Dir. Lana Wachowski, Andy Wachowski, Tom Tykwer. Starring Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Doona Bae Mark Harris, whose best work as a film critic concerns the larger trend of American studios making the safest decisions possible to the detriment of American film, has spent years on the topic by now. I don’t know what his opinion… Read More Cloud Atlas (2012)
Dir. Dan Gilroy. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Riz Ahmed, Rene Russo Lou Bloom (Gyllenhaal) is an enterprising American entrepreneur. Almost entirely self-trained, with the help of some business classes from the Internet, he represents the “school of hard knocks” approach to building a company. Through a combination of dogged persistence, on-scene training, hard work, and a… Read More Nightcrawler (2014)
In this edition of the podcast, Matt and I let our thoughts fly free about Rogue One. We get down and dirty to talk about acceptable terrorism, make a rather tasteless comparison between one character and Oskar Schindler, praise the ability of a cast without a single A-lister, and preview our next podcast, where we’ll find a… Read More Baumann and Burch, Episode 31: I See the Bad Death Star Rising
Dir. Denis Villeneuve. Starring Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker Amy Adams’ star image is like a braid. One strand is defined by Enchanted, but also includes Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Junebug, Catch Me if You Can, Julie and Julia, and The Muppets. Adams is, for my money, the most beautiful redheaded actress… Read More Arrival (2016)
Dir. Ronald F. Maxwell. Starring Tom Berenger, Jeff Daniels, Martin Sheen I can’t think of another movie made in the past quarter-century which should have seen big screens less than Gettysburg. This isn’t a statement of the film’s quality, but of its marketability, because let’s face it, this is a unicorn of a film. Longer… Read More Gettysburg (1993)
Dir. Jan Troell. Starring Max von Sydow, Liv Ullmann, Eddie Axberg (This review is a bit more awkward than the average movie review I do, because The Emigrants is not really its own film any more than Fellowship of the Ring is its own film. The New Land, released the year after The Emigrants, is… Read More The Emigrants (1971)
Dir. Richard Linklater. Starring Jason London, Rory Cochrane, Matthew McConaughey Deadwood, the Joe Rudi of Peak TV, takes the murder of Wild Bill Hickok more or less as its starting point. It’s a great place to start your TV show, especially if you’re a viewer who has never heard of Will Bill, knows he’s being… Read More Dazed and Confused (1993)
Dir. Alan Parker. Starring Barry Miller, Maureen Teefy, Gene Anthony Ray A fun thought exercise for future car trips: what’s your trilogy of (insert city here) movies? For example, my Los Angeles trilogy features Sunset Boulevard, Blade Runner, and Pulp Fiction (with special apologies to Double Indemnity and Chinatown). I’ve given less thought to my… Read More Fame (1980)
Welcome back to Grandiose Matt & Tim, where we work out the great American movies of all time. (Click on this link to see not just our top combined scorers, but our perspectives on other films as well.) Not only do we give our perspective on our top scoring films and make some basic tiers,… Read More Baumann and Burch, Episode 30: The Podcast Is Older Than Us (And So Are the Movies)
Matt and I talk about some movies that we really think you need to watch. Find out just how artsy-fartsy Tim can get when he talks about foreign films (made in the countries which were America’s enemies during the middle of the 20th Century, so how’s that for being anti-American), and discover how Matt’s lowbrow… Read More Baumann and Burch, Episode 29: I Like Movies with Lots of Pretty Flowers…Being Crushed by a Giant Pterodactyl
Seeing Things Secondhand 