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)
Dir. Henri-Georges Clouzot. Starring Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Folco Lulli The Wages of Fear is a two and a half hour movie. I was surprised at the length, knowing what I knew about it before viewing for the first time: some guys have to haul nitroglycerine across some hazardous terrain, and some obvious problems ensue.… Read More The Wages of Fear (1953)
Dir. Michael Haneke. Starring Emmanuelle Riva, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Isabelle Huppert After Anne has had her first stroke – indeed, towards the tail end of her life as a more or less ambulatory, thinking human being – she and Georges are eating a meal together. He’s almost cleared his plate. She still has a fair bit… Read More Amour (2012)
Dir. Steven Spielberg. Starring Sam Neill, Richard Attenborough, Laura Dern As a general rule, I don’t make a habit of seeing blockbusters in theaters. Most of them don’t really interest me, and I am in deep superhero-movie fatigue; the concept of the Marvel Universe painstakingly coming to film after film after film, an idea that… Read More Jurassic Park (1993)
Dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Starring Deborah Kerr, Kathleen Byron, David Farrar Once again, I find myself a little lost for words trying to talk about a Powell and Pressburger movie, so once again I’ll go to a shot and try to work backwards. There are fewer famous images in Black Narcissus than in… Read More Black Narcissus (1947)
In the sudden tradition that we’ve come across, we’ve made a Top 100 Disney Songs list that you can see below. We bring back Josh to talk Disney with us, and we spare no thought for scope of this audio feast: we discuss whether Disney’s rollicking tunes or its introspective ballads are its most indicative… Read More Baumann and Burch, Episode 18: Jiminy Brisket
Dir. Tom McCarthy. Starring Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams With about half an hour left in Spotlight – one of those two hour movies which is punctual about its length – Mike Rezendes (Ruffalo) is on Sacha Pfeiffer’s (McAdams) porch, calmer than he was a few minutes ago but still blindingly angry. He has… Read More Spotlight (2015)
Seeing Things Secondhand 