FilmJerk Favorites

A group of unique directors and the essential works that you've got to see.

||| Henry Koster |||
Henry Koster

Although his name is not a household one, Koster is responsible for some of the most beloved and endearing films of the late studio system era.

This is a delightful comedy starring Cary Grant as a suave angel helping distraught bishop David Niven with a new cathedral and his wife's (Loretta Young) affections. This is a deftly handled comedy set within the religious world that never preaches, nor disrespects it’s subject matter - and Cary Grant ice skates!

Another comedy slash drama with religious overtones, that doesn’t stoop to pandering an opinion to its audience. Koster wisely allows this simple, but potently charming tale of two European nuns to unfold before our eyes as they come to New England and, guided by their faith and relentless determination, get a children's hospital built.

James Stewart stars as a good-hearted drunk whose constant companion is a six-foot, invisible rabbit named Harvey. In lesser, or heavier hands, this Broadway success may have suffered, but Koster allows Stewarts natural charm and audience appeal to be the fuel that runs this whacky engine.

Recommended by CarrieSpecht

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Los Angeles Film Festival: Saturday, June 24, 2007

By EdwardHavens

June 25th, 2007

If the pandemonium outside the Festival Theatre in Westwood was any indication, Saturday night's world premiere screening of Rodger Grossman's "What We Do Is Secret" was THE hot ticket to have at the Los Angeles Film Festival.

Los Angeles Film Festival: Saturday, June 24, 2007

The story of Darby Crash, the lead singer of the seminal Los Angeles punk band The Germs, "Secret" brought out surviving Germs members Pat Smear, Lorna Doom and Don Bolles, plus the film's stars Shane West (who excels as Crash), Bijou Phillips and Tina Majorino, and Majorino's "Veronica Mars" co-star Kristen Bell (whose significant other was also a producer on the film), as well as many of the original kids from the first wave of the punk scene and those who have come after. There hasn't been so many tattoos, pierces and leather in one place since the last Erotic LA show.

The movie itself is a marverlous walk down memory lane, for those of us who grew up in Los Angeles during the late 1970s and early 1980s, or a fascinating look at the birth of the West Coast punk scene for those who weren't. While it does play fast and loose with some facts (including, most infuriatingly, the timing of Crash's deadly overdose, which happened the day before John Lennon was assassinated in real life, but happens just after the shooting in New York in the film), first-time feature director Grossman beautifully and otherwise accurately recaptures the era now lost to history. (A full review of the film will be forthcoming.)

If you are in Los Angeles in the coming days, make sure to catch "What We Do Is Secret" when it plays again Monday, June 25 or Wednesday June 27. More information is available at the official Los Angeles Film Festival website.