Before the Internet, it was very clear to me that Luke Skywalker was the hero of the Star Wars films. He was the one imbued with special powers, the only good guy with a lightsaber, the one who blew up the first Death Star and who, in a sort of oblique way, was responsible for… Read More Star Wars I-VI Project: Episodes V-VI
Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Starring Brigitte Mira, El Hedi ben Salem, Barbara Valentin “You know Hitler?” “Hitler, yes.” Emmi (Mira) asks Ali (ben Salem) that question twice in this film. The first time, it’s the same night she’s met Ali. They’re sitting at her dinette maybe a couple of hours after they met for the… Read More Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
Dir. Patrick Garland. Starring Claire Bloom, Anthony Hopkins, Anna Massey For all of the hype about the end of A Doll’s House (which I rather prefer translated as “A Doll House” but which is not terribly important to what I’m saying here), one forgets that it reads rather like the second draft of a dramatic encounter on The… Read More A Doll’s House (1973)
Dir. Peter Jackson. Starring Viggo Mortensen, Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen. The Fellowship of the Ring – Plot As long as narrative fiction remains, there will always be a need for strong plots. John Gardner has been paraphrased as saying that there are only two plots in literature: “someone goes on a journey” or “a stranger… Read More Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003)
Dir. Rob Reiner. Starring Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher The difference between When Harry Met Sally (…, and you’re nuts if you think I’m going to type that every time) and every other romantic comedy is that When Harry Met Sally has the most boring plot. Bringing Up Baby throws Cary Grant and Kate Hepburn together via Baby, the… Read More When Harry Met Sally… (1989)
Dir. Ava DuVernay. Starring Michelle Alexander, Van Jones, Angela Davis When was the first time you were ashamed to be an American? I don’t just mean hurt, or looked askance, or felt a trigger of anxiety in your gut, but I mean just honest-to-goodness shame, the kind that horrifies you and makes you so angry you… Read More 13th (2016)
Dir. Laurent Cantet. Starring Francois Begaudeau, Franck Keita, Rachel Regulier The title of The Class, en francais, is Entre les murs. “Between the Walls” is a much better title for this film than “The Class.” What goes on between the walls of a classroom is not precisely secret, but it is meant to be self-contained. When Khoumba (Regulier)… Read More The Class (2008)
Dir. Ridley Scott. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young The opening shots of Blade Runner are a watershed moment, every bit as essential to the canon of opening scenes as Star Wars or Clockwork Orange or The Searchers. It is a perfect establishing shot, so much more than “look at this building we’re in.” It sets a tone for the entire… Read More Blade Runner (1982)
Dir. Robert Altman. Starring Ronee Blakley, Henry Gibson, Michael Murphy To me, the most remarkable thing about Nashville is that it places the American id not in New York City or Los Angeles, nor Boston or Texas or DC, but in Tennessee. It has the audacity to presume that something interesting has happened away from… Read More Nashville (1975)
Dir. Martin Scorsese. Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Winona Ryder The Age of Innocence is the mirror universe of Gangs of New York, films released and set less than ten years apart, with the same director and the same leading man. Admittedly, the differences begin to proliferate from there; Day-Lewis’ Newland Archer is never quite as… Read More The Age of Innocence (1993)
Seeing Things Secondhand 