Category: Film

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From the Archive: Night and the City

Dan Seeger

This is one of those films from the old reviewing days that I remember only vaguely. Clearly I liked it fairly well. In fact, this review kind of makes me want to watch it again. I guess that means, for all the writing weaknesses I see throughout — led by opening and closing sentences that both make me wince a little — the review does its job. When he’s really cooking, Robert De Niro is an actor that can instantly electrify the screen. The latest film to boast the talents of De Niro is “Night and the City,” and, as … Continue reading From the Archive: Night and the City

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From the Archives: Misery

Dan Seeger

Since writing this, nearly twenty-four years ago (good gravy, I think I need to sit down), I’ve decided that Stand By Me is probably more like Rob Reiner’s third best movie. There are a couple of his films that are clearly better, but they don’t have the same tinge of somber importance to them, so I downgraded them at the time. However, I stick with Stand By Me as the best film adaptation of a King work, by a wide margin. Sorry, Shawshank disciples. It’s interesting to think back on this film as the effective introduction of Kathy Bates and … Continue reading From the Archives: Misery

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From the Archive: Carlito’s Way

Dan Seeger

I’m overjoyed that I’m presenting a review in which I use the word “downright” twice. As the Gone Girl think pieces begin to pile up, let’s revisit the last decent work of a director who has genuine threads of misogyny running through his work, shall we? This was written for the Reel Thing Reports that ran a couple times a day on WWSP-90FM after my graduation necessitated retiring the weekly program of the same (or same-ish, to be accurate) name. Almost all of director Brian De Palma’s films include at least one passage that is put together with such impressive … Continue reading From the Archive: Carlito’s Way