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.

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

Famous Monsters and Me – Pt. 2: Books and Comics

As I wrote in my first “Famous Monsters” post last May, “…from an early age, as early as I can remember, I was totally in love with science fiction and horror (monsters!) via all their delivery systems; i.e.  books, magazines, … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Film, Home Video, TV | 8 Comments

Just Saw Something Great – Again!

Silver Linings Playbook – Saturday, December 1 at the Crosby Street Hotel screening room. Director/Writer: David O. Russell. Loved it! I was with this film from start to finish. At the risk of overstatement, it felt like there was never … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Film | 5 Comments