Paramount-photo by Bud Fraker, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter Only a few actresses had the ability to exude the easy elegance, charm, and vulnerability of Audrey Hepburn. Grace Kelly could at times, but she didn’t quite match Hepburn’s otherworldly onscreen presence. Hepburn radiated natural uncontrived beauty and flawless grace, and she seemed …
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Category:Couch Potato
The Couch Potato’s Guide to Old Hollywood: The Legacy of Paul Newman
Warner Bros., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter Paul Newman was a master of cool—right up there with his peers Brando and James Dean—except he also had a certain down-to-earth quality the others lacked. Like Dean or Brando, he excelled at portraying characters that were typically a mixture of charm, intelligence, and sometimes …
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The Couch Potato’s Guide to Old Hollywood: The Legacy of James Stewart
Liberty Films, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter I was flipping around the TV dial a couple Saturdays ago, and there wasn’t much on—more ubiquitous reruns of Law & Order, even more overbearing chatter on MSNBC, and an endless line of banal reality shows. Then I happened to flip to TCM and caught the …
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The Couch Potato’s Guide to the Best of the Best: The Films of Martin Scorsese
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Siebbi, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons His films are deeply embedded into the fabric or our culture. From the grittiness of Mean Streets, Raging Bull, and Taxi Driver to the gentility of The Age of Innocence, the black humor of The King of Comedy, or the epic scope of The Last Waltz, Martin Scorsese has left a …
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The Couch Potato’s Guide to the Best of the Best: The Films of the Coen Brothers
Georges Biard, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter From their very first production, the quirky genre-bending thriller, Blood Simple, to their latest film, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, an anthology of short films simultaneously deifying and lampooning the Western genre, the Coen Brothers have made films that are—to say the very least—unpredictable. Their stories have …
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The Couch Potato’s Guide to the Best of the Best: The Films of Steven Spielberg
Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Spielberg is the man. He’s a legend. He’s a franchise. As a director, he’s personified the Hollywood gold standard since 1975, the year of the first ever summer blockbuster, Jaws. As an artist, he’s written and directed films that examine myriad manifestations …
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The Couch Potato’s Guide to the Best of the Best: Frances McDormand
Red Carpet Report on Mingle Media TV, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons The Ten Best Films of Frances McDormand By Geoff Carter She can be as tough as a bar of iron. She can also be compassionate, kind, and forgiving—or as fierce and determined as a mama bear defending her cubs. Her scathing tongue can …
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The Couch Potato’s Guide to the Neighborhood
Movie Review of In the Heights I stepped into a movie theater for the first time in over a year last Sunday. Since my family and I are vaccinated—and safe at any speed—we decided to step out and see a movie. We chose In the Heights, the film production Lin Manuel Miranda’s Tony-winning hit musical. The film …
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The Couch Potato’s Guide to the Best of the Best: Morgan Freeman
David Sifry, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter The Ten Best Films of Morgan Freeman He is the voice of God—or your best friend. He has played Nelson Mandela as well as the President of the United States. He has narrated epic cinematic journeys. We’ve followed him into the gritty worlds of prison …
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The Couch Potato’s Guide to the Best of the Best
Nicolas Genin, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons George Clooney’s Top Ten Films By Geoff Carter He epitomizes cool. George Clooney exudes an aura of ease, intelligence, and confidence reminiscent of old school stars like Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart, or Cary Grant. He can be complicated, too, embodying the angst and disappointments of a typical middle-aged …
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The Couch Potato’s Guide to Home Sweet Home
Photo by Taryn Elliott from Pexels By Geoff Carter It looks as if we’re finally over the hump. It’s the beginning of the end. Covid infections—and deaths in the U.S.—are on the decrease and shrinking daily. We’ve been told we can actually gather in public again without fearing for our health, and that those of us who are …
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The Couch Potato’s Guide to Summer Fun
“Drive-In”RoyBuchanan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons The Ten Best Summer Films of All Time Finally. After fourteen months of quarantine, confinement, isolation, boredom, and loneliness, we appear to be on the brink of beating the pandemic and getting back into a—somewhat—normalized social existence, which could mean a real summer—one with concerts, crowds, fun, and traveling. …
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