Dir. Alfonso Cuaron. Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson As a lad, I was so certain that the job of a filmmaker was to be as faithful as possible to the material s/he adapted. I have been wised up significantly since then, but I have to confess that because of that particular foible, I… Read More Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
For a brief introduction and a running list of movies covered in this project, click here 10) Don’t Look Now (1973), directed by Nicolas Roeg As a mystery in English, I’m not sure there’s another picture that compares to Don’t Look Now until Mulholland Drive, and even then those two movies take such different approaches to solving mysteries that… Read More Better than BFI’s Top 100: 10-8
For a brief introduction and a running list of movies covered in this project, click here 65 Straw Dogs (1971), directed by Sam Peckinpah Why didn’t they call it The Violent Bear Trap It Away? Hee hee. Seriously, though, when that thing finally goes off I gasped. It was not a cute “Oh, merciful heavens” gasp, but one… Read More Better than BFI’s Top 100: 65-61
Dir. Mike Leigh. Starring David Thewlis, Lesley Sharp, Katrin Cartlidge In the early ’90s, Johnny (Thewlis) is an iconoclast, a true man alone whose perpetually noisy solo meanderings recall the Ancient Greeks. There’s some Diogenes in Johnny, although he is even more aimless than the original and far less likely to befriend a dog. He… Read More Naked (1993)
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 