Dir. Clarence Brown. Starring Mickey Rooney, James Craig, Frank Morgan I enter ninety percent of the movies I watch with an almost a ludicrous amount of optimism. I want them to surprise me and move me; at least once a week, I think to myself as I start a movie, “Maybe this will be the… Read More The Human Comedy (1943)
Dir. Amma Asante. Starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Sam Reid, Sarah Gadon When Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai, he sent back this answer: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place,… Read More Belle (2013)
Dir. Rick Alverson. Starring Tye Sheridan, Jeff Goldblum, Hannah Gross The movie this most reminded me of was Solaris, and it had everything to do with the production design. It’s not the look of it so much, for Solaris is a film which constantly has something jutting out of a wall or something on the… Read More The Mountain (2018)
Dir. David Lean. Starring Ann Todd, Ralph Richardson, Nigel Patrick Dir. Christopher Nolan. Starring John David Washington, Elizabeth Debicki, Robert Pattinson In two bloated ages of blockbuster filmmaking, David Lean and Christopher Nolan are curious rejoinders to their times. Lean, while not immune to the bloat of the 1950s and 1960s, made films which more… Read More The Sound Barrier (1952) and Tenet (2020)
Dir. Sidney Lumet. Starring Al Pacino, Charles Durning, James Broderick Enter another one of those Andy Griffith Conundrums, although maybe this is more like a Daniel Kaluuya Conundrum. Like Judas and the Black Messiah, a film based on actual events which featured name-brand actors in leading roles, Dog Day Afternoon makes most of its hay… Read More Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
Dir. Fred Schepisi. Starring Steve Martin, Daryl Hannah, Shelley Duvall I’ve been watching this movie for, oh, fifteen years or so now, but it’s taken me until this most recent viewing to see what Fred Schepisi saw when he was making this movie. (Maybe I was dazzled by the pitch-perfect ’80s theme by Bruce Smeaton,… Read More Roxanne (1987)
Dir. John Ford. Starring Henrietta Crosman, Maurice Murphy, Marian Nixon Pilgrimage is built on three shots. Not scenes, not sequences, not moments, but shots. Pilgrimage, John Ford on a diet of F.W. Murnau, designed this film around three shots. The characters, the story, the beats, the emotions, the ideas: they are all sublimated to these… Read More Pilgrimage (1933)
(To see the results of last year’s Grouches, go here. To see the first Grouches, which also carries a significantly more complete version of my criteria, go here.) The Grouches are back this year to award last year’s films, although I’ve timed this up to be on a similar timeframe for the Oscars. (I got… Read More 3rd Annual Grouches: 2021 Movie Year Awards
With the Oscars around the corner, I’m doing blurbs for each of this year’s Best Picture nominees in lieu of full reviews. (I don’t plan anything I do, so I’ve linked to ones with reviews already published…) I’ve ranked the films from best to worst below as a method of organization. Occasionally I’ll reference my… Read More 94th Academy Awards Best Picture Nominees, Ranked
To borrow a melody from Tom Lehrer: All the board members Hate the craft guilds And the craft guilds Hate the board members All the publicists Hate the press corps And we all hate ABC. That’s right, it’s now two weeks away from the Academy Awards, and we’re all tired of thinking about these movies… Read More The Worst Oscar Categories of the Expanded Nominee Era
Seeing Things Secondhand 