Raquel Stecher

The Academy Awards have evolved greatly since that first ceremony was held on May 16th, 1929 in the Blossom Ballroom of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. To quote the late, great Robert Osborne, who himself was the foremost expert on Oscar history, the early days were “a time of great changes everywhere, a dynamic period of transition.” And after the first decade, “the Academy Awards and the Academy itself had become prestigious parts of the film community.” Much of that first decade and beyond ...

100 Years of Movies Series - (1930s w/ Raquel Stecher)

Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar is celebrated around the world and for good reason. His films are bold yet nuanced and bursting with color. There is so much to extrapolate from his films—visually and thematically—that they beg to be watched more than once.
You can count on an Almodóvar film to explore identity, family, misogyny and sexuality all through the lens of the filmmaker’s unique style. His films are personal, self-referential and once you’ve entered the cinematic world of Almodóvar...

What happens when you’re more than ready for your next journey but life hasn’t caught up with you yet? Matt (Ed Helms) wants to have a baby. He’s 45 years old, a successful app developer, financially stable and emotionally ready for parenthood. The trouble is he doesn’t have a partner. Matt takes the next step and hires surrogate. Anna (Patti Harrison) is a 20-something barista who agrees to the arrangement so she can afford to go back to college. Parent and surrogate are supposed to remain e...

The Academy Awards has a long and complicated history of recognizing international films. The Best Foreign Language Film category, now the Best International Feature Film, was an attempt to rectify this and give international filmmakers, with films in languages other than English, an opportunity to earn the coveted Oscar statuette.
It all started with Conrad Nagel. He was one of the founding members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). When he and 35 fellow members of t...

I'm way overdue for another new book round-up. Better late than never! Get ready for a wave of new classic film books!
Are you new to my list? Here are the details. The books include biographies, memoirs, scholarly texts, coffee table books and more from a variety of publishers. Publication dates range from January to July 2021 and these are subject to change.
Links go to Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Powell's. I receive a small commission if you shop through some (not all) of my bu...

Youngstown, Ohio is a steel mill city on the Rust Belt that has seen a major decline over the past few decades. The mills closed and the subsequent loss of jobs sent its residents fleeing. For those left behind, they were faced with a crumbling infrastructure, an uptick in violence and crime and hundreds of vacant homes.
Directed by Karla Murthy, The Place That Makes Us spotlights a group of Youngstown residents seeking to transform their hometown. Filmed over the course of three years, the d...

What starts as an ordinary day for real estate agent Alex (Heston Horwin) quickly spirals out of control. While waiting for prospective clients, he hears gunshots in the distance. By chance he’s able to scare away a hit man, Kellin (Chase Cargill), from killing his target, Marakya (Michaella Russell). Alex ushers Marakya to safety only to discover that now he’s in grave danger. Marakya is a South African woman living in L.A. who unwillingly became part of a dangerous sex trafficking ring that...

You don’t have to be Catholic or to even be religious to be struck by Pope Francis’ brand of benevolence. He brings spiritual comfort to the masses, speaks out about ecological and economic abuses and travels to the far reaches of the planet to attend to global humanitarian crises. His handling of the church’s sex abuse scandals as well as his positions on gender in the church have brought him much criticism. But he’s not above humbling himself, apologizing for his wrongs and putting his word...

For Vada (Jenna Ortega), it was just an ordinary day at her high school. After a false alarm from her younger sister Amelia (Lumi Pollack), Vada hangs out in the bathroom with fellow student Mia (Maddie Ziegler), a beautiful Instagram dancer. They catch each other’s eye but that moment of flirtation is ripped away from them when they hear gunshots. A shooter causes chaos in the school, killing some and injuring others. Vada and Mia’s lives will never be the same again. After the shooting, Vad...

Directed by Rachel Fleit, Introducing, Selma Blair chronicles the actress’ battle with Multiple Sclerosis, an incurable disease that attacks the spinal cord and brain. Told through interviews, with Selma Blair herself and others, smartphone diaries and Instagram posts, the documentary puts a human face to this terrible disease. Blair was diagnosed in 2018 and has struggled with a variety of health and mobility issues ever since. In the film Blair is candid to a fault. It takes real vulnerabil...

Violet (Olivia Munn) is plagued by self-doubt. The Voice (Justin Theroux) is constantly reminding her of her insecurities, negating anything positive she thinks about herself and is sending her down path of self-destruction. As a high-powered executive in the film industry, this inhibits her from personal and professional growth and from achieving any form of happiness. It doesn’t help that past traumas, her mother’s neglect, her brother’s disdain and a failed relationship that ended in liter...

Patrick Pitsenbarger (Udo Kier), a retired hairdresser once known as The Liberace of Sandusky, is spending his final days in a nursing home. One day, a lawyer representing Pat’s former client, Rita Parker Sloan (Linda Carter), delivers the news to Pat that Rita has passed on. In her will has requested Pat to do her hair for her funeral and has set aside $25,000 for payment. Given the fact that Pat still harbors bitter feelings towards Rita, he at first refuses. Many years ago, Rita left his s...

Director Jeremy Ungar and Ivaylo Getov’s new documentary Soy Cubana spotlights four talented women as they travel from Cuba to the US to perform. It also gives viewers offers a window into modern day Cuba. Vocal Vidas is a Cuban acapella quartet made up of Ana Josefina Hernández (Soprano), Maryoris Mena Faez (Contralto-Bass), Koset Muñoa Columbié (Mezzo-Soprano) and Annia del Toro Leyva (Contralto). Together their harmonies are magical. Through song they share various cultures and traditions ...

irected by Alexandria Jackson, Sophie and the Baron is a sweet documentary about an intergenerational friendship that developed into a unique artistic collaboration. Baron Wolman was Rolling Stone’s first chief photographer. Throughout the 1970s he captured iconic images of Woodstock and performers like Johnny Cash, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, just to mention the Js! Sophie Kipner is an artist who specializes in blind contouring. For Wolman photograph was a means of quieting the chaos. For Kipner, blind drawing was a way to get out of the way of her own artistic expression. Th