Dir. Barbet Schroeder. Starring Jeremy Irons, Ron Silver, Glenn Close I think if screened Reversal of Fortune for ten other people and then asked them what they thought the film was about, I would get at least seven or eight different answers. Is it about Claus von Bulow (Irons), far and away the most interesting person… Read More Reversal of Fortune (1990)
Dir. Michael Cimino. Starring Kris Kristofferson, Isabelle Huppert, Jeff Bridges At the end of the movie – and I mean the Director’s Cut, which is a pretty nimble three and a half hours – we’ve been transported to a place that the film never hinted we’d go to. After a relatively quick stop at Harvard… Read More Heaven’s Gate (1980)
Dir. Cy Endfield. Starring Stanley Baker, Michael Caine, Nigel Green Just about everything has contradictions at its heart if you dig enough, but Zulu wears that contradiction at its most surface level. In 2017, it’s a movie fraught with the complications we attach to the burgeoning postcolonial period which also bears strong and obvious similarities… Read More Zulu (1964)
About a year and a half ago, I was working on a short project where I wrote about fifty different showtunes from different musicals which I enjoyed a lot. I haven’t touched the genre very much since then on this site, mostly because I’m kind of tapped out on the subject. But while I was… Read More “I Don’t Care Much,” from Cabaret
I’ve completed a series of episode-by-episode reviews of the marvelous television miniseries Brideshead Revisited. I’ve decided to make it easier to access these posts as part of a group by making this page as an index. I’ve also added a short synopsis of each episode so that you can find what you’re looking for quickly.… Read More Brideshead Revisited (1981)
Dir. Charles Sturridge. Starring Jeremy Irons, Laurence Olivier, Diana Quick (My thoughts on the preceding episode are here.) Daniel Day-Lewis is, by virtually any standard short of the box office, the greatest film actor we’ve ever had. Nine times out of ten I think so. And then, that one time out of ten, I think… Read More Brideshead Revisited S1E11, “Brideshead Revisited”
You can read up on the basis for this series here, and also find links to other posts in the series. Movies I’ve reviewed on this site have a link in the title which you can follow to read my full review. 5) Groundhog Day (1993), directed by Harold Ramis “What if a man… Read More 100 Exceptional American Movies in 10 Genres: Speculative, 5-1
Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos. Starring Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Lea Seydoux Upon reflection, it’s stunning how many of our expectations about marriage are ridiculed, satirized, or otherwise contended with in The Lobster, and how often it’s done well. Forty-five days to meet a mate corresponds with our own arbitrary yet nearly ironclad ideas about how old… Read More The Lobster (2015)
You can read up on the basis for this series here, and also find links to other posts in the series. Movies I’ve reviewed on this site have a link in the title which you can follow to read my full review. 10) Arrival (2016), directed by Denis Villeneuve “What if communicating with aliens… Read More 100 Exceptional American Movies in 10 Genres: Speculative, 10-6
Dir. Christopher Nolan. Starring Fionn Whitehead, Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy Spoilers follow Dunkirk is bent on undoing its emotional work through its structure. The movie is already bound, even at a week old, to reach Memento levels of discussion of its timeline. Three plots intersect over the course of the film. One focuses on a… Read More Dunkirk (2017)
Seeing Things Secondhand 