Dir. Chloe Zhao. Starring Frances McDormand, David Strathairn, Bob Wells Nomadland is a movie in two halves, both of which I found confusing. In the first half, a woman named Fern (McDormand) gets into a lifestyle called vandwelling, which as far as I can tell is exactly what it should be called, and meets a number… Read More Nomadland (2020)
Dir. Shaka King. Starring Daniel Kaluuya, Lakeith Stanfield, Dominique Fishback Judas and the Black Messiah is a great title. Catchy, memorable, SEO-friendly. We clearly have a sense of what’s going to happen, even if the viewer has never heard of Fred Hampton (Kaluuya), let alone Bill O’Neal (Stanfield), although, as K. Austin Collins of Rolling Stone… Read More Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)
Dir. John Lee Hancock. Starring Michael Keaton, Nick Offerman, John Carroll Lynch Ray Kroc (Keaton) has no gift for sales pitches, which is the first sign we have that he’s built for something very different. The chicken and the egg pitch he has for the five-spindle milkshake maker he’s hocking never works on anyone, although… Read More The Founder (2016)
Dir. Eliza Hittman. Starring Sidney Flanigan, Talia Ryder, Théodore Pellerin After Autumn (Flanigan) has gotten her first appointment finished at the Manhattan Planned Parenthood, she’s back in a transit station with Skylar (Ryder). Autumn is taciturn, perhaps more actively standoffish and brusque with her cousin than she is at any other point in the movie.… Read More Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020)
Directed Michael Mann. Starring James Caan, Tuesday Weld, Robert Prosky The opening sequence of Thief is gorgeous in that sort of meretricious urban way. Neon lights blurring out the moon, dark asphalt streets, wet pockets in potholes, the lights of cars glowing: it’s all very yellow fog rubbing its back against the window-panes. Watching Thief, I was put… Read More Thief (1981)
Dir. W.S. Van Dyke. Starring Jeanette MacDonald, Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy Dir. Jan Troell. Starring Gene Hackman, Liv Ullmann, Eileen Heckart There’s nothing inherently weird about the idea of a disaster movie where the first three-quarters of it have nothing to do with the disaster itself. The reason Titanic turned into this enormous phenomenon was not really… Read More San Francisco (1936) and Zandy’s Bride (1974)
Dir. David Fincher. Starring Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Stellan Skarsgard All of us can name action movies or thrillers which don’t have all that much perspective to speak of, but have enough of a plot to remain entertaining and effective. This is Se7en, a movie which gets a lot of plot mileage out of punning… Read More The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
Dir. Jon Watts. Starring Tom Holland, Jacob Batalon, Michael Keaton At the time I’m writing this, I have seen seventeen MCU movies; the first half of this sentence gives me heartburn. For the most part, those movies are like going to a fast casual joint. Even if you order the wackiest cheesecake off the menu… Read More Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Dir. Steven Spielberg. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken Steven Spielberg’s top six movies, per the AFI in 2007: Schindler’s List (8th) E.T. (24th) Jaws (56th) Raiders of the Lost Ark (66th) Saving Private Ryan (71st) Close Encounters of the Third Kind (64th in 1998, off the list in 2007) Steven Spielberg’s top seven movies, per Metacritic:… Read More Catch Me if You Can (2002)
Dir. Steven Soderbergh. Starring Julia Roberts, Albert Finney, Aaron Eckhart At the end of the movie, two final scenes find an ugliness in this movie’s heart that I’m not entirely sure the movie would think is ugly. In the first, Brockovich (Roberts) receives a check from Masry (Finney) which he “warns” her is not the… Read More Erin Brockovich (2000)
Seeing Things Secondhand 