The new film Wild captures an element of hiking along out on a trail in manner I’ve never quite seen onscreen before. Cheryl Strayed (Reese Witherspoon) is on a solo trek on the Pacific Crest Trail. She’s a relative novice … Continue reading Whatever it takes I’m giving, it’s just a gift I’m given
I regret that not one of the five-hundred-plus words of this review is “Selick.” I bought completely into the hype of the time asserting that The Nightmare Before Christmas was a Tim Burton creation, and anyone else in the credits … Continue reading From the Archive: The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Great Dictator (Charlie Chaplin, 1940). The audaciousness of Chaplin making a comedy that mocks Adolf Hitler — predicated at least somewhat on the two men’s shared taste in mustache grooming choices — is undercut, though only slightly, by the fact that he eventually regretted it, openly stating that he wouldn’t have created The Great Dictator had he been aware of the full extent of the Nazis’ crimes against humanity. Delivered as World War II was still in the ramping up process, the film is a brilliantly scathing satire, not just of Hitler’s brutal ambitions but of war itself and … Continue reading Chaplin, Chazelle, Kosinski, Lubitsch, Pressburger and Powell
Since I started the week out with a sprinkling of unkind words for a Smith father-son collaboration, why not end by looking back to the first time they foisted family time on audiences in the name of art. It was … Continue reading From the Archive: The Pursuit of Happyness
#2 — Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959) Some Like It Hot, a film routinely cited as one of the greatest straight comedies Hollywood ever produced, begins with an act of mass murder. And it’s not some gently softened version … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Two
Here’s a perplexing equation: nearly every individual element of The Theory of Everything that might be singled out for analysis is admirable, at least to a degree, and yet the long string of addition doesn’t lead to particularly satisfying film. … Continue reading But nine nine nine for a lost god, and ten ten ten ten for….
It’s a testament to the toxic narcissistic nepotism of the Smith clan that I completely forgot After Earth is a directorial effort by the favorite whipping boy of modern cinema, M. Night Shyamalan. Under other circumstances, I might have immediately … Continue reading The Unwatchables: After Earth
At the point I wrote this, I was fairly certain Michael Keaton was going to transition into an important actor, collecting an Oscar nomination or two as he did strong, compelling work. I was only off by two-and-a-half decades or … Continue reading From the Archive: Pacific Heights
#3 — Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950) At the time Sunset Boulevard was released, Gloria Swanson hadn’t appeared in a film for nearly ten years. Between 1933 and 1950, she had roles in only two releases. In that respect, she was … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Three
Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau, 1946). Cocteau’s take on the famed French fairy tale is elegant and unsettling, standing as a cunning exploration of the ways in which imagery and mood can reshape a familiar story. Beginning with opening credits written on a chalkboard (and then promptly erased) and an explanatory that calls for the film to be viewed with the appropriate childlike wonder, Cocteau also establishes a terrific playful quality. The resulting mix of the sublime and the goofy gives Beauty and the Beast (or, if you prefer, La Belle et la Bête) an absolute surplus of charm. … Continue reading Cocteau, Keaton and Crisp, Kent, Reed, Welles
Coffee for Two 