Sunday Matinée at Market Chess Cinemas

23Apr7:24 pmEST

Saturday Night at Market Chess Cinemas

Geoffrey Rush's performance, for which he won the Best Actor Oscar, on a standalone basis makes Shine (1996) worth seeing. Rush would rise to a more prominent status in Hollywood after this role, as pianist David Helfgott, who makes a riveting comeback to the piano after enduring a breakdown at a younger age. This film is based on the...

17Apr12:44 pmEST

Sunday Matinée at Market Chess Cinemas

Devil in a Blue Dress (1995) combines one of my favorite writers, directors, film genres all together for an enjoyable viewing. The genre is technically a neo-film noir, stylish and sharp and harkening back to Hollywood yesteryear, directed by Carl Franklin (of One False Move fame). The film is based on Walter Mosley's novel of the same name...

09Apr10:19 pmEST

Saturday Night at Market Chess Cinemas

A new Major League Baseball season underway is good enough reason for me to recommend one of my all-time personality favorites, Eight Men Out (1988). We have looked at the work of auteur John Sayles before, with Lone Star (1996). But this one really brought his career into focus and earned him considerable respect in Hollywood in the...

02Apr9:20 pmEST

Saturday Night at Market Chess Cinemas

Rushmore (1998) is a light-hearted but sharp-tongued original comedy, starring Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman as the memorable Max Fischer. I have great memories of the film, as I saw it in a packed theater right when it was released while I was in college, with a spirited crowd roaring to each scene. Directed by Wes Anderson and...

26Mar8:53 pmEST

Saturday Night at Market Chess Cinemas

I just finished watching the first two seasons of Bosch , a television series produced by Amazon Studios. Based on three of Michael Connelly’s novels: City of Bones, Echo Park, and The Concrete Blonde, Bosch is incredibly impressive on many levels and is not your run-of-the-mill detective drama (of which there are plenty these days). Titus...

20Mar12:46 pmEST

Sunday Matinée at Market Chess Cinemas

Nearly twenty-five years later, I can vividly remember sitting in a theater being mesmerized by the cinematography in the film, A River Runs Through It (1992). Based on the true story of Norman Maclean’s life in Missoula, Montana, Robert Redford directs a gripping period piece about fly fishing and the different paths that two brothers take...

13Mar11:09 amEST

Sunday Matinée at Market Chess Cinemas

Mad Dog and Glory (1993) is an intriguing comedy/drama mostly because Robert De Niro and Bill Murray go against type in a major way. As we see their surprising role reversal unfold, De Niro plays a shy, lonely police crime scene photographer, while Murray is a hot shot, yet goofy wannabe stand up comic, mafia boss. De Niro’s character saves...

06Mar12:46 pmEST

Sunday Matinée at Market Chess Cinemas

A bit of a sleeper from the 1990s is Above the Rim (1994), starring Duane Martin, the late-Tupac Shakur, the late-Bernie Mac, Marlon Waylans, and the always underrated Leon. The late Jeff Pollack, who was co-creator, writer, and producer of the 1990's Will Smith NBC TV sitcom "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air," also wrote and directed this film. ...

27Feb10:52 pmEST

Saturday Night at Market Chess Cinemas

Tomorrow night will mark the 88th Academy Awards ceremony, an annual tradition which has, frankly, lost a bit of the mystique it once had. One main reason for the loss of mystique is the general migration of top of the line talent from the big screen to television/streaming series over the last decade or so. But beyond that, Hollywood in...

21Feb12:01 pmEST

Sunday Matinée at Market Chess Cinemas

Available on Netflix, The Heavy Water War (original title Kampen om tungtvannet and alternative title The Saboteurs (UK)) is a six-episode TV miniseries produced by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. Thus far, I like what I see. And I believe it is well worth the viewing for the interesting tidbit of historical tensions between Norway...

14Feb11:56 amEST

Sunday Matinée at Market Chess Cinemas

Regardless of your political affiliations, one thing is certain: As we move throughout this year politics will become increasingly prominent on the national stage headed into the November 2016 general election. With this in mind, an excellent documentary/biography to watch is Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story (2008). Viewers from all...

06Feb9:21 pmEST

Saturday Night at Market Chess Cinemas

Serpico (1973) is one of those iconic films from the 1970s, starring Al Pacino as a gutsy New York cop who serves as a whistleblower to corruption on the force at the expense of any semblance of minor peace and harmony. This film is based on a true story. Legendary director Sidney Lumet captures the bad bravery which the real-life Frank...

31Jan11:53 amEST

Sunday Matinée at Market Chess Cinemas

One-Eyed Jacks (1961) is probably not at the very top of list of films starring Marlon Brando which immediately comes to mind for many people. But it is certainly worth a viewing, as Brando wound up directing the picture after Stanley Kubrick was fired. In fact, this is Brando's only film which he directed. The film is largely centered around...

24Jan11:39 amEST

Sunday Matinée at Market Chess Cinemas

On this NFL Championship Sunday in the dead of winter, return to a film which I recommended several years back, Everybody’s All American (1988). But it is certainly worth suggesting again, especially since I suspect many have not watched it. I consider this one a classic, and it is easily my favorite football movie of all-time, accurately...