The following is from my series of Oscar Best Picture rankings, as well as my strongly worded suggestions for what should have won from among the nominees. For an introduction to the project, click here. For a way to vote on some Oscar-related ideas, click here. If I’ve written a review on any of the… Read More Better than the Oscars: 85-81
The following is from my series of Oscar Best Picture rankings, as well as my strongly worded suggestions for what should have won from among the nominees. For an introduction to the project, click here. For a way to vote on some Oscar-related ideas, click here. If I’ve written a review on any of the… Read More Better than the Oscars: 90-86
You can follow this link to vote in a poll on which Best Picture winners are the greatest of all time, and to give your opinion on the Oscars ceremony as well. Caring about the Oscars—really caring, the way I did ten years ago—is silly. No one seriously pretends that the Academy Awards are given… Read More Better than the Oscars 2018: Ranking the Best Picture Winners, and Who Should Have Won
Dir. Jim Henson. Starring Jennifer Connelly, David Bowie, Brian Henson I suppose that there are worse things than being an ’80s cult classic, but I also don’t think that description does Labyrinth justice. This is, full stop, a really good movie and a thoughtful one too. It is a movie which understands teenagers about as… Read More Labyrinth (1986)
Dir. Charlie Kaufman. Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams Everyone loves Caden Cotard’s (Hoffman) production of Death of a Salesman. He casts young people to play older ones, and in so doing has put in the mind of the audience the sense that eventually young people will turn old, and dawn will go down… Read More Synecdoche, New York (2008)
Dir. Danny Boyle. Starring Ewan McGregor, Robert Carlyle, Ewen Bremner I’m not a drug user, nor have I ever been. Movies about drug use overwhelmingly bore me, I guess, because I have no point of reference. I’ve ignored Trainspotting for many years largely because I couldn’t imagine finding a movie about heroin addicts interesting, and… Read More Trainspotting (1996)
Dir. Edgar Wright. Starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield (The following review is about an extremely funny movie that made me laugh a great deal. Since so much relies upon Simon Pegg’s surprising physical humor or Nick Frost’s indelible line deliveries, I’m not going to try to do justice to those…it’s more respectful to… Read More Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Dir. Peter Weir. Starring Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris, Dragos Bucur The Way Back is awfully cool to the touch, which is an issue I’ve always had with Peter Weir movies. His films, so frequently conceptual and odd, sound like movies I would love but all too often devolve into these technically remarkable and emotionally empty endurance… Read More The Way Back (2010)
Dir. William Wyler. Starring Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, Fay Bainter Jezebel is a Civil War movie without a single glance at the Civil War, as its story ends sometime in 1853, but the movie still leans heavily on the Lost Cause mythology which permeates so much Hollywood filmmaking. (The article I’ve linked to does a… Read More Jezebel (1938)
Dir. David Lean. Starring Victor Banerjee, Judy Davis, Peggy Ashcroft In The Love Bug, Jim Douglas does not want that little car at first. If Herbie were some average automobile, then the movie would be over in five minutes. (Or, alternately, might have taken a very dark and un-Disney turn as Dean Jones plays an… Read More A Passage to India (1984)
Seeing Things Secondhand 