoholic deputy square off against a wealthy landowner and his gang of hired cutthroats. Dir. Howard Hawks. Starring John Wayne, Dean Martin, Walter Brennan, Angie Dickinson. Ricky Nelson, Claude Akins. More Hawks: Scarface (1932), Bringing Up Baby, Only Angels Have Wings, His Girl Friday, Ball of Fire, To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, Red River, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Lawrence of Arabia (1962). War Bio-pic. A glory-seeking soldier unites the Arab nations against the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Dir. David Lean. Starring Peter O'Toole, Omar Shariff, Anthony Quinn, Claude Rains, Arthur Kennedy. More Lean: Brief Encounter, Great Expectations, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Doctor Zhivago, A Passage to India.

Goldfinger (1964). Spy Thriller. Super spy James Bond hunts a gold-obsessed industrialist, his hat-throwing butler and Pussy Galore. Dir. Guy Hamilton. Starring Sean Connery, Honor Blackman, Gert Fröbe, Shirley Eaton, Harold Sakata. More Bond: From Russia With Love, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Spy Who Loved Me, License to Kill, GoldenEye, Casino Royale (2006), Skyfall.

A Hard Day's Night (1964). Musical Comedy. On their way to a show in London, the Fab Four and a grumpy grandfather see a train and a room, a car and a room, and a room and a room. Dir. Richard Lester. Starring The Beatles, Wilfrid Brambell, Norman Rossington, John Junkin, Victor Spinetti, Anna Quayle. More Musicals: Gold Diggers of 1933, Meet Me in St. Louis, An American in Paris, Singin' in the Rain, Funny Face, West Side Story (1961), The Sound of Music, Funny Girl, Cabaret, Grease, The Blues Brothers, Victor/Victoria, Moulin Rouge, Chicago, The Greatest Showman. See also Top Hat and Astaire and Rogers.

Mary Poppins (1964). Musical Fantasy. A practically-perfect nanny whips an unhappy British family into shape. Dir. Robert Stevenson. Starring Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, David Tomlinson, Glynis Johns, Ed Wynn. More Walt Disney: Steamboat Willie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Lady and the Tramp, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, The Jungle Book.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). Spaghetti Western. A bounty hunter, a hit man and a criminal lowlife search for buried treasure during the American Civil War. Dir. Sergio Leone. Starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach. More Leone: A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, Once Upon a Time in the West, Once Upon a Time in America.

The Endless Summer (1966). Documentary. Two surfers circle the globe in search of the perfect wave. Dir. Bruce Brown. Starring Mike Hynson, Robert August. More Documentaries: Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (1896), Nanook of the North (1922), The Memphis Belle (1944 and 2016 restoration), Woodstock, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, Hoop Dreams, When We Were Kings, No Direction Home: Bob Dylan, The Cold Blue, Apollo 11 (2019), Summer of Soul, Get Back.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Science Fiction. Apes and astronauts encounter a mysterious monolith to the sounds of Richard and Johann Strauss. Dir. Stanley Kubrick. Starring Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Douglas Rain. More Kubrick: The Killing, Paths of Glory, Spartacus, Dr. Strangelove, The Shining.

Tomorrow: Part 5.

Your New Year's Resolution: A Movie A Week (Part 3 of 7)

To read Part 1, click here. Read Part 2 here.

Have you ever noticed how much romantic comedy and film noir have in common? They're basically light and dark sides of the same coin — beautiful people doing stupid things for reasons they can't quite comprehend. If at the end they get married, it's romantic comedy. They die? Film noir.

I mean, look at The Philadelphia Story and Out of the Past. One is a classic rom-com, the other is the quintessential noir. But if you look at their plots from outer space, they're the same story — a jilted lover falls back into the orbit of the woman who ruined his life. One ends in marriage, the other in rivers of blood.

Seriously. Check them out.

The Grapes of Wrath (1940). Social Drama. Okies from Muskogee head to California in search of the American Dream. Dir. John Ford. Starring Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine. More Ford: Stagecoach, They Were Expendable, My Darling Clementine, Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, The Quiet Man, The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence.

The Philadelphia Story (1940). Romantic Comedy. A snooty blueblood juggles three men on the eve of her wedding. Dir. George Cukor. Starring Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart, Cary Grant, Ruth Hussey, Virginia Weidler. More Cukor: Dinner at Eight, Holiday (1938), The Women, Gaslight, Adam's Rib, A Star Is Born (1954), My Fair Lady.

Citizen Kane (1941). Drama. A wealthy publishing magnate gets — and loses — everything he ever wanted. Dir. Orson Welles. Starring Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Everett Sloane. More Welles: The Magnificent Ambersons, The Stranger, The Lady From Shanghai, The Third Man (actor), Touch of Evil, Chimes at Midnight, A Man for All Seasons (actor).

The Maltese Falcon (1941). Crime Mystery. A private detective pries a priceless black bird loose from a swell lot of thieves while searching for his partner's killer. Dir. John Huston. Starring Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Elish Cook, Jr. More Huston: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Key Largo, The Asphalt Jungle, The African Queen, Heaven Knows Mr. Allison, The Night of the Iguana, Chinatown (actor), The Man Who Would Be King.

Sullivan's Travels (1941). Screwball Comedy. A Hollywood director, longing to make a "serious" picture, hits the road in search of the real America. Dir. Preston Sturges. Starring Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, William Demarest. More Sturges: Easy Living (writer), The Great McGinty, The Lady Eve, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, Hail the Conquering Hero.

Casablanca (1942). War Romance. A cynical saloon keeper bumps into Nazis and his ex-girlfriend in war-torn Morocco. Dir. Michael Curtiz. Starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Dooley Wilson, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, S.Z. Sakall. More Curtiz: Captain Blood, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Angels with Dirty Faces, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Mildred Pierce, White Christmas.

Now, Voyager (1942). Romance. A dowdy spinster wriggles out from under her mother's thumb and finds love and a decent wardrobe. Dir. Irving Rapper. Starring Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Gladys Cooper. More Davis: The Petrified Forest, Jezebel, Dark Victory, The Little Foxes, The Man Who Came to Dinner, All About Eve, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte.

Double Indemnity (1944). Film Noir. An insurance salesman commits murder mostly just to see if he can get away with it. Dir. Billy Wilder. Starring Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson. More Wilder: Ninotchka (writer), Ball of Fire (writer), Five Graves to Cairo, The Lost Weekend, Sunset Boulevard, Ace in the Hole, Stalag 17, Sabrina, Witness for the Prosecution, Some Like It Hot, The Apartment.

Out of the Past (1947). Film Noir. A private eye falls in love with a woman fleeing her gangster boyfriend. Dir. Jacques Tourneur. Starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas. More Film Noir: The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity, Laura, Murder My Sweet, Detour, Scarlet Street, The Killers, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Crossfire, Kiss of Death, The Lady from Shanghai, The Big Clock, Champion, They Live By Night, The Set-Up, White Heat, Sunset Boulevard, Gun Crazy, In a Lonely Place, His Kind of Woman, The Narrow Margin, The Big Heat, Pickup on South Street, Kiss Me Deadly, The Night of the Hunter, Sweet Smell of Success.

The Third Man (1949). British Noir. A bumptious American writer searches for his pal's killer in post-war Vienna. Dir. Carol Reed. Starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, Trevor Howard. More British Movies: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Henry V, Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes, Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Lavender Hill Mob.

Tomorrow: Part 4.