Marjorie Baumgarten
Marjorie Baumgarten is a film critic and contributing writer at The Austin Chronicle, where she has worked in many capacities since the paper's founding in 1981. She served as the Chronicle's Film Reviews editor for 25 years.
Posted inScreens
Rebel Without a Cause
If you haven’t ever seen this Nicholas Ray/James Dean classic in widescreen … trust me, you’ve never really seen it. It’s been 40 years since James Dean essayed his quintessential role in as a troubled American teen and, along with co-stars Wood and Mineo, established an iconography of adolescence whose potency extends into the present. Ray, who told stories that were “bigger than life” and pulsing with “hot blood,” was one of the most dynamic directors of the American screen and his capacity to tell a widescreen story was as articulate as his ability to pinpoint an individual stuck “in a lonely place.”
Posted inScreens
The Glass Shield
In this often overlooked film by Charles Burnett (Killer of Sheep, To Sleep With Anger), a black cop in an all-white police station confronts racism from his colleagues and incredulity from his family and community
Posted inScreens
Doctor Zhivago
Directed by the modern-day king of epics, David Lean, this overlong and over-romantic Oscar-winner should be experienced by everyone at least once in a lifetime.