Dir. David Dobnik. Starring Will Ferrell, Rachel McAdams, Dan Stevens I realize this is a recent release, so I’ll drop the spoilers tag, but also…come on. No one in Lars (Ferrell) and Sigrit’s (McAdams) hometown wants to hear their Eurovision song at any point in the movie. They’ll be at the bar performing, and Lars… Read More Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020)
Dir. Denis Villeneuve. Starring Emily Blunt, Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin For a while, there was something very 1970s about Sicario. Kate (Blunt) is someone who believes in the rule of law, which makes her a throwback, which makes her obsolete. She is surrounded by people who believe in winning more than they believe in stuff like… Read More Sicario (2015)
Dir. Fred Perry. Starring Burt Lancaster, Janet Landgard, Janice Rule It’s a shame this movie doesn’t work better. If it were made in the present, I like to think that some of the more surreal photography would be amplified, although what would be much more likely is that A24 would get a hold of the… Read More The Swimmer (1968)
Dir. William Wyler. Starring Barbra Streisand, Omar Sharif, Kay Medford I will come clean about this movie: I had not seen it until recently, and worse still, I didn’t know much more about it than what you’d need to get a question right on it at trivia (“barbra streisand oscar fanny brice funny girl my… Read More Funny Girl (1968)
Dir. Sydney Pollack. Starring Robert Mitchum, Ken Takakura, Keiko Kishi Remember when you were in college and you had that one friend who studied abroad in London for a semester, and when he came back he called it “football” and not “soccer” because he had been enlightened by three months there? The Yakuza is the movie equivalent… Read More The Yakuza (1974)
Dir. Spike Lee. Starring Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters, Jonathan Majors I’m on top of things! Spoilers! Golly! Watching this movie I got a feeling that reminded me of watching The Edge of Seventeen. In that movie, the teacher carts in a TV and the class starts watching Young Mr. Lincoln. It was at that moment that I… Read More Da 5 Bloods (2020)
Dir. Joel and Ethan Coen. Starring Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich Watching Hail, Caesar! with the knowledge that the Coens’ next movie is The Ballad of Buster Scruggs makes Caesar look better, a kind of “learning to walk before you can run” aspect. In Buster Scruggs, which is pure anthology, there is no central character to whom everyone is tied, functioning… Read More Hail, Caesar! (2016)
Dir. George Stevens. Starring Ronald Colman, Jean Arthur, Cary Grant For one reason or another, there are only so many movies that one can imagine being remade without serious alterations today: the business angle, the dearth of irony, the surfeit of suggestion. But it’s not hard to imagine The Talk of the Town coming out…well, you know… Read More The Talk of the Town (1942)
Dir. David Miller. Starring Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, James MacColl I’m not entirely sure where this paradox begins. When people read a story or watch a movie or whatever about a dramatic historical event, they look for the depiction thereof to have even more drama scooped on top of it. However, it stands to reason… Read More Executive Action (1973)
Dir. John Ford. Starring Richard Widmark, Carroll Baker, Gilbert Roland There’s a shot in Cheyenne Autumn that my little heart took note of, either because I am very sensitive to bravado or because I am very partisan. Wright (Walter Baldwin), a Quaker ministering to the Cheyenne’s needs on the reservation as best he can, works with his… Read More Cheyenne Autumn (1964)
Seeing Things Secondhand 