Oh So Geeky

Biopics is one of the trickiest genres. Directors aim to pay homage to someone they admire or whose work speaks to them. But if a film exerts too much creative freedom, the story blurs lines between  fiction and reality. If creative pursuits are limited too much, reading a Wikipedia page would be more exciting. For an American icon like Judy Garland, there's more than enough exaggerated lore director Rupert Goold's Judy could've pulled from. And yet for the first time since the last salacious profile, the film finds a good balance between exploring the myth of Judy and showing the real side of her. Based on Peter Quilter’s play End of the Rainbow , Judy covers the last year of the legend's rollercoaster life. Facing homelessness, bankruptcy, and a custody battle for her children, Judy Garland (Renee Zellweger) takes on a five-week engagement of sold-out shows at London's Talk of the Town. As she grapples with one more comeback and falls head over heels for a s...

The love between two artists surrounded in the midst of fame is a quintessential theme in cinema. But there's no other longstanding saga in Tinseltown than  A Star Is Born : the tragic romance of a young starlet who is discovered by a legendary veteran; as the newbie's star ascends, the other one falls into oblivion. With the massive attention director Bradley Cooper's version is bringing to the older renditions, I thought it's the perfect time to rank the series from least favorite to favorite. Which A Star Is Born film is your favorite? Let me know in the comments below!

When one thinks about the intriguing elements of Alfred Hitchcock's filmography, the abundance of "icy blondes" he utilized throughout his career is hard to ignore. He worked with a myriad of starlets like Tippi Hedren, Janet Leigh, and Kim Novak, establishing them as femme fatales and victims on-screen. In celebrating Halloween by watching Rear Window , Grace Kelly's role as Lisa Freemont felt like a great character to highlight for  my Wonder Women series . Elegant and tenacious Grace Kelly dazzles in the classic thriller about an injured photographer L.B "Jeff" Jeffries (played by James Stewart) who's cocooned in his apartment and starts spying on his neighbors. Getting caught up in their own imaginations and theories, they suspect a grizzly murdered took place just across the street and try to prove their accusations to the authorities. Throughout his career Hitchcock examined the themes of a seemingly perfect crime, and the morals that came al...

Directed by Busby Berkeley, known for his intricate choreography and majestic set pieces, creates a smaller-scale movie completely unattached to his typical extravaganzas. Recognized as a musical first, For Me And My Gal i s also an underrated war movie. Fairly different from propaganda movies at the time, this film it didn't encourage joining the efforts or examining the effects of the military for veterans. As a budding vaudevillian act, song and dance duo Jo Hayden (Judy Garland) and Henry Palmer (Gene Kelly) slowly fall in love as they tour the U.S.  in pursuit of making it to the big time. As World War I commences, and Palmer schemes his way to avoid the draft, breaking away from their dreams to perform at the front-lines threatens to tear them apart. Released during a year where the most hailed film was  Casablanca,  this drama-musical subtly touches on showbiz and the war, and those who served their country or tried to evade service. Berkeley...

Photo Credit: Feud / 20th Television Having set a precedent for award-winning and binge-worthy shows, Ryan Murphy knows what it takes to make a drama. His latest creation Feud tackles notorious rivalries throughout history. It was fitting the first one tackles Joan Crawford and Bette Davis' famously bitter showdown. After becoming Classic Hollywood screen queens, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis aged like the rest of humanity. With younger, hipper generations growing up on television as the studio system fell apart, their careers suffered dry spells. When Crawford initiated a project of two cruel sisters harboring jealousy and secrets in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane , the claws came out. On-screen and behind-the-scenes, a real showdown was ignited between the duo by the studio and publicity hounds. Legend has it that the two hated each other. Speculation around this rivalry float in every which direction, it’s hard to tell what’s the truth or was fictionalized. Adding more...

Photo Credit: Rome Adventure / Warner Bros. New England librarian Prudence Bell (Suzanne Pleshette) resigns from her school after she's criticized for recommending a racy book Lovers Must Learn as part of the curriculum. Yearning for independence and navigating the art of love, a cruise to Italy introduces more courtships than she expected - Albert Stillwell, a nerdy student of Etruscan history, older perfect Roman lover Roberto Orlandi (personally my favorite), and a perfect hunky All-American Don Porter (Troy Donahue). As a melodramatic journey of 1960s morals about love, sex, and chivalry, Rome Adventure is a picturesque romantic drama. Trailing the ingenue through her experiences, the movie travels at a leisurely pace. Using Europe as a captivating backdrop, Bell weaves in and out of the nooks of crannies of not only the country but desire, attraction, and friendship. Beyond the geographical and human eye-candy of the male co-stars, Suzanne Pleshette is absolutely cha...

Entering the film world in college, I expected to hob-knob with classmates over movies we loved, hated, seen recently, and so on. Disappointingly, I realized so many students don't actually like or even love movies - or if they do, so many have only seen newer releases from the past five, maybe ten years. Even more disappointing, is that teachers, as well as student, had a distaste for Classic Hollywood films, mostly because they are just old. The disturbing trend about film is that apparently, it has an expiration date. Anything beyond 2005, or 2000, or sustains a  Star Wars -like reputation, is not worthy or interesting to watch. In and out of the classroom what is disheartening is not only the lack of interest in classic films but the disconnection of what they are: out of date, not worthwhile, useless. So, I'd like to put an end to the stigma about older films with these simple steps. 1. Don't Add 'Well It is OLD'. With Facebook status posts and tweets ...

Turner Classic Movie channel airs classic films from the inception of cinema to the early 1980s - uncut and commercial free. In August every day is dedicated to a unique movie star with a 24-hour marathon. August 1st may center around Vivien Leigh, August 2nd Elvis Presley, and so on. My mother raised me with Classic Hollywood film, but mainstream entertainment is a passion too. It's nearly impossible to divide which era of Hollywood is favorable or better because I "live" in both worlds. This often brings up the question: which actors from today, or near-today's, film generation may be featured in the future. Currently, TCM's selection of films revolves around old Hollywood with varying degrees of recent movies that earned recognition at the Academy Awards. As I grow older, I hope their collection expands including modern films which still upholds what it means to be a time-honored classic and is worthy enough to be on their programming. Tons of favorite ac...