I Made a Better “Best 101 Acting Performances of the 21st Century” Than The Ringer While My Cat Was Barfing

Exactly what the title says. I took Toby to the vet (he’s acting normal except for the throwing up thing, he should be fine) and got home around 5:30. I’m starting the actual writing of this list at 7:30. The goal is to finish within three hours or so. (Update: three hours and thirteen minutes.… Read More I Made a Better “Best 101 Acting Performances of the 21st Century” Than The Ringer While My Cat Was Barfing

August 25, 2025August 25, 2025 Tim4 Comments

Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964)

Dir. Bryan Forbes. Starring Kim Stanley, Richard Attenborough, Gerald Sim For so much of this film, less is more. In one of the film’s early sequences, Myra (Stanley) is revealing the remade child’s bedroom to her husband, Billy (Attenborough). It’s been redone to look like a hospital room, which Billy guesses at; Myra is dead… Read More Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964)

October 27, 2021 TimLeave a comment

The Cincinnati Kid (1965)

Dir. Norman Jewison. Starring Steve McQueen, Edward G. Robinson, Karl Malden Spoilers follow…I almost never do spoiler warnings, and I can’t remember if I’ve ever done one for a film from the 20th Century. Yet this film ends so dramatically and boldly that the shock, one way or another, feels especially meaningful. It’s not a… Read More The Cincinnati Kid (1965)

July 12, 2021 Tim1 Comment

Erin Brockovich (2000)

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)

January 18, 2021 TimLeave a comment

Steve Jobs (2015)

Dir. Danny Boyle. Starring Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Jeff Daniels About an hour into Steve Jobs, it’s clear that something about the movie just isn’t working well enough. The first forty minutes are remarkably tight, so direct and effective that it’s easy to forget the freewheeling Danny Boyle is behind the wheel with a roadmap… Read More Steve Jobs (2015)

January 4, 2021 TimLeave a comment

Where’d You Go, Bernadette (2019)

Dir. Richard Linklater. Starring Cate Blanchett, Emma Nelson, Billy Crudup Where’d You Go, Bernadette is a truly rare thing: a movie that runs at about 105 minutes that really ought to run about 135. Anyone who’s watched an Oscar movie will know that the opposite is so much more often the experience, but like Nocturnal Animals,… Read More Where’d You Go, Bernadette (2019)

February 14, 2020 TimLeave a comment

Marriage Story (2019)

Dir. Noah Baumbach. Starring Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, Azhy Robertson This came out yesterday, so I guess spoilers, but also if you’re worried about spoilers don’t go on Twitter either. Until the fight, I felt like Marriage Story worked. The fight is not a bad scene, especially if one was waiting for an earthshaking screaming match to… Read More Marriage Story (2019)

December 7, 2019 Tim1 Comment

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)

Dir. Mervyn LeRoy. Starring Paul Muni, Edward Ellis, Glenda Farrell There’s a lot that doesn’t make sense about the last half-hour of Fugitive. James Allen (Muni) is a sucker, and apparently so is his lawyer, who has the foresight to tell him not to return to the Southern state he’s escaped from but doesn’t have the… Read More I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)

November 9, 2019 Tim1 Comment

Starman (1984)

Dir. John Carpenter. Starring Karen Allen, Jeff Bridges, Charles Martin Smith What separates grief from its lesser emotional cousins is how total it is, how difficult it is to shake, how nearly it stalks. In a film filled with gorgeous moments, the one that stands out most to me takes place in a truck stop… Read More Starman (1984)

November 5, 2019 Tim1 Comment

The Lighthouse (2019)

Dir. Robert Eggers. Starring Robert Pattinson, Willem Dafoe, a very sassy bird As this is still in theaters, here’s a spoiler warning, but also I don’t know that this is a movie someone who cares about spoilers would be into, so… Persona: Ingmar Bergman’s twenty-seventh movie 3 Women: Robert Altman’s fourteenth movie Mulholland Drive:… Read More The Lighthouse (2019)

November 2, 2019December 18, 2019 TimLeave a comment

Seeing Things Secondhand

Category: Actor Showcases