Dir. Clint Eastwood. Starring Meryl Streep, Clint Eastwood, Annie Corley The Bridges of Madison County is empty. In a movie that needs beautiful moments to live, there is only one beautiful moment in the entire flick. Happily it occurs at a key moment, lingering on a turn signal, the sight of a man through a windshield,… Read More The Bridges of Madison County (1995)
Dir. John Ford. Starring John Wayne, John Agar, Ben Johnson She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is a better synopsis than a movie, which is hardly an uncommon problem for a movie, but rarely has that been more disappointing for me as a viewer. In practice, it makes for a lumpy flick without much feel for when… Read More She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)
Dir. Gabriel Axel. Starring Birgitte Federspiel, Bodil Kjer, Jarl Kulle Watch enough celebrity chefs and listen to them talk, and one of the common themes they always come back to is the belief in food done “simply.” Simplicity is a devilishly tricky noun, one that, given some of the dishes we see coming out of… Read More Babette’s Feast (1987)
Dir. John Ford. Starring Ben Johnson, Ward Bond, Harry Carey, Jr. Travis (Johnson) has decided, a little foolishly, to check out a geographical formation in the distance. He’s not sure where he is, though Sandy (Carey) seems to vaguely remember it. Predictably, Travis rides into a small band of Navajo who give chase to him.… Read More Wagon Master (1950)
Dir. Terry Zwigoff. Starring Thora Birch, Steve Buscemi, Scarlett Johansson While I was in college, one of my professors referred to a mutual acquaintance as an “LSEOR” (ell-see-or), which stands for “low self-esteem overreactor.” Enid (Birch) must be able to see the relevance of that acronym to her personality, but the true LSEOR would overreact… Read More Ghost World (2001)
Dir. Elliot Silverstein. Starring Jane Fonda, Michael Callan, Lee Marvin I wish they’d just gone for it. There are moments of sheer joy in Cat Ballou. Jed (Dwayne Hickman), in his parson get-up, runs through the same speech half a dozen times in an attempt to get in to Clay (Callan), currently under arrest by… Read More Cat Ballou (1965)
Dir. Jacques Tourneur. Starring Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph In a movie which does not shy away from meaningful monologues, the most telling and troubling monologue of all belongs to Oliver Reed (Kent Smith, not the actual Oliver Reed, who was like, four when this movie came out). I’ve always been happy, he tells… Read More Cat People (1942)
Dir. Douglas Sirk. Starring Robert Stack, Lauren Bacall, Rock Hudson Written on the Wind is stuck in a really strange place for a movie. It chips at the very limits of frankness and decency for its time period, but to work well it has to go much further than all that 1956 could allow. The story… Read More Written on the Wind (1956)
You can read up on the basis for this series here, and also find links to other posts in the series. Movies I’ve reviewed on this site have a link in the title which you can follow to read my full review. 5) Fantasia (1940), directed by (deep breath) Samuel Armstrong, James Algar, Bill Roberts, Paul… Read More 100 Exceptional American Movies in 10 Genres: Sprawling, 5-1
Dir. James Ivory. Starring Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, James Fox Someone famous and distant is supposed to have said, “Hominem unius libri timeo,” or, “I fear the man of one book.” The phrase is pleasingly ambiguous. One might fear the man of “one book” because he has great learning in a subject which outstrips our… Read More The Remains of the Day (1993)
Seeing Things Secondhand 