“The Bishop’s Wife” (released Feb. 16, 1948), one of the prominent contenders for best Christmas movie of the century and certainly a film studded with three of the biggest Hollywood stars of all time, is clearly a a forbidden love story. Hold on to your string of pearls. Egad! You mean the story of how […]
J.P. Devine
On the Edge: The one about the shoes
When you live long enough, J.P. Devine writes, your pockets are full of Christmas stories like the shoe fund for actors who only have sneakers.
‘A Castle for Christmas’ something to brighten your tree
Oh my goodness and golly gee, June Allyson and Van Johnson are back, and just in time to save your Christmas Eve. Of course, it’s not really June Allyson and Van Johnson, who made six movies together, because they’re both on the “other side” in Hollywood Heaven watching over us. But if they were here, […]
‘Don’t Look Up’ full of biggest stars, best talents
We meet Kate Dibiasky, a brilliant semi-nerdy astronomy grad student who spends her days looking up into space. One day, she accidentally spots a planet-killing comet the size of Russia, making a beeline for Earth. Oh sure, It’s Lisa Kudrow finally breaking out into a … Wait. That’s not Lisa Kudrow in a for-sure Lisa […]
‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ — the best of Christmas movies
Frank Capra’s great film released in 1946, at its heart, a love story. It’s about family and the way we overcome disasters and hardships. It’s about hiding from love, until one night, love finds you. OK, any argument here? You’ve seen it one trillion times, and every time you see it, you see something new. […]
On the Edge: The Tinsel
Recalling how his brother Kermit loved tinsel, J.P. Devine hears whispers of the past.
‘Curtiz’ reminds reviewer that watching the making of anything is usually boring
In Netflix’s black and white Hungarian film “Curtiz” we are introduced to one of Hollywood’s most notorious film makers of the past- Micheal Curtiz (played here by Ferenc Lengyel). Curtiz was a Hungarian refugee who acted and directed myriad films in his native country after WWI, and then fled Europe in 1926 to come to […]
Perfectly cast group returns in ‘Slow Horses’
In a time of sex, gore, vampires and endless Jeopardy winners, the masterful “Slow Horses” is more than welcome back. This British contemporary spy thriller, based on the 11th book in the “Lamb” series by writer Mick Herron, (whose background is currently being featured in the Dec. 5 issue of New Yorker Magazine) is back […]
On the Edge: Santa Claus is coming
Christmas memories and a surprise spring forth from a box containing yellowing songbooks with the “standards,” J.P. Devine writes.
Yellowstone’s Duttons are mad, bad and dangerous to know
This is for those who forgot to set their alarm for the season 4 opening when it premiered. When master writer/actor and director of “Yellowstone,” threw us off the Peacock bus last season, John Dutton was laying by the side of a deserted road, bleeding to death. John (the indestructible Kevin Costner) must have taken […]