At the 96th Academy Awards, Diane Warren failed to win Best Original Song for the fifteenth time in fifteen tries. Shockingly, “The Fire Inside,” written for the movie about the guy who did not in fact come up with the idea for hot Cheetos, did not win. On the other hand, I’m willing to wager… Read More The Warren Index: Will They Win a Competitive Oscar Before Diane Warren?
The actor: Willem Dafoe The character: Thomas Wake The film: The Lighthouse The quote: “Hark! Hark, Triton! Hark!” My primary critique of The Lighthouse after seeing it was that it was nowhere near weird enough. For all of its beautiful photography and its isolated setting and arch performances, the second half of the film dissolves… Read More Top 100 American Movie Quotes of the 21st Century: #96
Dir. Jon Watts. Starring Tom Holland, Zendaya, Willem Dafoe Spoilers, but also I might be the last person in America to see this. In Spider-Man 2, there are two climactic action scenes which must be considered alongside the best sequences of this subgenre. First, the one where Spider-Man stops a speeding train, saving the many… Read More Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
Dir. Robert Eggers. Starring Robert Pattinson, Willem Dafoe, a very sassy bird As this is still in theaters, here’s a spoiler warning, but also I don’t know that this is a movie someone who cares about spoilers would be into, so… Persona: Ingmar Bergman’s twenty-seventh movie 3 Women: Robert Altman’s fourteenth movie Mulholland Drive:… Read More The Lighthouse (2019)
The landing page, with rationale and links to other posts in this series, can be found here. The great romantic comedy of 1977 was never Annie Hall, but The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Let’s see Alvy Singer love himself as much as Pooh loves pots of honey during the middle of a flash flood. (“What I… Read More Disney/Pixar Rankings: 25-21
Dir. Sean Baker. Starring Brooklynn Prince, Bria Vinaite, Willem Dafoe (Or, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Representation.”) On many levels, The Florida Project is a good movie, and the majority of those are technical. There are some good wallpaper shots, such as when Moonee (Prince) and her friend Jancey (Valeria Cotto) look… Read More The Florida Project (2017)
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: 20-16
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: 45-41
Dir. Martin Scorsese. Starring Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Barbara Hershey Only a bold film, one creeping up to outright foolhardiness, tries to tell its viewers what it’s “about” at the outset. Last Temptation does just that, beginning with a quote from the author of its source material, Nikos Kazantzakis, and then with words from the filmmakers. This… Read More The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
The following is part of an overview of the top 100 American narrative fiction feature films, from my perspective. For an introduction to the project and an index of other entries in the series, click here. For a list of more than 800 films which I considered for the top 450 and my eligibility qualifications, click here.… Read More Better than AFI’s Top 100: 90-86
Seeing Things Secondhand 