A new Samsung commercial running during the Olympics features Christoph Waltz, the Austrian actor who rose from obscurity in his fifties to win the Academy Award for his portrayal of the SS colonel Hans Landa in Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds.” Many critics called his performance the greatest portrayal of a villain in cinematic history. Fans …
Is it me or is this the least exciting Olympics ever? I hadn’t paid attention to when it was starting, but tonight is evidently the opening ceremony. Perhaps it would be more enjoyable to watch the Cary Grant film “Walk Don’t Run,” which is set at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics with a plot contrivance that …
On Monday we reported on “Indignation,” the Philip Roth adaptation that opens today. Well another movie is hitting theaters as well, a documentary on comedy in the age of perpetual outrage called “Can We Take A Joke?” As a tribute to the gentle art of making people laugh, here’s a mini-gallery of comedic actor Leslie …
The late ’80s and early ’90s brought us several coming-of-age films set in elite prep schools, such as “Dead Poets Society,” “School Ties,” and “Scent Of A Woman.” They don’t make movies like that anymore, save for once in a blue moon. Well, that blue moon is here. July 29th sees the opening of “Indignation,” …
Last month saw the DVD release of the rescue film “The Finest Hours.” Upon its theatrical release earlier this year, The New York Times movie reviewer Stephan Holden wrote, “The waterlogged disaster ‘The Finest Hours’ is a moderately gripping whoosh of nostalgia that shamelessly recycles the ’50s cliché of the squeaky-clean all-American hero.” That tepid …
When my sister and I were kids, our parents encouraged an appreciation of the great American musicals. They enrolled us in dance classes, and when “The Sound Of Music” would air on TV, it was one of the rare times when they would let us stay up late with school the next day. They also …
They sure don’t make ’em like they used to. What’s that, preppy clothes? No, preppy films. Last week saw the opening of “The Preppie Connection,” based on a true story of a student in 1984 who smuggled cocaine into the prestigious prep school Choate Rosemary Hall. The New York Times writes that not only is …
Ivy Style has been reporting for years on Don Cheadle’s Miles Davis biopic (which is finally going to be released), but who knew there was a Chet Baker film in development? Apparently we knew, and I’d forgotten all about it. And this weekend it opened. “Born To Be Blue” stars Ethan Hawke as the jazz …
Perfectly timed for our Black History Month coverage, the first trailer for Don Cheadle’s Miles Davis biopic has been released. The film has been in development for nearly a decade. When I’d last read about the film, it was going to be set in Miles’ funkadelic period. According to the trailer, while the ’70s constitute …
The 1970 film “Love Story” is noteworthy for introducing the term “preppy” to a wider American audience. It also introduced the popular catch phrase, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” Yesterday on Ivy Style’s Facebook group I mused, “And trad means never having to say…?” Some clever comebacks followed, and so here we …
Ryan O’Neal, who plays rich kid Oliver Barrett IV in the 1970 film “Love Story,” recently reunited with his co-star Ali McGraw on the Harvard campus, where the film was shot and set. Wikipedia offers this bit of trivia: Filming Love Story on site caused damage to the Harvard campus; this, and a similar experience …
Ivy Style’s associate editor Chris Sharp has an uncanny photographic memory for trad images. He seems to remember every photo he’s ever seen, and, even more amazing, can actually go find them. But I’d like to lay claim to a similar skill: namely, that of letting the gears of the subconscious connect two dots in …
Our recent post on William Ivey Long led some presumably blue-shirted commenters to say they were reconsidering white. Above is another compelling case for white by another show-biz gentleman named William. Actor Holden is pictured in a LIFE Magazine photo shoot from 1954. Sometimes a white buttondown is all you need. Except for the times …
Even though it’s the middle of football season, I watched a baseball movie this weekend. “Moneyball” stars Brad Pitt and is based on the true story of Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane, who found a way to build a winning team on a shoestring budget. The film also features Jonah Hill — anyone else …
Today saw the US opening of the new James Bond film “Spectre.” If you think you don’t have anything in common sartorially with the Savile Row-dressed spy, think again. Bond is known for enjoying both knit and grenadine ties, just like you probably do. Chris Sharp muses further. * * * There is something quaint …
If you’ve been roped in to going to a Halloween party on Saturday and just can’t stand the thought of putting on a silly costume (especially if you don’t have an administrative body and telephone hotline to advise on whether your get-up may offend someone), then Ivy Style has got you covered with a costume …
I had just left college when the movie “PCU” came out in 1994, and I was barely familiar with the term “politically correct.” I had probably first heard it from a guy I’d occasionally run into in the quad, who handed out fliers and held a clipboard. He was one of the few guys who, …
Robin Williams in “Dead Poets Society” We return to our Professor Week coverage with a gallery of film dons (and a few schoolteachers). The list must be endless, so let us know who else belongs here. Above, Robin Williams in “Dead Poets Society.” Below, John Houseman as a Harvard Law professor in 1973’s “Paper …
This is a test to see if this post goes viral. After I mentioned that our Sewanee post shattered all traffic records, someone left a comment suggesting that it was because all the old curmudgeons and fogeys were ogling the candid shots of lovely young co-eds, rather than the more likely reason that kids from the school …