Alan J. Pakula: The King of Paranoia

by Cláudio Alves

This summer, several of Warner Bros. classics have become available to stream on HBO Max. Among them are a good variety from the 1970s, including some of the best movies of New Hollywood's most underrated master of cinema. We're talking about Alan J. Pakula, a director whose pictures came to embody the mood of that decade, full of misanthropic discontentment and a sense that the world is diseased, people are out to get you and safety is unachievable. Alan J. Pakula was truly the king of cinematic paranoia…

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50th Anniversary: Liza Minnelli in "The Sterile Cuckoo"

by Camila Henriques

Pookie Adams is one of a kind. When we first meet her, she’s on her way to college and is the type of quick witted character that could very well be the Adam’s rib to the Amy Sherman-Palladino girls we have loved for the past two decades. With her round glasses and pixie haircut, Liza Minnelli’s Pookie is easy to love in Alan J. Pakula’s The Sterile Cuckoo. As the film turns 50 today (!), it’s magical to witness how  Judy and Vincente's offspring always had a sparkle of her own, capable of turning a manic pixie dream girl archetype into a layered character that rightfully earned her that first Oscar nod.

Liza was by no means a newcomer when The Sterile Cuckoo came out. A child of Hollywood, she famously grew up on hotels and movie sets and, at the age of 17, made her debut in an off-Broadway play and did a number of performances alongside mama Garland...

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