I'm in the middle of something brand-new in my life, teaching myself to play professional-level blackjack, and out of curiosity have decided to watch as many movies about gambling as I can possibly get my hands on. I thought I'd begin with the low-rated ones to get them out of the way, so have started with this stinker, which as an early warning sign stars a bunch of famous actors who are known for becoming uncontrollable hams when their directors…

Watched as part of the August 2018 Letterboxd Scavenger Hunt
My list | KB Burke's master list
23. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off - watch a film set in Chicago

Comparing the very first film ever made from a Saturday Night Live sketch, 1980's The Blues Brothers, to both subsequent SNL movies and subsequent Blues Brothers projects provides a great lesson about the history of both these franchises, and the way that increasing age and money can eventually sap any creative…

FILM SCHOOL DROPOUT: A 2017 year-long movie challenge
My list | Disgustipated's master list
Week 1: Pioneers of Film - Lumière Brothers, Georges Méliès and Alice Guy-Blaché

Unlike other forms of artistic output like painting, whose origins stretch all the way back to the forgotten realm of pre-history, we can put very specific dates on the beginnings of such modern artistic media as photography and filmmaking; in the former case, that's quite literally the year 1838 (the year the very…

FILM SCHOOL DROPOUT: A 2017 year-long movie challenge
My list | Disgustipated's master list
Week 12: Orson Welles

Ah, genius youth -- is there any greater curse? After a charmed early career in which he could literally do no wrong, first in live theater (where among other accolades he produced the first-ever all-black Shakespeare production on Broadway), and then radio (where his infamously realistic modern updating of War of the Worlds caused a national panic), the 24-year-old Welles then hit…