Dir. Dario Argento. Starring Jessica Harper, Stefania Casini, Alida Valli Suspiria is what you’d get if Michael Powell and John Carpenter were forced to do a movie together, combining stunning color with marvelously eerie settings. Like the best of Powell’s work, a good but somewhat outmatched woman is at the center of the movie; like… Read More Suspiria (1977)
Dir. Michael Hoffman. Starring Kevin Kline, Emile Hirsch, Steven Culp The weather is a lie in The Emperor’s Club, set at a boys’ school (and later at a company retreat in Long Island) where the sun always shines and the sky never ever hints at rain. There’s a snowball fight for about three seconds during… Read More The Emperor’s Club (2002)
Dir. Whit Stillman. Starring Chloe Sevigny, Chris Eigeman, Kate Beckinsale No one with a name seems able to have fun in The Last Days of Disco, and no one is keen to expose him- or herself as a genuine human being. Obviously, this is a tricky line to walk in a discotheque, perhaps to the… Read More The Last Days of Disco (1998)
In this episode of the B&B B&B, the two of us take a deep dive into the Better than AFI’s Top 100 list that Tim has spent a lot of time on in the past few months. We talk about some top choices on the list, discuss directors who are well represented, and mention a… Read More Baumann and Burch, Episode 36: The Triple Pronged Genre Question
Dir. Ernst Lubitsch. Starring Herbert Marshall, Kay Francis, Miriam Hopkins In the last scene of Trouble in Paradise, which calls back to some of the funnier moments early on in the movie, Lily (Hopkins) and Gaston (Marshall) have stolen objects from one another. Lily walked out with 100,000 francs originally belonging to Madame Mariette Colet… Read More Trouble in Paradise (1932)
Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. Starring Farley Granger, Robert Walker, Ruth Roman Hitchcock doesn’t waste any time getting to the plot in this movie, which is a delectable little truffle among Hitchcock’s movie scenarios. Among his better, or at least his most famous movies, this rush to get to the meat of it is a little unusual.… Read More Strangers on a Train (1951)
Dir. David Fincher. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey, Jr. Zodiac is a film which seems like it ought to be easily classifiable in several ways. It’s a period piece, but aside from some appropriate costume and facial hair, it’s does not flaunt its period credentials. (I forget where I originally read the following… Read More Zodiac (2007)
(For an introduction to the project and an index of other entries in the series, click here. For a list of more than 800 films which I considered for the top 450 and my eligibility qualifications, click here. And for a way to vote on what you think the top 100 American narrative fiction feature films are, click here.… Read More Better than AFI’s Top 100: Un Certain Regard
The following is part of an overview of the top 100 American narrative fiction feature films, from my perspective. For an introduction to the project and an index of other entries in the series, click here. For a list of more than 800 films which I considered for the top 450 and my eligibility qualifications, click here.… Read More Better than AFI’s Top 100: 1
The following is part of an overview of the top 100 American narrative fiction feature films, from my perspective. For an introduction to the project and an index of other entries in the series, click here. For a list of more than 800 films which I considered for the top 450 and my eligibility qualifications, click here.… Read More Better than AFI’s Top 100: 4-2
Seeing Things Secondhand 