Category: movies

  • Walk of Fame Movies: Swing Time with Betty Furness

    The legs of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire in Swing Time.
    Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire in Swing Time.

    I could have gone my whole life without seeing Fred Astaire in blackface.

    Love & marriage in old movies is wild. “I met you three days ago. I love you! Let’s get married. Wait- you’re engaged to someone else? I guess I’ll marry this other guy. But now you’re not engaged anymore? Then I’ll marry you, and the guy I was engaged to will sing to celebrate our love!” Also: Rogers and Astaire never kiss. They often ALMOST kiss, but they never actually do it. Apparently this was a thing.

    Composite picture. On the left, a mockup of Betty Furness's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On the Right, a black and white portrait photo of Betty Furness.

    Betty Furness (1533 Vine Street, plus a television star at 6675 Hollywood Boulevard) plays Margaret, the woman who seems fine with her wedding being cancelled because her fiancee thought his pants needed cuffs. Furness move from acting into being a spokesperson for Westinghouse. That led to her becoming a consumer advocate, and then a reporter.

    Fediverse reactions

  • The Last Movie of 2025: Some Like It Hot with Pat O’Brien

    Joe E. Brown and Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot.
    Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot.

    Sneaking in a last movie of 2025 to wrap up my “Fake posters for every movie I see in 2025” project. My letterboxd list says I’ve seen 254, but my fake poster count is 258 so I’m missing something somewhere.

    What a great movie to end the year. It’s hilarious. Also: I never got why people were so enthralled by Marilyn Monroe. I get it.

    Composite image. On the left, a mockup of Pat O'Brien's star on the Walk of Fame. On the right, a black and white portrait of Pat O'Brien.

    Pat O’Brien (1531 Vine Street) plays a cop who manages to let a lot of people get shot. He was a very popular actor who appeared in over 100 films.

    My LAST FAKE POSTER is… pretty good. Not a favorite, but an acceptable end to the project.

    A fake poster for Some Like It Hot mimicking the poster for Silver Linings Playbook.

    I guess I should do some sort of “wrap-up/what’s next” post tomorrow so that all my imaginary fans aren’t left guessing about my next project.

    Fediverse reactions

  • Movie Pass Adventures: No Other Choice

    Lee Byung-un in NoOther Choice
    The family from No Other Choice.

    What a pleasure to get all the way to the end of the year and find a favorite movie. Dark and hilarious, with creative choices I’ve never seen before but instantly understood.

    I wrote roughly one billion words about the last movie I saw. Part of that is because bad movies are easier to write about, but it’s also because I don’t want to spoil this movie.

    Of course, that doesn’t mean I can’t make a silly fake poster based on a Charlton Heston zombie virus movie!

    A fake poster for No Other Choice mimicking the poster for The Omega Man.
    Fediverse reactions

  • Retro Movie Adventures: Smithereens

    Susan Berman and Richard Hell in Smithereens.
    Susan Berman and Richard Hell in Smithereens.

    What if Marty Supreme was about a woman in the 1980s punk scene, and she had no apparent talent?

    I used the poster for this movie for yesterday’s movie, so it seems fair to yesterday’s movie for today’s poster.

    A fake poster for Smithereens mimicking the poster for Song Sung Blue.
    Fediverse reactions

  • Walk of Fame Movies: The Godless Girl with Lina Basquette & Marie Prevost

    Mari Provost and Lina Basquette in The Godless Girl
    Eddie Quillan and Lina Basquette in The Godless Girl

    This is Cecil B. DeMille’s last silent movie, and it is weird and unintentionally hilarious. A student forms an underground atheist society at her school, which is apparently a crime.

    A title card reads "Under the State Law, the student responsible for this outrage is liable to imprisonment!"
    I guess this was before people had free speech.

    When the student body president brings a mob to disrupt a society meeting, a girl is killed. Then they go to prison (well, prison-like reform school), where they find love and she finds religion.

    The Godless Society has an excellent graphic department. Check this out:

    Black and white image of hands hold a pamphlet with a graphic of a snake labeled "The BIBLE" being cut in half by a sword labelled "ATHEISM." Text below the image reads "Join the Godless Society- Kill the Bible."
    Someone probably has a tattoo of this.
    Composite picture. On the left, a mockup of Marie Prevost's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On the Right, a black and white portrait photo of Marie Prevost.

    One of the best things about watching this was Marie Prevost (6201 Hollywood Boulevard). I watched a different, terrible movie with her earlier in the year, and it was refreshing to see her in a role that justified her having a Walk of Fame star.

    Composite picture. On the left, a mockup of Lina Basquette's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On the Right, a black and white portrait photo of Lina Basquette.

    Lina Basquette (1529 Vine Street) is the Godless Girl, who was loosely based on a real person. Basquette had quite a life. She had been married to Sam Warner (co-founder of Warner Bros.), and the rest of the family was upset because the Warners were Jewish and Basquette was Roman Catholic. When Sam died, Lina was pressured by Harry Warner to give up custody of her daughter so the child would be raised Jewish. The custody battle effectively blacklisted Basquette for a time. In the late 1930s she was flown to Germany meet with a German film studio and several Nazis, including Hitler. She claimed she kicked Hitler in the crotch when he hit on her, and that Hitler didn’t stop pestering her until she told him her grandfather was Jewish.

    And now, the fake poster. It’s hard to find fun movies with “God” or “Godless” in the title, so I went with “Girl.”

    A fake poster for The Godless Girl mimicking the poster for Funny Girl.
    Fediverse reactions

  • Movie Pass Adventures: Song Sung Blue

    Hate Hudson and Hugh Jackman in Song Sung Blue.
    Hate Hudson and Hugh Jackman in Song Sung Blue.

    Don’t go in expecting The Seventh Seal and you’ll have a good time. But be warned: the second half gets darker and weirder than you might expect. That’s what happens when you’re dealing with a mostly true story.

    I’ve never seen the source movie for today’s fake poster, but I’m planning to watch it right after I post this.

    A fake poster for Song Sung Blue mimicking the poster for Smithereens.
    Fediverse reactions

  • Movie Pass Adventures: The Secret Agent

    Wagner Moura in The Secret Agent.
    The cast of The Secret Agent.

    It’s kind of amazing to watch a movie and genuinely have no idea how it will end. This movie is nearly three hours long, and it felt like a tight 90 minute thriller. Bonus points t the people who made the trailer; it totally gets the feel of this film without spoiling it.

    Also: this movie made me realize that I absolutely would fall for someone disguising themselves with a wig or a mustache.

    There are surprisingly few decent resolution images available for this movie, so I picked a minimalist source poster and did some creative interpretation.

    A fake poster for The Secret Agent mimicking the poster for The Lobster.
    Fediverse reactions

  • Movie Pass Adventures: Marty Supreme

    Timothée Chalamet in Marty Supreme.
    Timothée Chalamet in Marty Supreme.

    Challenges I had watching this movie:

    1. The opening credits are shown over an egg getting fertilized, which is exactly what happens at the start of Look Who’s Talking.

    2. The protagonist is named Marty Mauser, which made me think of a comic book detective named Mike Mauser.

    The cover of the first issue of Michael Mauser, Private Eye.
    I’m guessing most people didn’t have this problem.

    3. Everyone in this movie is a jerk.

    I liked the movie- a lot- but I don’t think I need to watch it again any time soon.

    Oh, but I found a good poster to copy for this one!

    A poster for Marty Supreme mimicking the poster for Super Troopers.

    Fediverse reactions

  • Movie Pass Adventures: The Librarians

    Suzette Baker in The Librarians.
    A woman stand next to a sign reading "The Library Bill of Rights."

    Support your local librarians- they’re a good chance they’re being targeted for stopping censorship.

    And while you’re at it, support independent movie theaters! I saw this at The New Parkway Theater in Oakland, and it’s a completely different experience than seeing a movie at home or in a big chain theater. Go!

    It was hard to come up with a poster for this. Documentaries don’t have have the same structure as fiction films, so it’s hard to find a poster where the details line up. I ended up cheating a bit and using a teaser poster that doesn’t have any credits:

    A fake poster for The Librarians mimicking the poster for The Social Network.
    Fediverse reactions

  • Streaming Movie Adventures: Spinal Tap II: The End Continues

    Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, and Christopher Guest in Spinal Tap II: The End Continues.
    Rob Reiner in Spinal Tap II: The End Continues.

    The end of my three part “Stuck in a Hotel in San Francisco” mini movie festival. I hadn’t watched this because I was afraid it would be a depressing retread of the first film, but it actually has new jokes. The band is older. They’re not partying, they’re just rehearsing and reconnecting. It’s not as laugh out loud funny as the first movie, but it’s warm and comfortable, which is probably the best kind of Rob Reiner film to watch right now.

    Today’s poster is okay- a remake of a poster for a more famous sequel- but it’s personally significant: this is my 250th poster this year. If each poster took an hour (and many of them took more time than that) I’ve spent more than ten full days making these things!

    A fake poster Spinal Tap II: The End Continues mimicking the poster for The Godfather Part II.
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