Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity In this appreciation of the femme fatale, Michaela Owens looks at two of cinema’s coolest and most indelible, Phyllis Dietrichson and Matty Walker. In a blackened office, Fred MacMurray bitterly recounts his story of lust and crime into a Dictaphone as he slowly bleeds out, a consequence any man deserves… Read more »
Entries by Michaela Owens
James Cagney, Song-and-Dance Man
James Cagney as George M. Cohan Michaela Owens explains why she appreciates James Cagney’s tour-de-force performance in Michael Curtiz’s tremendous musical biopic Yankee Doodle Dandy. It only takes a few seconds of a James Cagney performance to know that there hasn’t been and never will be another actor like him. With his rat-a-tat voice, jerky… Read more »
The Lasting Legacy of Lucille Ball: An Interview with Author Sarah Royal
Author Sarah Royal and the cover of her new book A.K.A. Lucy: The Dynamic and Determined Life of Lucille Ball In this interview, Michaela Owens talks to Sarah Royal, a pop-culture historian and the author of a new book on everybody’s favorite redhead, the one and only Lucille Ball. A television pioneer, comedy legend, and… Read more »
Sirens, Spitfires, and the Sinful Delights of Pre-Code Cinema
In this primer for this fall’s Sirens and Spitfires: Liberated Ladies of Pre-Code Cinema series, co-curator Michaela Owens explains why you shouldn’t sleep on this fierce line-up. What does pre-Code mean? To keep it brief, in the 1920s, Hollywood had so many scandals that, to avoid repercussions from political and religious groups, the major movie… Read more »
The Beauty (and the Buffoonery) of the Lonely Island
How does Michaela Owens love the Lonely Island? Let her count the ways in this ode to the sublime silliness of Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Shaffer’s comedy trio. The Lonely Island is not a comedy group I should like. Their jokes can push the boundaries of vulgarity and good taste, with gags that… Read more »
On Loving Wes Anderson
Bright red blood. When you say the name Wes Anderson to me, that is the first thing that comes to my mind. Not mise-en-scènes that are perfectly balanced or stone-faced actors saying witty lines or whimsical European dreamscapes. No, it is blood cascading down the arms of Luke Wilson — sweet, beautiful Luke Wilson —… Read more »