He’s 40 going on 41. Coming off a breakdown. Underemployed, perhaps unemployable. Convinced in the absolute rightness of his convictions and the utter wrongness of yours. Believes wholeheartedly in Dorothy…
No Concessions
158 Articles
Bob Cashill
7 Min Read
The Wizard of Oz has influenced every movie made since it opened in 1939, or so I’ve read. Off the top of my head I’m not so sure: On the…
Bob Cashill
7 Min Read
Almost three years ago to the day I posted on my blog an open letter to my long-time crush object Sandra Bullock. The news was not good. Read on… Dear…
Bob Cashill
5 Min Read
”Film culture today,” I muttered, as I waded through (and into) an unusually bothersome post on the usually half-annoying (but compulsively readable) Hollywood Elsewhere site. Look: It’s OK not to…
Bob Cashill
1 Min Read
I have a Clint Eastwood problem. But a new mega-set of his movies, Clint Eastwood: 35 Films 35 Years at Warner Bros., obliges me to take the long view. This…
Bob Cashill
1 Min Read
From Avatar to the Transformers sequel, from Up in the Air to the depths of Obsessed, a look back at the highs and lows of 2009 as awards season takes shape.
Bob Cashill
9 Min Read
If the Oscars are truly serious about slimming down the Academy should just mail Christoph Waltz and Mo’Nique their supporting performer awards. Or hand them over at next Tuesday’s nominations…
Bob Cashill
6 Min Read
Over the holidays I read Robert Sellers’ Hellraisers, whose subtitle, ”The Life and Inebriated Times of Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O’Toole, and Oliver Reed” pretty much tells you what…
Bob Cashill
1 Min Read
Thanksgiving: For some, that time of the year to reconnect with friends and family, to eat plenty of turkey and trimmings, and figure out what to gift Aunt Ida with…
Bob Cashill
1 Min Read
Critics have split over The Men Who Stare at Goats — some find it an amusing military satire, while others reject it as unfunny mush. Which side is Bob Cashill on?
Bob Cashill
1 Min Read
One of my favorite moviegoing experiences occurred when I lived in San Jose, CA, and decided one weeknight to see Lars von Trier’s Zentropa (1991). The Danish filmmaker and provocateur…
Bob Cashill
1 Min Read
At long last, Spike Jonze’s adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are arrives in theaters this weekend. Did Bob Cashill have a wild rumpus at his screening, or did he send Jonze to bed without supper?
Bob Cashill
2 Min Read
The 47th annual edition of the New York Film Festival kicks off tonight at Lincoln Center. Except for last yearÁ¢€â„¢s paternity leave IÁ¢€â„¢ve attended every one since 1994. Back before…
Bob Cashill
2 Min Read
There aren’t many bankable stars at the movies in 2009 — but Meryl Streep is one of the last ones standing, and as Bob Cashill notes, she’s earned her stature.
Bob Cashill
1 Min Read
Bob Cashill helps bring Beatles Week to its spine-tingling conclusion with a look at the Fab Four at the movies — after they broke up, of course. Give our regards to Broad Street, would you?
Bob Cashill
1 Min Read
Summer’s over, and it’s got Bob Cashill in a reflective mood as he looks back on what worked — and what didn’t — at the cinema this blockbuster season.
Bob Cashill
1 Min Read
Bob Cashill has just gotten back from Taking in a screening of Ang Lee’s latest. Does he wish he could give it back? Read this week’s No Concessions to find out.
Bob Cashill
1 Min Read
Got your ticket stub, your popcorn, and your extra large soda? Meet Bob Cashill in the No Concessions lobby, where he’s waiting to tell you about the summer’s finest in indie fare.
Bob Cashill
1 Min Read
The Hurt Locker does the impossible: It single-handedly redeems the mostly misbegotten run of Á¢€Å“sandÁ¢€ films, those war-on-terror features connected to Iraq and Afghanistan, a genre about as useless and…
Bob Cashill
1 Min Read
Amidst the turbulence in the world of pop culture comes good news from, of all places, Afghanistan. At the start of the new documentary Afghan Star, we see a line…
Bob Cashill
1 Min Read
New Yorkers arenÁ¢€â„¢t a sentimental bunch. But there are some things weÁ¢€â„¢re fiercely protective of. One of those is the 1974 crime drama The Taking of Pelham One Two Three….
Bob Cashill
1 Min Read
Some horror film directors unnerve us with little ripples of tension that unexpectedly crescendo into waves of terror. Sam Raimi is not one of those horror film directors. Pauline Kael…
Bob Cashill
1 Min Read
Here it is, not even June and with a case of blockbuster fatigue already. Pro and con, the fourth (fourth!) Terminator movie has already been dissected and dismantled around here,…
Bob Cashill
1 Min Read
In this week’s No Concessions, Bob Cashill takes a look at the new Shout! Factory reissue of Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun.
Bob Cashill
2 Min Read
In this week’s installment of No Concessions, Bob Cashill has his cinematic face rocked off by Anvil! The Story of Anvil.
Bob Cashill
1 Min Read
Spinning Into Butter has taken a few twists and turns on the road to todayÁ¢€â„¢s release. Shooting began in October 2005, back when Catherine Crier still had her live show…
Bob Cashill
2 Min Read
I got word that Natasha Richardson had died Wednesday evening. But the Internet had killed her off Tuesday afternoon. And that bothers me. Word came via an erroneous report on…
Bob Cashill
2 Min Read
True-life gangland sagas look to be the mob hits of the year. The Fourth of July weekend brings Michael MannÁ¢€â„¢s Public Enemies, a vintage slice of 20th century Americana, with…
Bob Cashill and Scott Malchus
2 Min Read
Even if you don’t like what the Academy Awards represent–those questionable nominees, that PR flackery, all the “industry” sanctimony–it’s more than possible to enjoy the show itself. Didn’t we all…
Bob Cashill
1 Min Read
IÁ¢€â„¢m not a huge fan of animated features. The Disney classics may have spoiled me: Like comets, they only came streaking into theaters once every few years, and the experience…