Author Archives: Ted Hicks

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About Ted Hicks

Iowa farm boy; have lived in NYC for 49 years; worked in motion picture labs, film/video distribution, subtitling, media-awards program; obsessive film-goer all my life.

Pennebaker, Dylan, and All the Rest

Last weekend we saw Dont Look Back (1967) at the Museum of the Moving Image, with director D.A. Pennebaker there for a Q&A after. I thought the opportunity to see the film on a big screen with the filmmaker in … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Film, Home Video, TV | 5 Comments

“Upstream Color” – Through the Looking Glass

Upstream Color – Thursday, March 29 at Magno Review and Friday, April 5 at the IFC Center. In addition to directing, writing, and producing Upstream Color, Shane Carruth also was director of photography, a camera operator, co-editor, wrote the original … Continue reading

Posted in Film, Home Video | 1 Comment

Kubrick and “The Killing”

The IFC Center in New York recently ended a week’s run of Stanley Kubrick films. I saw a double feature of two of my favorites, The Killing (1956) and Paths of Glory (1957), then topped that off the next day … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Film, Home Video, TV | 13 Comments

“Leviathan” – What the hell is this?

Leviathan – Wednesday, February 13  at Magno Review. A film by Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel. This film may be nominally called a documentary, but it’s so far from any documentary I’ve ever seen that it defies description. The press notes … Continue reading

Posted in Film | 6 Comments

Great Short Films (It’s not the size that counts)

For the past several years, the IFC Center in New York has been showing Oscar-nominated shorts in the animation, live action, and documentary categories. This has been a great opportunity to experience works we might otherwise not know much about. … Continue reading

Posted in Film, Home Video | 4 Comments

What I Watched Last Year: Best TV 2012

Boardwalk Empire (HBO) I was impressed, but not overwhelmed, when I watched the first episode of this series, set in Atlantic City on the eve of Prohibition in 1920. The pilot was directed by Martin Scorsese (Executive Producer on the … Continue reading

Posted in Home Video, TV | 4 Comments

What I Saw Last Year: Best Documentaries 2012

Documentaries have become increasingly viable theatrically, probably since Michael Moore’s Roger and Me (1989) shook things up and pumped new life into non-fiction films. Recent years have seen documentaries playing for weeks, even months, in commercial theaters. 2012 was another … Continue reading

Posted in Film, Home Video | 1 Comment

What I Saw Last Year: Best Revivals and Discoveries 2012

When I moved to New York in 1977 there were quite a few revival movie theaters with great repertory programming, including the Bleeker Street Cinema, Carnegie Hall Cinema, the Regency, Theatre 80 St. Marks (with its odd projection from behind the … Continue reading

Posted in Film, Home Video, TV | 2 Comments

What I Saw Last Year: Best Feature Films 2012

The year just ended turned out to be an unusually strong one for films, both big budget studio pictures, such as Lincoln, Argo, Skyfall, and Flight, as well as smaller productions, such as Liberal Arts, Middle of Nowhere, Moonrise Kingdom … Continue reading

Posted in Film, Home Video | 5 Comments

So Much for the End of the World

Didn’t happen! But it is the end of the year, so Happy New Year everybody! This was a strong year for films and television. I’ll be posting my picks for 2012 in a day or so. In the meantime, to … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments