#4 — Kirsten Dunst as Mary in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004) Michel Gondry’s heady collaboration with screenwriter Charlie Kaufman doesn’t lack for praise. It was a critical favorite from the moment it was released, got … Continue reading Greatish Performances #4
The Last Emperor (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1987). Bertolucci’s masterwork probably won its Best Picture Oscar due to its effortless embrace of the epic, but its the acute realization of the most intimate portions of its story that makes it a great film. It follows the life of the last emperor of China from his coronation while still a toddler to his later years toiling as an anonymous gardener after his royal role had disappeared. The sweep of history is what the film moves through, but Bertolucci and his co-screenwriter Mark Peploe rightly realize that the intricacies of the different personality entanglements … Continue reading Bertolucci, Boden and Fleck, Bozzo, Coffin and Renaud, Levinson
#21 — Quiz Show (Robert Redford, 1994) At the time of Quiz Show‘s initial release, director Robert Redford talked often and openly about his views regarding the topic of his film, the scandal at the dawn of television’s influence on the … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Twenty-One
His Kind of Woman (John Farrow, 1951). How many other actors completely own a genre of film the way that Robert Mitchum does film noir? It’s like he was born into a delivery room filled with murky shadows and cigarette smoke, the doctor instructing the nurse to slap his bottom by growling, “Give him what’s comin’ to him, and make him sing when you do it.” He moves through this story of scheming and duplicity at a Mexican resort as if he’s walking through his own front door, tossing of aloof wisecracks with the ease of a guy who’s already … Continue reading Edel, Farrow, Hitchcock, Jordan, Siegel
The thing about out-of-the-ordinary family structures is that they’re typically not odd to the people existing within them. Certainly being outside the norm of society’s rigid (but loosening) definition of what makes a family can cause some dismay and feelings … Continue reading Control yourself, take only what you need from it
#22 — Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1997) Paul Thomas Anderson builds Boogie Nights with the exuberant fervor of someone who may never again be given access to a movie camera. From the extended tracking shot that opens the film–a … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Twenty-Two
#23 — When We Were Kings (Leon Gast, 1996) In 1974, Leon Gast went to Zaire to make a concert film. Heavyweight champion George Foreman was scheduled to defend his belt in a bout billed excitedly as “The Rumble in … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Twenty-Three
There’s no shortage of material out there designed to pry into the personal lives of famous figures. There’s even a whole battalion of individuals who are famous for no other reason than their willingness, even needy enthusiasm, to have cameras … Continue reading I’ve been licked, washed up for years and I merely survive because of my pride
Break of Hearts (Philip Moeller, 1935). Katherine Hepburn was a mere twenty-eight when this thin romance was released, just a few films into her storied career. She already had an Oscar and at least one solid hit to her credit, but doubters were plentiful. This was one of the string of flops that famously got her labeled “box office poison.” If nothing else, the film is evidence that Hollywood didn’t really know what to do with her yet, shoving the camera into her face to capture a dewy glisten that may have been the standard of the day for leading … Continue reading Anderson, Charles, Krasinski, Miller, Moeller
The word “inception” actually means the beginning of something, that start of a journey, the first part of a major undertaking. In Christopher Nolan’s new film, Inception, the word has an additional definition in its role as a bit of … Continue reading I had too much to dream last night
Coffee for Two 