Dir. George Cukor. Starring Judy Garland, James Mason, Charles Bickford Dir. William Wyler. Starring Olivia de Havilland, Miriam Hopkins, Montgomery Clift A Star Is Born stands as a sort of caduceus, a mere movie entwined by the serpents “joyous star vehicle” and “anthropological document.” On one hand, this is Judy Garland’s last stand. “The Man That… Read More A Star Is Born (1954) and The Heiress (1954)
Dir. Paul Mazursky. Starring Natalie Wood, Elliott Gould, Dyan Cannon Dir. Oliver Stone. Starring Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Robert Downey, Jr. Anything which is even vaguely critical of its time and place is all too easily labeled a “satire,” and any time an open-class word gets overused it becomes diluted. We’ve lost something important in… Read More Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) and Natural Born Killers (1994)
Dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Starring Ann Sothern, Linda Darnell, Jeanne Crain Dir. Vincente Minnelli. Starring Kirk Douglas, Lana Turner, Walter Pidgeon In the wake of film noir, which used voiceovers and flashbacks to greater effect than ever before, A Letter to Three Wives and The Bad and the Beautiful are logical conclusions outside the genre. A Letter to Three… Read More A Letter to Three Wives (1949) and The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
Dir. Richard Linklater. Starring the entire population of Austin, Texas, but not nearly enough Butthole Surfers. Dir. Nicholas Roeg. Starring Jenny Agutter, Luc Roeg, David Gulpilil Do you have a favorite drip in Jackson Pollock’s Full Fathom Five? Does one of the nails he hammered into his canvas stand out? It’s much the same in Slacker, an… Read More Slacker (1990) and Walkabout (1971)
Dir. Vincente Minnelli. Starring Louis Jourdan, Leslie Caron, Hermione Gingold Dir. Gus Van Sant. Starring River Phoenix, Keanu Reeves, William Richert “Thank heaven for little girls,” Honoré (Maurice Chevalier) sings, and it’s as apt an opening for the film as there could be; there can be no question of why they are thanking heaven. The men… Read More Gigi (1958) and My Own Private Idaho (1991)
Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos. Starring Angeliki Papoulia, Christos Stergioglou, Mary Tsoni. Dir. Nicholas Ray. Starring James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo. I don’t think anyone besides crusty parents and out-of-touch principals ever denies that growing up is difficult, and even then those people only exist in the pictures. Certainly this is the premise of Rebel Without a Cause,… Read More Dogtooth (2009) and Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
Dir. Roman Polanski. Starring Natassja Kinski, Peter Firth, Leigh Lawson Dir. Delbert Mann. Starring David Niven, Burt Lancaster, Rita Hayworth Two scenes from Tess, one of the great movies of the 1970s, made me wonder what the movie would have been like in another director’s hands. When Angel (Firth) returns from Brazil, with a shaggier beard… Read More Tess (1979) and Separate Tables (1958)
Dir. Breck Eisner. Starring Matthew McConaughey, Steve Zahn, Penelope Cruz Dir. Kerry Conran. Starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Giovanni Ribisi Two blockbusters, like in indignity, In the mid-aughts, where we lay our blame, From seared desert to dieselpunk city, Where bad reviews force bad pictures aflame. In Sahara, a group of ex-Navy Americans assist a… Read More Sahara (2005) and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)
Dir. Albert Brooks. Starring Albert Brooks, Julie Hagerty, Garry Marshall Dir. John Carpenter. Starring Roddy Piper, Keith David, Peter Jason Any fool can point at an American movie from the ’80s and say, with some authority, “Well, I declare! This picture here’s a critique of Reagan-era capitalistic excess!” What strikes me about the pairing of… Read More Lost in America (1985) and They Live (1988)
Dir. Mike Leigh. Starring Alison Steadman, Jane Horrocks, Jim Broadbent Dir. Greta Gerwig. Starring Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts Some spoilers below for Lady Bird. And Life is Sweet, too, but that movie is older than me and I think I’ll be forgiven for “spoiling” it. Patience is a virtue, so we hear, and… Read More Life is Sweet (1990) and Lady Bird (2017)
Seeing Things Secondhand 