To see the entire list of my 100 top movies of last decade, or to find the landing page for the other years in this series, click here. For every 2015 movie that ultimately made this list, there’s another one that I liked but which never had the energy to climb aboard. For a… Read More Top Movies of the Decade (2010-2019) — 2015
To see the entire list of my 100 top movies of last decade, or to find the landing page for the other years in this series, click here. My recollections of the 2017 movie season—the first one I followed with any real interest since I was blindsided with the double abominations of The Artist… Read More Top 100 Movies of the Decade (2010-2019) — 2017
To see the entire list of my 100 top movies of last decade, or to find the landing page for the other years in this series, click here. I don’t know that a great crowd of people is going out of their way to say this, but at least from where I’m sitting, 2018… Read More Top 100 Movies of the Decade (2010-2019) — 2018, Part 1
For a brief introduction and a running list of movies covered in this project, click here 55) Sabotage (1936), directed by Alfred Hitchcock I wasn’t ready for Hitchcock to do it, and then he did it anyway. That sounds naive, but the man was called the “Master of Suspense,” not the “Master of Dropping the Hammer,” and Sabotage is… Read More Better than BFI’s Top 100: 55-51
One of the Grantland legacies I’m fond of, although I’m sure the idea didn’t start there, is the championship belt (RIP Grantland, long live Barnwell and Hyden). The purpose is to go year by year and create a list of who’s at the top of some field, which is a deceptively simple task, and one… Read More Anglophone Director Championship Belt, 1918-2018
Dir. Steve McQueen. Starring Viola Davis, Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Rodriguez Spoilers, because this is still in theaters! For another fifteen minutes! But spoilers! Widows begins with a fairly long take of Liam Neeson and Viola Davis kissing. There’s a lot of tongue. It’s 2018, and it’s the first time I’ve seen an interracial kiss onscreen… Read More Widows (2018)
Dir. Peter Weir. Starring Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris, Dragos Bucur The Way Back is awfully cool to the touch, which is an issue I’ve always had with Peter Weir movies. His films, so frequently conceptual and odd, sound like movies I would love but all too often devolve into these technically remarkable and emotionally empty endurance… Read More The Way Back (2010)
Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos. Starring Colin Farrell, Barry Keoghan, Nicole Kidman Spoilers below, for those who want to be surprised. There are two versions of the same story which don’t appear to us until late in the picture. They are fairly similar, as both acknowledge that the surgeon had had some alcohol in his system when… Read More The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
Dir. David Yates. Starring Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler I like the Niffler. The animation is a little mediocre by industry standard, I think – Fantastic Beasts is going to look outdated by the time the next movie in the series comes out – but he’s cute and mischievous all the same. He reminds me of… Read More Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)
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)
Seeing Things Secondhand 