Frank Calvillo Archives -

HOLLYWOOD ROYALTY: MINISODE 8 – CHINATOWN Our next stop through 60s/70s Faye sees us taking a visit to Chinatown, the 1974 Oscar-winning movie that recreates 1937’s Los Angeles for a tale of murder and corruption. An Oscar-nominated Faye enjoys one of the best roles of the decade as a femme fatale harboring dark secrets, which local […]

THE MADISON SERIES REVIEW John Steinbeck once said “I’m in love with Montana. For other states, I have admiration, respect, recognight, even some affection. But with Montana, it is love.”  Paramount Plus presents  the new show by Taylor Sheridan; a story of a man who had two great loves in his life: his wife, and […]

HOLLYWOOD ROYALTY: EP.8 – ON A MOONLIT NIGHT/GIA/THE RULES OF ATTRACTION On this episode of Hollywood Royalty we look at Faye as the quintessential director’s actress; the kind of screen performer whose choices and collaborations tended to challenge traditional movie conventions. We begin with 1989’s On a Moonlit Night, where Faye plays an executive blackmailed by […]

LORNE MOVIE REVIEW There has been no shortage of media analysis of the unexpected phenomenon that is Saturday Night Live. More books and documentaries about aspects of it from all different viewpoints have been released than would be practical to print here. But not much in specific is said about the man himself: the guy […]

HOLLYWOOD ROYALTY: MINISODE EP 7: THE ARRANGEMENT For our next venture into 60s/70s Faye, we look at the reunion between the actress and her early mentor, writer/director Elia Kazan with 1969’s The Arrangement, adapted from his own novel. The film tells the story of a top advertising executive named Eddie (Kirk Douglas), who experiences a […]

BAIT SERIES REVIEW Tomorrow Never Dies at the James Bond Rumour mill and with Amazon pulling the strings, The World is Not Enough. It’ll take a real GoldenEye casting director to pick the next actor to be On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Comment sections are being real Dr. No about all suggestions stepping away from […]

HOLLYWOOD ROYALTY: EP 7: ELLIS ISLAND/CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS On this special episode of Hollywood Royalty, we break from the show’s traditional three-title format of TV movie/arthouse film/mainstream title to look at Faye: The Miniseries and the two plum roles the actress found herself taking on in a pair of lavish, large-scale productions made for the small […]

HOLLYWOOD ROYALTY: MINISODE 6 – THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR On this round of 60s/70s Faye, we look over our shoulder to make sure no one is watching before we revisit the actress in paranoia mode with 1975’s Three Days of the Condor. Sydney Pollack directs this tale of a CIA researcher named Turner (Robert […]

LOVE STORY MOVIE REVIEW Love is a many splendored thing, and back in the 90’s two lovers, named John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, kissed and the world stood still. The two would be lifted up by love where they belonged but alas not every love is like like in the storybooks. While all […]

HOLLYWOOD ROYALTY: EP 6 – COLUMBO: IT’S ALL IN THE GAME/DRUNKS/THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR (1999) Up next on Hollywood Royalty, we flashback a bit to see Faye in throwback mode, with the actress taking on three 90s titles that feel as if they came straight from her new Hollywood era. We begin with the 1993 […]

HOLLYWOOD ROYALTY: MINI EP.5: THE TOWERING INFERNO For our next minisode foray into the Faye classics of the 60s and 70s, we take the scenic elevator up to the promenade room for 1974’s The Towering Inferno. Irwin Allen’s big-budget action spectacular about a San Francisco high-rise that becomes engulfed in flames remains a hallmark in […]

HOLLYWOOD ROYALTY EP.5: COLD SASSY TREE/THE CHAMBER/ALBINO ALLIGATOR Up next on Hollywood Royalty, we head down south for three movies that make use of Faye’s Southern background. First, we travel to Georgia at the turn of the century to see Faye play a fiercely independent woman who enters into a May/December romance with a recently […]

HOLLYWOOD ROYALTY: MINI EP 4: BONNIE AND CLYDE Our next venture into classic 60s/70s Faye has us revisiting the film that turned the actress into an overnight sensation, 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde. Starring Warren Beatty and Faye as the infamous titular duo, this tale of crime and romance was one of the biggest hits of […]

HOLLYWOOD ROYALTY EP.4: BEVERLY HILLS MADAM/BARFLY/DON JUAN DEMARCO Next up on Hollywood Royalty: Dunaway After Crawford, we head west to actual Hollywood (and thereabouts) for a collection of movies that sees Faye take on three different types of California women in three vastly different films. First up, Faye plays the boss of a group of […]

BREAKDOWN: 1975 MOVIE REVIEW At times, film has the power to give a voice to the voiceless and speak truth to a power that would ignore those voices. When a culture shifts its thinking and changes the method and way stories are told about people, and the world in general, a massive culture shift can […]

COLD STORAGE MOVIE REVIEW When a long-forgotten government experiment goes very, very wrong, a sealed biological threat awakens beneath a quiet long-term public storage facility and begins spreading fast, leaving our minimum wage heroes Naomi (Georgina Campbell) and T-Cakes (Joe Keery) scrambling to stop an outbreak before it reaches the outside world. What begins as […]

AGATHA CHRISTIE’S SEVEN DIALS MINISERIES REVIEW For countless years, master storyteller and queen of the “who done it” genre, Agatha Christie, has entertained and thrilled us with her mysteries. Even if you’ve never read a single story, you’re almost certainly familiar with her thanks to countless adaptations and homages through television, film, and plays. With […]

HOLLYWOOD ROYALTY: MINI EP.3: VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED Welcome to the third in our series of minisodes focusing on the 60s and 70s films that helped make Faye Dunaway a star Here we discuss the actress leading an international all-star cast in 1976’s Voyage of the Damned. The film was based on the true story […]

HOLLYWOOD ROYALTY EP.3: THE MESSENGER/WAIT UNTIL SPRING,BANDINI/THIRTEEN AT DINNER In our third episode of Hollywood Royalty: Dunaway After Crawford, we explore time-traveling Faye and the actress’s ability to fit into any kind of world or time period on the screen. We begin in the Middle Ages with Faye playing real-life Queen Yolonde de Aragon in […]

HOLLYWOOD ROYALTY: MINISODE 2 – EYES OF LAURA MARS For the second in our series of minisodes in which we explore the 60s and 70s films that helped make Faye Dunaway a star, we take a look at the 1978 supernatural cult thriller Eyes of Laura Mars. In the film, Faye plays the title character, […]

HOLLYWOOD ROYALTY Ep.2: DOC/MOMMIE DEAREST/FOLLOW-UP PROJECTS On our second episode of Hollywood Royalty: Dunaway After Crawford, we tackle the movie that serves as the true jumping-off point for this series, 1981’s Mommie Dearest. Originally meant to be a serious re-telling of the abusive relationship between Joan Crawford (famously played by Faye) and her daughter Christina, […]

SEND HELP MOVIE REVIEW Legendary director Sam Raimi isn’t the most prolific of filmmakers. His last film was Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness in 2022 and before that it was 2013’s Oz The Great and Powerful. But to go back to the genre he is certainly best known for, horror, you have to […]

COVER-UP MOVIE REVIEW 1991 marks the year the world wide web officially launched and became available to everyone. A new way to discover and share truth was available to every man woman and child on this earth in one way or another. With this new technology a plethora of news, stories, and of course, entertaining […]

DOWN CEMETERY ROAD SERIES REVIEW Nothing rebuilds and keeps the foundations of friendships solid like a good old fashion dinner party. Want to impress your spouse, wow your boss, and boost the morale of your community? Dinner party!! Nothing ruins a dinner party quite like a bomb going off, though. We ain’t just talking a […]

GOODBYE JUNE MOVIE REVIEW Kelly Barnhill once wrote “Death is always sudden, even when it isn’t”. Though all of us will eventually choose to go quietly into that good night or fight against the dying of the light, death will come for all of us, and for some of us that meeting with the Grim […]

HOLLYWOOD ROYALTY: MINISODE #1: NETWORK For the first in a series of minisodes in which we look at the 60s and 70s films that helped make Faye Dunaway a star, we revisit Sidney Lumet’s game-changing Network ahead of its 50th anniversary later this year. The story of a television network that goes from the bottom […]

TRASH IN THE CAN: SUPERGIRL (1984) This week, the boys look to the skies (and immediately regret it) as they take on a baffling superhero misfire. Critic and One of Us contributor, Frank Calvillo, joins the boys to help make sense of horny witches, the world’s slowest car accident, and the wiggiest wigs that ever […]

HOLLYWOOD ROYALTY: EP 1: THE CHAMP/THE FIRST DEADLY SIN/EVITA PERON Welcome to the debut episode of Hollywood Royalty: Dunaway After Crawford, a look at the post-Mommie Dearest career of Faye Dunaway; early 80s to early 00s. Before we dive into the infamous movie itself and some of the projects that came Faye’s way afterwards, we […]

HOLLYWOOD ROYALTY: DUNAWAY AFTER CRAWFORD – PREVIEW Hosted by Frank Calvillo, Hollywood Royalty: Dunaway After Crawford offers a look at the post-Mommie Dearest career of legendary actress Faye Dunaway. Featuring a variety of guests and titles, we look at the Oscar-winner’s varied body of work from the early 80s to the early 00s, with some […]

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BETTE & JOAN? – BONUS EPISODE 6: SIGNATURE ROLES “Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night!” Welcome to the final bonus episode of What Ever Happened to Bette & Joan?, an ongoing journey through the later careers of Bette Davis & Joan Crawford. This holiday season, we’ve gone […]

HEART/FELT – IT’S IN EVERY ONE OF US: EMMET OTTER’S JUG-BAND CHRISTMAS & A MUPPET FAMILY CHRISTMAS In this holiday roundtable episode of Heart/Felt, I’m joined by returning guests Shira More, Frank Calvillo, and Rhett O’Hara to reflect on Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas and A Muppet Family Christmas. We explore how these intimate seasonal specials […]

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BETTE & JOAN? – BONUS EPISODE 5: GRANDE DAME GUIGNOL: A CONTINUING EDUCATION “I want this lying bitch out of my house!” Welcome to another bonus episode of What Ever Happened to Bette & Joan?, an ongoing journey through the later careers of Bette Davis & Joan Crawford. Although our travels […]

ALL’S FAIR SERIES REVIEW RIta Rudner once said “Marriages don’t last. When I meet a guy, the first question I ask myself is: is this the man I want my children to spend their weekends with?”. Hulu presents a show about a law firm of ladies helping women turn those I Do’s into I don’t […]

OH. WHAT. FUN. MOVIE REVIEW One Christmas you’re bound in a homemade leather suit decapitating mannequins while eluding the detective skills of a millionaire with daddy issues while awakening your independence and empowering an audience of all ages to do the same in the face of an uncaring apathetic world. Meow! Then three decades later, […]

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BETTE & JOAN?: BONUS EPISODE 4: AND THE NOMINEES ARE… Welcome to the fourth bonus episode of What Ever Happened to Bette & Joan?, an ongoing journey through the later careers of Bette Davis & Joan Crawford. Although our travels through Bette & Joan’s post-Baby Jane years may have come to […]

ELLA MCCAY MOVIE REVIEW Writer/Director/Sitcom creating legend James L. Brooks is back with his first feature film in fifteen years with Ella McCay. Emma Mackey plays the titular role and she is a force of nature. When we meet her in the film, she’s a schoolgirl telling off her dad (Woody Harrelson) for being a […]

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BETTE & JOAN?: BONUS EPISODE 3: PRODUCED BY BETTE & JOAN “Must you always let that sister of yours get ahead of you?” Welcome to the third bonus episode of What Ever Happened to Bette & Joan?, our ongoing journey of the later careers of Bette Davis & Joan Crawford. Although […]

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BETTE & JOAN?: BONUS EPISODE 2: ROM-COM QUEENS Welcome to the second bonus episode of What Ever Happened to Bette & Joan?, an ongoing journey of the later careers of Bette Davis & Joan Crawford. Although our travels through Bette & Joan’s post-Baby Jane years may have come to an end, […]

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BETTE & JOAN?: BONUS EP 1: BETTE & JOAN GET CONTROVERSIAL Welcome to the first bonus episode of What Ever Happened to Bette & Joan?, an ongoing journey through late-era Bette Davis & Joan Crawford. Although, our travels through Bette & Joan’s post-Baby Jane years may have come to an end, […]

WICKED: FOR GOOD MOVIE REVIEW The most anticipated movie of the year (by studios hoping to pay for the rest of the year’s screwups by this paying for it) is here. The celebrated musical adapted from a book which was a reimagining of the movie which was based on a book has now concluded (?) […]