Raquel Stecher

In the years right before the pandemic, indie movies were having a moment. There have been many indie gems released during the years of 2015 to 2019 that I personally consider that era a mini-golden age of independent filmmaking. Each of these movies have an interesting take on storytelling, an unusual concept or offer a unique perspective you’ll be hard pressed to find elsewhere. While I watched many upon release, I’ve been using my DVD Netflix account to catch up on indie movies from that t...

Noir Bar
Cocktails Inspired by the World of Film Noir
by Eddie Muller
TCM and Running Press
Hardcover ISBN: 9780762480623
May 2023
248 pages
Amazon — Barnes and Noble — Larry Edmund's — Powell's
“Noir Bar offers a booze-based excursion through America’s most popular film genre, pairing easy-to-master recipes with the kind of behind-the-scenes anecdotes I like to include in my film intros and books.... This book is designed to be a drinking companion for anyone taking a deep dive into the glam...

For 16 year old Jaime (Anwen O’Driscoll), life will never be the same. When her father dies suddenly of a heart attack, her distraught mother sends her from their home in Thunder Bay, Ontario to Montreal, Quebec to stay with her aunt Beth (Liane Balaban) and uncle Jean-Francois (Antoine Yared). They are devout Jehovah’s Witnesses and Jaime must attend religious services with them if she’s going to live with them. At the Kingdom Hall Jamie meets Marike (June Laporte), a fellow teenager who imm...

"On February 4th, 1961, a group of militants set out from Sambizanga, a working-class district in Luanda, intending to storm the capital's prison. At the same time, they gave the signal for the armed struggle for national independence that has engulfed Angola ever since. But for years before that day, thousands of fighters in the villages and towns had braved the police's reign of terror, patiently paving the way for insurrection and organizing a clandestine network of political movements. An...

One of the most precious things we have is our memory. It connects us to our past and informs our present. Our memory is integral to how we function in our every day, and the loss of it is incredibly devastating.
Memory loss — whether it be amnesia, dementia, or Alzheimer’s disease — has become an invisible villain in many films dating back to the early days of cinema. As a plot device, it gives the protagonist something they either must struggle to overcome or a battle to which they will ult...

This May on TCM, we’re celebrating the work of groundbreaking cinematographer James Wong Howe. In this episode of Film 101, we explore how his techniques transformed cinema, the personal and professional obstacles he had to overcome, and why his work on films such as ‘He Ran All the Way’ (1951), ‘Picnic’ (1955), ‘Sweet Smell of Success’ (1957), and ‘Hud’ (1963) are celebrated to this day.

"You must love what you do. I like to work because then I feel alive.” — Gina Lollobrigida
The Most Beautiful Woman in the World. The Temptress of the Tiber. The Italian Jayne Mansfield. La Lollo. Internationally renowned actress Gina Lollobrigida went by many nicknames. She rose to fame as an Italian sex-symbol during the post-World War II era when Italy was enjoying a cultura...

Monday, April 17 | 3 Films
The Rat Pack were the coolest cats of mid-Century pop culture. A collective spearheaded by Frank Sinatra and consisting of Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop as members, this powerhouse group of entertainers were carefree and at ease with their talents and celebrity. The members dominated the nightclub scene, popular movies and variety shows. About the group’s appeal journalist Ronald Br...

As Warner Bros. celebrates its 100th anniversary, we examine the studio's key role in the creation of the gangster genre with classics like 'Little Caesar' (1931) and 'The Public Enemy' (1931) and how they connect to the studio's modern efforts like 'Goodfellas' (1990) and 'The Departed' (2006).

In Part One, we explored commonly used words with cinematic origins. Most notably we looked at the word “gaslighting,” which Merriam-Webster announced as their Word of the Year for 2022 and originates from the costume drama Gaslight (1944). Gaslight is just one of many words that have become part of our everyday lexicon thanks to the movies that defined them.
Now let’s look at some commonly used words and phrases that came from more recent movies.
Red Pill/Blue Pill
Wikipedia: Red Pill/Blue P...

Jason Bailey & Michael Hull
“Fun City Cinema” hosts Jason Bailey and Mike Hull proudly present “A Very Good Year,” a new podcast with a simple premise:... more
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Episodes
1949 with Raquel Stecher
Raquel Stecher has spent most of her career writing about classic movies, so it doesn't come as a shock that... more
1980 with April Wright
April Wright is our favorite kind of documentary filmmaker, because she makes movies about movies. Her latest, “Back to the Drive-In”... more
19 Mar ...

Directed by James Adolphus and co-produced by Lena Waithe, Being Mary Tyler Moore is a new documentary that shines a spotlight on one of the most influential and iconic women of the 20th Century. The impact of Mary Tyler Moore on the entertainment industry cannot be understated. She really molded the image of the modern American woman with her performances in The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. She became a household name and a role model for independent working women. Behin...

PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri) are bonded by their lifelong friendship and shared experience as lesbian misfits at their high school. They both have their eye on cheerleaders Isabel (Havana Rose Liu) and Brittany (Kaia Gerber). Their awkwardness becomes a roadblock in their quest to get laid. When Josie injures Jeff (Nicholas Galitzine), the star of the football team and an idol on campus, her crush Isabel is impressed. PJ and Josie soon concoct a plan. They start a girls-only fi...

Technology is changing our every day lives and a rapid-fire pace. We live at the pace of social media and the intersection between the real world and the internet became even more enmeshed than ever before. The power of the internet is inescapable.
The COVID pandemic brought on a level of digital disruption that had real world ramifications. R/Wallstreetbets became a gathering place for average folks to become retail investors. They turned GameStop ($GME) and AMC ($AMC) into meme stocks creat...

Growing up in a tight-knit and ultra-religious community hasn’t been easy for 17 year old Jem Starling (Eliza Scanlen). Her elders, including her mother Heidi (Wrenn Schmidt), wield shame over the youth as a way to control them. It seems like everything Jem does, regardless of intent, draws attention to her body in a way that’s sinful. She struggles to connect with other members of the community until 28 year old youth pastor Owen (Lewis Pullman) comes back into town. Owen briefly fled his lo...