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I was captivated by last year’s smash hit “Frozen,” not only for its stunning animation and catchy songs, but for its story, which featured female characters in primary, heroic roles. It is a story about women, in fact… the men are almost incidental.

We all make mistakes. From leisure suits in the ‘70s, to “hypercolor” clothing in the ‘80s, to rat tail haircuts anytime, we Americans are notorious for making choices that seemed like good ideas at the time. Despite our less-than-stellar judgment, we tend to demand more of our finest institutions. In particular, we expect our most prestigious award-givers to choose the right winners. Is that too much to ask? Take the Academy Awards (please!). Today, we thought it might be fun to go back through history and point out the most obvious mistakes in the history of the Oscars. Focusing on past recipients of the three major awards (Best Picture, Actor and Actress), we’ll identify the times when Oscar really fell down on the job. And, sad to say, it’s happened more than once.

Cheap knockoffs are usually pretty easy to spot in real life. Buying a purse for my wife once in Chinatown, I asked, “is this a REAL Coach bag?” The vendor produced a hot glue gun and a Coach emblem and said, “It will be when you buy it.”  This kind of thing shouldn’t surprise us — in movies, it happens all the time. For those who don’t already know, Hollywood’s unspoken mantra is: “If it works, buy it or steal it!” This means that studios pilfer from successful foreign films all the time, and have for years. After all, as more than one sage has noted, there are no new stories, only new ways to tell them... Sometimes it’s just plotlines that get recycled. Example: observe how certain scenes in Akira Kurosawa’s “The Hidden Fortress” (1958) resemble a little movie called “Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope” (1977).

Part of the thrill of film is the costumes that dress up the screen. But there's a clear distinction between standard costume pictures where clothes simply help evoke a period, and those indelible outings in which great clothes not only draw our eye to their design, but also inform character.  It is, in fact, more accurate to say “wardrobe” than costumes, and, as with our own wardrobes, there are standouts that we return to again and again. These are pieces that are stars in their own right: Edith Head’s dresses for Grace Kelly in “Rear Window”; Cecil Beaton’s black and white dress for Audrey Hepburn, worn to Ascot in “My Fair Lady”; Lauren Bacall’s check suit in “The Big Sleep”; and countless bias-cut crepe gowns, Technicolor satins, wide hats, snug corsets, and acres of rhinestones, beads, and feathers. When paired with crackling dialogue, powerful stories, and flattering cinematography, these signature looks create the models for our own evolution in style.  Why not slip into our own look at some of the movies’ most memorable fashion moments...

Though the solstice is not for a few weeks, Memorial Day weekend was a call to your corner lookout, warning you to hit the bricks ‘cause the heat is just around the corner. Yes, summer is coming for every good movie-loving, grill-stoking, sparkler-waving, processed cheese covered totcho-eating American (totchos are like nachos, with tater-tots instead of chips… yes, these exist, and they’re good for you!). This also means that blockbuster Hollywood hits explode into theaters like sling-shot water balloons, and this year is no exception with “Spiderman 2”, “Godzilla”, and the new “X-Men” movie having already jumped the summer gun. 

With the gradual passing of opening movie credits, we also lost a vital element that distinguishes many so-called “classic” movies: the original music score, including a heroic, memorable opening theme. What’s the last film you remember that had a score you could hum while walking home from the theater — a piece of music you knew you'd always remember and associate with the film?

Everyone knows Welles, Huston, Kubrick, Spielberg, Scorsese and Nolan. But what about Leisen, Hill, Hiller, Boorman, Mann and Sayles?  For every “name” director, there are several others we feel deserve more recognition. They may have had successes—critical and/or financial—but for some reason they’ve tended to fly under the radar. Here are six filmmakers whose legacies deserve our respect and appreciation. Even though their names may have faded from memory, their finest work lives on, as you’ll soon discover.

The movies' much beloved Everyman, Tom Hanks, turns 59 today, and he seems to be mellowing beautifully.

Did you know that both Lincoln and Kennedy have 7 Letters? Did you know that both were shot on a Friday? Just as uncanny is the connection between genial superstar Tom Hanks and his folksy predecessor, James “Jimmy” Stewart.   If there was any question that the two share cinematic auras for their respective generations, it was blown away when Hanks inhabited Stewart’s role from “The Shop Around the Corner” in the slick remake “You’ve Got Mail”. Their parallel command performances – studies in “aw shucks,” regular guy humility – make them both exasperatingly lovable middle-class heroes – everymen doing extraordinary things. The two stars’ respective charm-laden film careers have a great deal in common too, running the leading man gamut from drama to thriller to comedy (Stewart’s “The Philadelphia Story” is a little classier than Hanks loving on a sheep in “Bachelor Party,” but you get the idea).