New Look & New Content

I recently gave Cinebeats a  makeover. I've also begun the arduous task of moving 7 years of film writing for TCM/FilmStruck (some 400+ articles) to my blog but it's going to take me months to complete the task. Like many others, I was also knocked for a loop when Photobucket decided to charge users $400 a …

Blog Redesign

The new blog redesign is now live. I'm still working out some bugs and you can expect a few more minor tweaks in the coming weeks but hope you like the new cleaner look. It should look better on most mobile devices and I've updated the About Cinebeats page with more info about who I …

Admission is Free at The Phantom Playhouse!

To celebrate Shocktober & the upcoming 10th anniversary of this blog I decided to create an extension of Cinebeats called The Phantom Playhouse devoted exclusively to horror cinema and all things dark, dreary, decadent and delightful. Horror has always been my favorite film genre and I write about it more than any other subject so …

The National Film Registry: Little Big Man (1970)

I was recently honored to be contacted by an employee of the Library of Congress who told me that my 2010 essay on Arthur Penn's controversial film LITTLE BIG MAN (1970) was selected by the National Film Preservation Board for inclusion in the National Film Registry. It was singled out as part of their ongoing work …

December at the Movie Morlocks

Links to my December 2014 posts at the TCM's Movie Morlocks: Holiday Greetings from The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come! Excerpt: "Dickens’ novella was first conceived as a political pamphlet designed to arouse the public’s compassion for the plight of the poor but to his credit, the writer realized his strength was in storytelling …

H.R. Giger 1940-2014

I was disappointed to learn that H.R. Giger has died at age 74. He was a brilliant man and one of my favorite artists. In recent years he was still active and his work has been on my mind a lot following the release of PROMETHEUS (2012). I hoped that we'd get the opportunity to …

Alain Resnais 1922-2014

“When men die, they enter history. When statues die, they enter art. This botany of death is what we call culture.” - (STATUES ALSO DIE; 1953) I was deeply saddened to wake up to the news that director Alain Resnais has died at age 91. Resnais has continued to make movies into his 90s and …

Happy New Year!

After a year long hiatus Cinebeats is back. I plan to start updating the blog regularly again so you can expect lots of new content in the future. My posts might be brief and only include a screen grab or a video but Cinebeats is alive once again and kicking. I decided to streamline the …

One Year & Many Ideas: Occupy Cinema

Today marks the one year anniversary of the Occupy Movement, as well as the Occupy Cinema Movement

Goodnight Phyllis, We Love You

I was disappointed to learn that Phyliss Diller had passed away last week so I devoted my recent Movie Morlocks post to her titled, Goodnight Phyllis, We Love You. Here's a brief excerpt from my post: The wife, mother and career woman who started life as Phyllis Ada Driver on July 17, 1917 didn’t share …

Mid-Century Living Is On the Move

Most of my regular blog readers are aware that I have another blog called Mid-Century Living where I share updates about my ongoing home restoration/renovation project as well as vintage Americana and other fun stuff. I recently moved Mid-Century Living over to WordPress so I could manage all my blogs easier and wanted to make …

The King of Comedy: Jerry Lewis at 86

My latest post at TCM's Movie Morlocks focuses on the controversial comedian Jerry Lewis who is celebrating his birthday tomorrow. From my post: "On Friday, March 16th, Jerry Lewis will be celebrating his 86th birthday. Jerry’s been on my mind a lot lately so I didn’t want to let the occasion pass without making note …

Davy Jones 1945 – 2012

Like millions of other young girls around the world I grew up with The Monkees. Their impact on me and my life was incredibly profound. They brought me and my girlfriends together when we were young and inspired us to want to form our own band but that's another story for another day. Today I …

The 84th Academy Awards

for Best ActorIt's awards season again and for the 4th year in a row I'll be "live tweeting" the Oscars over on Twitter. As usual, I haven't been able to see all the Best Picture nominees but in all honesty most of them hold little interest for me. I did see a lot of 2011 …

Favorite Older Films Seen in 2011

I was recently asked to compile a list of my 'Favorite Older Films Seen in 2011' for the Rupert Pupkin Speaks blog run by Brian Saur. I was happy to oblige because I saw a lot of great films last year and although I wrote about most of them, there are a few that I …