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) The Thing (1982), directed by John Carpenter It’s worth noting that the… Read More 100 Exceptional American Movies in 10 Genres: Location, 5-1
Dir. Richard Linklater. Starring Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy “I know, because I’ve actually already lived through this night,” Jesse (Hawke) says to Celine (Delpy) eighteen years after his first night with her. “I’m a time traveler.” Jesse’s verbal play isn’t delivered with a grin but with more grim intensity, surely, than he means to let… Read More Before Trilogy: Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), Before Midnight (2013)
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) Once Upon a Time in America (1984), directed by Sergio Leone. Once… Read More 100 Exceptional American Movies in 10 Genres: Location, 10-6
Dir. Charles Sturridge. Starring Jeremy Irons, Diana Quick, Phoebe Nicholls (My thoughts on the preceding episode are here.) It takes the greater part of the first episode, all of the second, and all but the last thirty seconds of the third to build us up to a state of great joy in Charles and Sebastian’s… Read More Brideshead Revisited S1E10, “A Twitch Upon the Thread”
Dir. Giuseppe Tornatore. Starring Jacques Perrin, Philippe Noiret, Marco Leonardi Cinema Paradiso is in many respects kind of a bad movie. It has a problem with its ending, which is not really its own ending so much as an ending pieced together from the endings of a great many other films. Depending on your point… Read More Cinema Paradiso (1988)
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 use to read my full review. 5) Election (1999), directed by Alexander Payne. I’ve written this a thousand times,… Read More 100 Exceptional American Movies in 10 Genres: Young Adult, 5-1
You can read up on the basis for this series here, and also find links to other posts in the series. 10) Breaking Away (1979), directed by Peter Yates It’s funny, but the first time I watched Breaking Away I thought I wasn’t awfully invested in the movie. But then the Italians came to town… Read More 100 Exceptional American Movies in 10 Genres: Young Adult, 10-6
After finishing my last series with the grandiose title (“Better than AFI’s Top 100“), I thought I’d take a longer break from a series. “The British Film Institute’s top 100 British films turns twenty in 2019,” I said to myself. “You could catch up on those in eighteen months. Or,” I said, and this is… Read More 100 Exceptional American Movies in 10 Genres: 2017 Version
Dir. Michael Gordon. Starring Jose Ferrer, Ralph Clanton, Mala Parsons Cyrano de Bergerac is a really tricky play to adapt, more or less as is, from stage to screen. The 1950 edition is sad proof of that difficulty. The play itself is filled with monologues and excessively verbose language as well as a setting which,… Read More Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)
Dir. Barry Jenkins. Starring Alex Hibbert, Naomie Harris, Ashton Sanders This movie thrums. Moonlight has an after-school special feel to it for long stretches, but in each of its three acts finds a way to manage the least interesting of those excesses. Little (Hibbert) is accidentally rescued by Juan (Mahershala Ali) and Teresa (Janelle Monae)… Read More Moonlight (2016)
Seeing Things Secondhand 