Dir. Leigh Whannell. Starring Elisabeth Moss, Aldis Hodge, Michael Dorman Metacritic’s compilation of year-end critics’ lists tells us that Time, Garrett Bradley’s documentary, ranks as the thirteenth most-noted film of the year. (They do some math, which you can read through for yourself.) The Invisible Man is fourteenth. I think it’s appropriate that both of… Read More The Invisible Man (2020)
Dir. Ridley Scott. Starring Josh Hartnett, Tom Sizemore, Sam Shepard One of the stupidest things anyone has ever said about war movies is that they’re all anti-war movies. This is Steven Spielberg’s interpretation, and while I don’t think it’s necessarily a popular one, there are definitely movies which are anti-something else which are frequently mistaken… Read More Black Hawk Down (2001)
Dir. Preston Sturges. Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn One assumes that the phrase “head over heels” used to be the much more evocative “heels over head,” seeing as the one we’re using now describes most of us who are not circus performers. Not every strange pratfall which strikes Charlie Pike (Fonda) has him… Read More The Lady Eve (1941)
Dir. William Friedkin. Starring Kenneth Nelson, Cliff Gorman, Leonard Frey Watching this movie, I wondered as much as anything else how it could possibly be remade. Some of this stuff would never work as drama; there’s almost a timeless quality to how much the second act is aggressively forced in ways that will always fall… Read More The Boys in the Band (1970)
Dir. Alex Gibney Alex Gibney is one of the clubhouse leaders in documentaries that make you shake your head and/or your fist at the screen as you watch. His skill is in clarifying potentially difficult storylines, making the corporate or technical or financial jargon of his stories into simply understood narratives. In a different time,… Read More Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005)
(After having waited a respectable some amount of time before engaging in a new poll/collation, I am asking you once again to engage with my pet interests. Results of a poll where you folks shared their Pixar thoughts and rankings is here; if you’d like to see what the consensus view of Pixar movies is… Read More Pixar Landing Page and Personal Rankings
I started this meta-analysis hoping to have somewhere between fifteen and twenty lists to go on. In the end I found forty, because the results kept shifting when I’d enter new data. For the Tarantino analysis, for example, adding more lists would basically just solidify where every movie landed. Here, though, there are multiple pairs… Read More Pixar Meta-Analysis
Dir. Steven Spielberg. Starring Eric Bana, Mathieu Amalric, Ciaran Hinds The final shot of Munich, in terms of detracted value, one of the very worst shots of Steven Spielberg’s career. I’m trying to forgive him, because better directors than him were shaken by 9/11 in ways that destabilized their own movies. For example, there’s that deeply… Read More Munich (2005)
Dir. Lana and Lilly Wachowski. Starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss The ’90s remain a key reference point for action films in this country, and to say “’90s action movie” is to call up larger than life scenarios and apocalyptic visions. There are significantly more ludicrous ’90s action movies than Point Break, say, but… Read More The Matrix (1999)
To see the results of last year’s Grouches and to check out the fuller version of the regulations, go here. The Grouches are back this year to award last year’s films, although I’ve timed this up to basically match this year’s Oscars. (Trust me, I’m glad to have the extra time!) Here are the short… Read More 2nd Annual Grouches: 2020 Movie Year Awards
Seeing Things Secondhand 