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Warner Brothers released “Casablanca” in New York on Nov. 26, 1942, which just happened to be Thanksgiving. But the romantic World War II drama starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid was anything but a turkey. To say the New York Times review was effusive is something of an understatement: “Warners here have a picture which makes the spine tingle and the heart take a leap….And they have so combined sentiment, humor and pathos with taut melodrama and bristling intrigue that the result is a highly entertaining and even inspiring film.”

And critical praise and audiences’ adoration continued when it opened in Los Angeles and nationwide in January 1943. It went on to win three Oscars for Best Picture, director for Michael Curtiz and adapted screenplay for Julius J. and Philip Epstein and Howard Koch. Let’s take a look back on the occasion of the 80th anniversary.

As time has gone by,...

From Knives Out to Joan Didion via Herman Hupfeld: we go down the rabbit hole of the Bond star’s career

Ana de Armas

After her star turn in whodunnit hit Knives Out Cuban-Spanish actor Ana de Armas was set to have a big 2020. But, well, Events got in the way. Finally, No Time to Die is out, with De Armas as Paloma, an agent who helps James Bond (played by her Knives Out co-star Daniel Craig).

Blonde

The pandemic delayed two more De Armas films: Deep Water, a thriller from veteran director of erotic-tinged shlock Adrian Lyne, which was also ground zero for her brief showmance with co-star Ben Affleck; and Blonde where she plays Marilyn Monroe in a movie adapted from a novel by Joyce Carol Oates.

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the release of "Crash" (on May 6, 2005), an all-star movie whose controversy came not from its provocative treatment of racial issues but from its Best Picture Oscar victory a few months later, against what many critics felt was a much more deserving movie, "Brokeback Mountain."

The "Crash" vs. "Brokeback" battle is one of those lingering disputes that makes the Academy Awards so fascinating, year after year. Moviegoers and critics who revisit older movies are constantly judging the Academy's judgment. Even decades of hindsight may not always be enough to tell whether the Oscar voters of a particular year got it right or wrong. Whether it's "Birdman" vs. "Boyhood," "The King's Speech" vs. "The Social Network," "Saving Private Ryan" vs. "Shakespeare in Love" or even "An American in Paris" vs. "A Streetcar Named Desire," we're still confirming the Academy's taste or dismissing it as hopelessly off-base years later.