To see my running list of the hundred greatest movie stars in American film history, click here All stars are listed with a single film which is particularly important, though not exclusively so, to understanding what makes them vital to American movies. 55) Viola Davis / Key film – Widows Davis has been in movies… Read More Better than AFI’s 100 Years…100 Stars: 51-55
The following is from my series of Oscar Best Picture rankings, as well as my strongly worded suggestions for what should have won from among the nominees. For an introduction to the project, click here. For a way to vote on some Oscar-related ideas, click here. If I’ve written a review on any of the… Read More Better than the Oscars: 25-21
Dir. Elliot Silverstein. Starring Jane Fonda, Michael Callan, Lee Marvin I wish they’d just gone for it. There are moments of sheer joy in Cat Ballou. Jed (Dwayne Hickman), in his parson get-up, runs through the same speech half a dozen times in an attempt to get in to Clay (Callan), currently under arrest by… Read More Cat Ballou (1965)
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. Hal Ashby. Starring Jane Fonda, Jon Voight, Bruce Dern There’s a “Just So” story I encountered for the first time when I was a little boy. It was depicted in 3-D comic book form and came with the requisite glasses. (I may be making this up, but I’m pretty sure it came from a… Read More Coming Home (1978)
Dir. James Bridges. Starring Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas Spoilers for The China Syndrome abound below. Usually I wouldn’t include a spoiler alert for a movie that’s more than thirty years old, but the film is fairly taut, and knowing too much about it would detract from the viewing experience. It’s Los Angeles in… Read More The China Syndrome (1979)
Seeing Things Secondhand 