Mick LaSalle's Blog

Hey, you guys who suggested THE BIG LEBOWSKI for the top post-1960 comedies a few weeks ago . . . ? Well, you were right.
I think I didn't even bother to see this in 1998: Someone else reviewed it, and most of the reviews were lukewarm to bad. I don't know what critics were seeing - perhaps they expected FARGO, or something - but this is a brilliant, very funny film, inhabiting a comic...

I just had my first good experience of PULP FICTION last night, when I watched it on Blu-ray.
When I say "good experience," I mean I finally saw the movie as it should be seen. I've always liked it - in fact I liked it a lot when I saw it in 1994 - and I gave it the highest rating when I reviewed it. But I saw it twice under lousy circumstances, and I hadn't seen it since.
Basically, I...

This is wonderful, a letter from a former slave, living in Ohio in 1865, writing to his master, who was crazy enough to ask him to come back to the plantation. What a fun letter - like something out of Mark Twain.











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Well, you made it easy for me. Instead of loading in photos all day, I got exactly six pictures. One was a joke, and in another case, the person changed their mind. So that left four.
But you know what? Four is OK. I'm happy that you're here reading this. Sending a picture of what's going on on your desk or outside your window is strictly optional. You, the reader, has taken this blog...

Have you seen this? From ALLOCINE, the French cinema web site. So charming:

Well, you have multiplied exponentially in the last two months, and so the time has come to appreciate you, the reader.
In what is partly a steal from Andrew Sullivan, who is my favorite blogger, I'd like to see where you are reading this blog. So send me a JPEG of your environment - either inside at your desk or outside your window - and if you want to be in the picture, too, that's OK -...

I'm going to be doing my usual Oscar predicting in the Pink section, within a few weeks, but here I'll give you my initial impression of the field and who will win.
For years, people used to ask me who was going to win the Oscars, and I'd always guess on the basis of what I heard or read or what someone in the Academy told me, and it was all pretty much useless. Unless you're really plugged in...

Peter Hartlaub in The Big Event has been running a series on Bay Area TV legends, and the other day he got a very friendly messag e - and the picture (at left) - from Terilyn Joe, formerly of KGO TV news.
Some people were surprised at the friendliness of her response. But I worked with Terilyn and in the vicinity of Terilyn for four years, and she was absolutely great. Professional, fun...

In our last look at comedy, we were guessing to some extent. MAYBE we were talking about films that would stand the test of time, but maybe we weren't. It takes about thirty years to know. By now, ANNIE HALL is safe. MANHATTAN is in the pantheon. But for the moment, FUNNY PEOPLE is just a guess, a good guess in my opinion, but a guess all the same.
With these films, there's no guessing. ...

It has become a cliche to ask - to ask ME - to ask MOI - in comments sections, "What were you smoking, when you . . . "
And I always think that's kinda dumb. Why say the same thing that every other person says, when you could be asking, "What were you drinking ?" Because the odds of a middle-aged film critic being a crack addict are very slim. But the odds of any newspaper writer, in...