originally published on Action a Go Go For many people “classic” means boring or arty or esoteric. But that door swings both ways. Movies or actors can be slapped with reductionist manifestos, often crafted by people who never took the time to watch the films themselves. Like those that consider the Marx Brothers just another …

originally published on Netflix’s Inside the Envelope The silent era of cinema isn’t always the easiest sell to casual movie fans. There’s a nasty rumor that silent film equals boring film, and that’s just a notion born through a lack of exposure. Alfred Hitchcock called silent films the “purest form of cinema” and everything thereafter “pictures of people talking.” I won’t …