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Ask Carrie Rickey
Inquirer Film Critic
Carrie Rickey, an Inquirer film critic since 1986, was born in L.A. around the time the Jennifer Jones/Laurence Olivier movie Carrie hit screens. Hence her name. Since then she's seen more than 12,000 films without losing her love of movies -- or wordplay. But don't envy her job too much. She has to sit through the likes of Battlefield Earth just so she can warn you not to.
Read Carrie Rickey's recent columns
Most Recent Questions & Answers
Q1) Any news about a rescheduled date (or not) for the Town Forum at the Showcase at the Ritz?
2) Will you be at Telluride? Would love to talk movies.
nancy, somerdale, NJ 07/22/07
A
Nancy,
Don't know if you read the Wall Street Journal or NY Times, but their business sections have been full of stories about a schism betweem Sumner Redstone and his daughter, which may be the reason she postponed the Town Forum.
Much as I love Telluride, the most intimate and best programmed of film festivals, it's time-intensive to get there and its timing -- Labor Day QWeekend -- makes it hard for parents of school age children to be home for their kids to make a transition into the school year.
Besr,
Carrie
Carrie Rickey
QCarrie:
Ever see a movie years ago but you can't recall a title? I remember bits and pieces of a movie but I can't remember the title? please help me identify this one.
A man accidentally but tragically hits a kid with his car. The child's mother witnesses the accident. The man drives away (Hit and Run). The child dies and the mother seeks revenge. I think at first she spray paints "Murderer" on his garage. This man, who has a family of his own and is never caught by police is tracked down by this grieving mother and she kidnaps his child. I believe she threatens to harm his child until the man turns himself into the police.
I wanna say I saw this movie in the late 80's or early 90's. Do you know this film?
Regards, Ryan
Ryan, Warrington, PA 07/17/07
A
Ryan,
Wow. Totally stumped. Do any other Q & A readers recognize the plot?
Carrie Rickey
QHi Carrie,
Do you know the name of a movie in the mid to late 70's about a group of kids asking one of their friends to knock on a door and the man who answers shoots him. A woman in the movie is always saying one if by land and two if by sea. I've wanted to know the name for a while. Hope you can help.
Denise, Philadelphia, PA 06/20/07
ANo clue.Sorry.
Carrie Rickey
QHi Carrie,
I have enjoyed your film reviews and other columns since they began. (Won't tell you my age, but it's up there.) I enjoyed your recent article on gay subtexts in old movies (I've always had a suspicion about the "Gilda" guys.)
And I especially loved reading about one of my all time faves -- Ida Lupino, a truly talented and lovely star. It's a shame that she was overtaken by the others of her time because she surely could have acted rings around many (not all) of them. I suspect that she would have fared better had K. Hepburn not gotten all the roles in which she would have been excellent. I never understood Hepburn's appeal, always found her to be quite affected. Anyway, getting back to Lupino, I have been a fan ever since I was a child and my Mother, who loved movies, took me to all of them from the time I was an infant, I am told.
One of my favorites was -- and is -- "Road House" with Richard Widmark. Any chance I can find this on DVD? I used to see it once in a while on TV but not for years. Has the film been destroyed? If that is the case, I hope the Film Institute can restore it and many of the other great "B" movies of that time.
Thanks for your great reviews and articles.
Loretta Tedesco
Lorrie, North Wales, PA 06/07/07
A
Lorrie:
Thanks for the kind words. So happy you asked about "Road House," one of the defining Lupino films. Because TCM was limited to how many films they could use outside its library, they did not license it, though I know Mr. Osborne likes it as much as we do. Loved how Ida, as a club singer, always put her lit cigarettes on the piano while she warbled, leaving burns in the mahogany, and how Celeste Holm listening to Ida's unusual tone, observes, "That dame does more without a voice than any singer I ever heard." How true. Mr. Osborne says that Fox has restored "Road House" and that its re-release was a cinematic occasion in France.
Carrie
Carrie Rickey
QCarrie -
Did I read somewhere that the new owner of the Ritz 16 is going to hold a townhall style meeting?
nancy, PA 06/04/07
A
Yes, National Amusements is going to have a town hall meeting at the Showcase at the Ritz Center on June 27. I'm trying right now to ascertain if it's invitational (meaning that people who have sent letters to National Amusements will be invited) or open to anyone who wants to come.
Carrie Rickey
QHi, do you know the name of afilm that cam out in the late 70's or early 80's about a school teacher who was brain washed by a religious cult and how his family kidnapped him and hired someone to unbrain wash him thank you
izzy, NY 05/28/07
A
Izzy,
"Split Image" (1982) with Michael O'Keeffe. If he was a schoolteacher, I don't remember. I do remember that Karen Allen was the cute cultie who invites him to join and that James Woods was his deprogrammer.
Best,
Carrie Rickey
QGood Afternoon.
My name is Sanjay Patel and I am in the newspaper business and my title is Classified Manager as well as Job Fair Coordinator for all 78 publications in the Philadelphia Cluster. I an the best salesman at my company.
I am also a struggling artist and on the side I write stories/screenplays
for Television and Film which are very good but I do not have any connections or know where to send my work. Do you know what I should do next after writing my scripts and registering them/ or where I could send the finished product or even the synopsis for someone in the business to review?
Thanks for your time and I look forward to hear from, you.
Sincerely,
Sanjay Patel
Sanjay Patel, Lansdale, PA 05/27/07
A
Sanjay,
The best place to find out how to copyright your screenplay is the Writer's Guild of America. Go to its website for information. One good way to get your screenplays read is to enter screenwriting contests, The Greater Philadelphia Film Office (check out their website at http://film.org) sponsors an annual "Set in Philadelphia" contest for screenplays set in the region. You might also search the Internet for agents who represent screenwriters.
Best,
Carrie
Carrie Rickey
QCarrie, what do you think is the best way to become a film critic and make a career out it, without having to spend money on going to college?
Steve, Atco, NJ 05/25/07
A
Steve,
Education is essential, whether you're going to be a pipe-fitter, professor or film critic. But I wouldn't necessarily major in film. (I didn't. I did my undergraduate work in English and graduate work in art history.) Given that we live in an era when movie criticism is blogged, text-messaged, broadcast, podcast and printed, I would understand how to express my opinions across all these platforms. And that means knowing how to write for the ear, the eye and with concision. Best of luck,
Carrie
Carrie Rickey
QCarrie, I often agree with your assessments of movies, but to list "Semi-Tough" as one of your favorite sports flicks is just ridiculous. "Semi-Tough," the book by former Sports Illustrated writer Dan Jenkins, is hilarious. The movie of the same name is abysmal, and has little or no correlation to the book other than the appropriation of the characters' names.B
BJ, Drexel Hill, PA 05/09/07
A
Hey, BJ:
Never read the Dan Jenkins novel so I didn't compare my feelings about thebook with those about the movie. I just think it's a very nice satire of self-help -- especially EST -- that boasts defining performances by Kris Kristofersson, Jill Clayburgh and, most of all, Burt Reynolds. And wasn't that Ron Silver as the place kicker and Brian Dennehy as the linebacker?
Thanks for the post,
Carrie Rickey
QCarrie, Concerning the saga of the former Ritz Theater in Voorhees: "Showcase Cine Art at the Ritz Center" maintains the old Ritz' policy concerning children, and is (ostensibly) set aside for art films. Problem: Of their first offering of six films two, "Hot Fuzz," and "In The Land of Women" are clearly mainstream multiplex movies by any stretch of the imagination! Ouchh!
Don, University City, PA 05/05/07
A
Don,
Here we get into the very tricky semantic problem of what an "indie" is. Is it a film made by an artist on a shoestring budget and then picked up by a small distributor? Does the appellation also apply to a film made by a boutique division of the studios -- i.e. Sony Classics, Fox Searchlight, Universal Focus, Paramount Vantage, Warner Independent, divisions that one wag dubbed "the dependents"? If the latter is true, then "Hott Fuzz" and "In the Land of Women" make the cut. At the risk of sounding like Little Carrie Sunshine, let's thank the distribution gods that Landmark is bringing back Charles Burnett's awesome "Killer of Sheep" and foreign gems such as "Grbavica." Until proven wrong, I am going to presume that National Amusements doesn't want to alienate the Ritzheads it New Jersey and will program a slate that satisfies them.
Thanks for your continued advocacy of art and independent cinema,
Carrie
Carrie Rickey
