Dir. Kelly Fremon Craig. Starring Hailee Steinfeld, Blake Jenner, Kyra Sedgwick When Nadine (Steinfeld) is at a particularly low point, she launches herself into her more or less sympathetic history teacher’s classroom and launches into a string of word vomit. The movie wants to play some of it offhandedly, such as Nadine’s offering Mr. Bruner… Read More The Edge of Seventeen (2016)
For a brief introduction and a running list of movies covered in this project, click here The trouble with a top 100 list is usually #101. What follows here is not 101-125, and it shouldn’t be construed that way, but it is a list of movies that I thought about a great deal when I was… Read More Better Than BFI’s Top 100: Un Certain Regard
For a brief introduction and a running list of movies covered in this project, click here 1) Brief Encounter (1945), directed by David Lean I went back a few days ago and decided to count how many movies each director had contributed to this list. Mike Leigh was first, with seven entries. Then David Lean and Michael Powell,… Read More Better than BFI’s Top 100: 1
For a brief introduction and a running list of movies covered in this project, click here 4) Kes (1969), directed by Ken Loach Kes is the first foreign-language movie I’ve written about for this series (waits patiently for laughs). In seriousness, this is a fairly talky movie, done in Yorkshire accents so thick that I honestly wouldn’t… Read More Better than BFI’s Top 100: 4-2
Tim: We begin this at 2:30 a.m. to bring the True-True to You-You.. (I want it said that Matt has edited “you all” to You-You, so that’s auspicious.) Matt: I am the Author (like Rowling) Tim: Both of us are avowed Cloud Atlas fans, both the movie and the really exceptional book it’s based on,… Read More Baumann and Burch Conversations #15: Cloud Atlas
For a brief introduction and a running list of movies covered in this project, click here 7) Odd Man Out (1947), directed by Carol Reed 6) Hunger (2008), directed by Steve McQueen In the course of the past couple years, I have watched a number of movies from and about Ireland. I’ve seen Ken Loach’s takes, and John Ford’s… Read More Better than BFI’s Top 100: 7-5
For a brief introduction and a running list of movies covered in this project, click here 10) Don’t Look Now (1973), directed by Nicolas Roeg As a mystery in English, I’m not sure there’s another picture that compares to Don’t Look Now until Mulholland Drive, and even then those two movies take such different approaches to solving mysteries that… Read More Better than BFI’s Top 100: 10-8
For a brief introduction and a running list of movies covered in this project, click here 15) Mr. Turner (2014), directed by Mike Leigh J.M.W. Turner was famous for his seascapes. There’s nary a person to be found there; there are the clouds, the sun, the ships, of course the water. But people are of less interest,… Read More Better than BFI’s Top 100: 15-11
For a brief introduction and a running list of movies covered in this project, click here 20) Sapphire (1959), directed by Basil Dearden Murder will out, but what’s most interesting to me about the outing in this movie is the reaction. The primary suspect all along was David. His pregnant black girlfriend was found murdered in… Read More Better than BFI’s Top 100: 20-16
For a brief introduction and a running list of movies covered in this project, click here 25) Black Narcissus (1947), directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger Leonardo DiCaprio (Howard), Cate Blanchett (Kate), Jude Law (Errol), and Adam Scott (Johnny) are all sitting at a table together. Two of them are a little teed off about… Read More Better than BFI’s Top 100: 25-21
Seeing Things Secondhand 