Author: Peter J Patrick
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Oscar Profile #383: Saoirse Ronan
Born April 12, 1994 in The Bronx, New York, Saoirse Ronan is the only child of actor Paul Ronan and his wife, Monica, a former child actress. When she was three, the family moved to Dublin, Ireland where she grew up, hence her dual American and Irish citizenship. She made her acting debut in the…
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The DVD Report #559
New This Week Lady Bird is a charming coming-of-age film set in Sacramento, California in 2002. Liberally based on writer-director Greta Gerwig’s own life experiences, the film won numerous 2017 year-end awards including Best Picture from the New York Film Critics and the National Society of Film Critics, the latter also awarding Gerwig its Best…
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Oscar Profile #382: Lynn Stalmaster
Born November 27, 1927 in Omaha, Nebraska, Lynn Stalmaster’s father was the first Jewish judge appointed to the District Court of Nebraska. He was also active in the local Jewish community serving as president of the Omaha B’nai Brith. Young Stalmaster attended Dundee Elementary School in Midtown, Omaha. In 1938, his family moved to Beverly…
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The DVD Report #558
New This Week Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a tense and unpredictable thriller with twists at every turn. If you love deep, dark mysteries, you’ll love it but don’t expect a resolution to the mystery of who murdered Mildred Hayes’ 16-year-old daughter. The film is not really about the crime itself. It’s about the…
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Oscar Profile #381: Denzel Washington
Born December 28, 1954 in Mount Vernon, New York, Denzel Washington’s father was a Pentecostal minister who also worked in a department store. His mother was a beautician. His parents divorced when he was 14 and he attended various schools including Fordham University as a journalism major. Having caught the acting bug while appearing in…
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The DVD Report #557
New This Week The Florida Project is only the third film to be released on DVD and Blu-ray featuring one of the twenty 2017 Oscar-nominated performances. The others were Get Out and Roman J. Israel, Esq. . As such, it should be seen for Willem Dafoe’s fine portrayal of a low-rent motel manager within walking…
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Oscar Profile #380: Franco Zeffirelli
Born February 12, 1923 in Florence, Italy, Franco Zeffirelli was the product of an affair between a fashion designer and a wool and silk dealer, both of whom were married to others. Unable to give her child either name, his mother came up with “Zeffiretti”, the little breezes mentioned in Mozart’s opera, Indomeneo. However, the…
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The DVD Report #556
New This Week Roman J. Israel, Esq. was the highly anticipated film from writer-director Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler) that underwhelmed critics and audiences when it opened last November. Although reviews of the film were mixed, most critics and audiences agreed that Denzel Washington gave one of his best performances as the title character, an idealistic criminal…
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Oscar Profile #379: Julia Roberts
Born October 28, 1967 in Smyrna, Georgia to one-time actors and playwrights who ran an acting school in Decatur, Georgia when she was born, Julia Roberts’ mother’s maternity bill was paid for by Coretta Scott King in gratitude to Julia’s father, her daughter Yolanda’s acting coach. Following in the footsteps of her older brother, Eric,…
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The DVD Report #555
New This Week Only the Brave is a film that all but slipped through the cracks when released last October. The inspirational story of a group of twenty firefighters from a town near Prescott, Arizona, the film follows the narrative of most team-building films whether they’re about soldiers, sailors, or sports figures. They’re a group…
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Oscar Profile #378: Mark Robson
Born December 4, 1913 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Mark Robson was a political science major at the University of California who found work in the prop department at 20th Century-Fox. Fired by Daryl F. Zanuck for asking for a raise, he moved to RKO. At RKO, Robson became an assistant editor under Robert Wise, working…
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The DVD Report #554
New This Week Westfront 1918 is likely the best movie you’ve never seen or perhaps never even heard of. Made at the same time as All Quiet on the Western Front, the pacifist German film was a world-wide success, opening in the U.S. in early 1931. Banned by the Nazis in January 1933 along with…
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Oscar Profile #377: Steve Carell
Born August 16, 1962 in Concord, Massachusetts, Steven John (Steve) Carell was the fourth son of a psychiatric nurse and an electrical engineer. Raised in nearby Acton, Massachusetts, he graduated from Denison University in Granville, Ohio in 1984 with a degree in history. Carell was a mail carrier in Littleton, Massachusetts but quit after six…
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The DVD Report #553
New This Week Goodbye Christopher Robin is a unique film that somehow managed to slip under the radar in the plethora of last fall’s film releases. It’s not a perfect film, but it’s a very good one that has lots to say about the writing process, not all of it good. Author-poet-playwright A.A. (Alan) Milne…
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Oscar Profile #376: Lois Smith
Born November 3, 1930 in Topeka, Kansas, Lois Arlene Humbert was the youngest of six children of a telephone worker and his wife. She grew up performing in church plays put on by her father. At 18, she married fellow actor Wesley Dale Smith, becoming Lois Smith, the actress we know and love today. Smith…
