Raquel Stecher

Set in 1960s Boston, Eileen stars Thomasin McKenzie as the title character, an assistant working at a juvenile detention center. Eileen spends her days taking care of odds and ends at the prison and her nights by taking care of her alcoholic and emotionally abusive father. When psychologist Rebecca (Anne Hathaway) joins the prison staff, Eileen is smitten. Rebecca is blonde, well-dressed, well-mannered and speaks in a lilting Mid-Atlantic accent. Eileen and Rebecca form a close bond that turn...

It all started with a pinky finger. One day Michael J. Fox noticed one of his pinky fingers was randomly twitching. That twitch progressed to more involuntary movements in his body. His body became something foreign to him. Something he was fighting against instead of working with. The loss of control was worrisome. In 1991 when Fox was 29 years old, he was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson’s, a degenerative disease that affects body movements. He spent the next several years hiding his co...

Saúl (Gael García Bernal) is a gay wrestler who performs for his local lucha libre matches. Wanting to evolve from his typical role as a El Topo, he develops the persona of Cassandro, a flamboyant “exótico” whose feminine energy taunts his more macho luchador opponents in the ring. Exóticos usually elicit boos from the audience and ultimately lose the match. But Cassandro wants to change that. As Saúl/Cassandro works with a new trainer on his skills, he grapples with his relationship with his...

“Cults are living creatures that feed on people’s anxieties. If you are too pure and sincere, you may end up in a place that is different from where you had set out to be in the first place.”
In the 1980s, Japan experienced an occult boom, an after effect of the Cold War and a result of the growing disenchantment in the country’s government. It was during this time that self-imposed guru Shoko Asahara transformed his yoga school into a doomsday cult: Aum Shinrikyo (“Supreme Truth”). Hundreds ...

Actress and model Brooke Shields achieved a level of fame that is unparalleled today. From the late 1970s and through the 1980s, Shields was a recognized face on television, film and advertising. From adolescence she was considered one of the most beautiful girls in the world. Unfortunately, this lead to her becoming one of the most sexualized children in all of entertainment history. Shields garnered controversy with her ad campaign with Calvin Klein and provocative roles in films like Prett...

8 Movies | Saturdays in February
TCM celebrates Black History Month with eight masterworks of Black cinema. From the obscure to the highly regarded, these films represent the important roles Black actors and filmmakers played over the course of film history as well as their cultural influence. They’re also indicative of the ongoing struggle to break from stereotype to get complex and nuanced stories out to the public.
Coming of Age
Cooley High (1975) is a touchstone film that broke the mold i...

Telly Savalas was a 20th Century icon. With his deep voice, his bald head and his swagger, Savalas would often be seen in a slim suit with a lollipop in his mouth uttering his famous tagline “who loves ya, baby?” It was all part of his image, one that earned him the nickname “the Golden Greek” and also acquired him legions of fans for his hit television show Kojak.
And before Kojak, he had successful film acting career with plenty of strong supporting roles opposite some of the biggest names ...

This year we celebrate the 75th anniversary of films from 1948. It was a tumultuous year for the film industry.
The threat of communism had a chokehold on Hollywood and the blacklist would soon put talented actors and filmmakers out of work (or in jail).
Televisions were quickly becoming a household staple. By mid-1948, more than 350,000 households owned a television; that number would skyrocket to 2 million by the end of the year. That meant that the industry had to work harder to lure peopl...

Clara (Penelope Cruz) and Felice (Vincenzo Amato) move their family, including their three young kids, to a new apartment building. It’s the 1970s and the city of Rome is in flux. New construction attracts wealthy families and transient workers who live almost side by side. On the other side of the reeds outside the new apartment building, Adriana (Luana Giuliani), who now goes by the name Andrew, meets Sara (Penelope Nieto Conti), a young Romani girl. Sara accepts Andrew as a boy and they fo...

This crowd pleaser will have viewers reaching for the tissues. Directed by Christopher Zalla, Radical is based on the true story of Sergio Juárez Correa, a teacher from Matamoros, Mexico who made a huge impact on the sixth grade students at Jose Urbina Elementary School. Eugenio Derbez stars as Sergio, a newcomer to the area who has a “radical” teaching methodology. When he takes over the sixth grade class of an impoverished school, he throws all the rules out the window. His unconventional m...

“I let it all hang out… every bit.”
Little Richard
Little Richard was a Rock ‘n’ Roll icon. He called himself the “brown Liberace” but really he couldn’t be compared with anyone else. He was a groundbreaking in his delivery and had a style all his own. He rocked a pencil thin mustache, a tall bouffant and his signature wardrobe. Songs like Good Golly Miss Molly, Tutti Frutti and Long Tall Sally have become bonafide classics. But Little Richard was never really given his due for just how influ...

Office worker Fran (Daisy Ridley) lives a simple and quiet life. Her days consist of work, cottage cheese, glasses of wine and Sudoku. She’s painfully shy which makes partaking in office culture, her only social sphere, all that more awkward. During quiet moments she daydreams about death, imagining the various ways her dead body could be discovered. Things change when Robert (Dave Merheje) joins the office. He’s sociable, funny and he’s taken an interest in Fran. Thus begins a courtship that...

The hybrid Sundance Film Festival kicked off this week. I’ll be attending virtually with coverage on a variety of feature films and documentaries. In the meantime, let’s kick off my coverage with some of my favorite short films from this year’s Sundance line-up.
Inglorious Liaisons
directed by Chloé Alliez and Violette Delvoye
Starting off with my favorite from this year’s festival, Inglorious Liaisons is a superb stop-animation short about attraction and expectation. Youths convene at a part...

Limited edition exclusive booklet with a new essay by Raquel Stecher, archival interviews with director Frank Capra, archival set reports, an overview of contemporary critical responses, and full film credits

Merriam-Webster recently announced that their Word of the Year for 2022 is Gaslighting: “the act or practice of grossly misleading someone especially for one’s own advantage.” Did you know that the term Gaslighting comes from a movie? It’s one of many words that originated from film history and have become a part of our everyday lexicon.
In some cases, these words helped describe something that would otherwise go unnamed or would require a longer phrase to describe. In other cases, they were ...