#32 — Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, 1991) The nineties were a good decade for Disney animation, an outcome that seemed highly unlikely before the release of 1989’s The Little Mermaid and far from certain after … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Thirty-Two
#33 — Frankie and Johnny (Garry Marshall, 1991) One of the widely agreed upon obligations for filmmakers bringing stage plays to the screen is “opening up” the action. The puzzle that playwrights need to solve is telling a wide-ranging story … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Thirty-Three
In the Heat of the Night (Norman Jewison, 1967). I guessed that this film would seem painfully dated. Instead, Jewison’s police drama about a black Philadelphia homicide detective called upon to help solve a murder case in a small Southern town where rampant bigotry still rules the culture holds up nicely. It’s somewhat an artifact of its time, but a dramatically sound one. Jewison makes his points with care, always grounding the conflicts in believable situations populated by well-drawn characters. What it lacks in subtlety, it makes up for in clean, gripping storytelling. Rod Steiger won an Oscar for his … Continue reading Jewison, Pollack, Roemer, Sommers, Spielberg
My intention was to have a fresh Bad Movie Night post to share this week. To commemorate the end of the semester at my workplace–or, more significantly, the beginning of a summer stretch that is far less stressful–we decided to … Continue reading The Unwatchables: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
#35 — Husbands and Wives (Woody Allen, 1992) Woody Allen insists that his films aren’t autobiographical. Even though he’s arguably he has clearer sole authorship of his films than any other American director of the past thirty years, and those … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Thirty-Five
#36 — Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999) The trailer for Magnolia billed it as “A P.T. Anderson Picture.” It was the writer-director’s third feature, and the follow-up to 1997’s Boogie Nights, the film that first garnered him significant attention and … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Thirty-Six
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (John Ford, 1949). The film is the second of Ford’s loose “Cavalry Trilogy.” It’s well-regarded, as are most of Ford’s collaborations with John Wayne, but, while it may be a sort of cinematic sacrilege to say so, the film is little more than a plain-footed entertainment. That assessment seems more damning than it is. The film is expert and buoyant and infused with a nice mix of wit and charm, all qualities that seemingly came naturally to John Ford when he was more concerned with making something simply satisfying than a work of grave importance. … Continue reading Beresford, Fletcher, Ford, Hawks, Twohy
Sequels invariably inspire comparisons, weighing the merits of what’s flickering on the screen against the adventures that came before. This seems to be especially true for superhero sequels, maybe because there’s an echo of the comic reading experience, where every … Continue reading Everything you say is like iron; it smashes me up but it’s brittle inside
#37 — Shall We Dance? (Masayuki Suo, 1996) Part of the appeal of foreign films is the glimpse they can provide of a different culture. There’s a distancing angle to this as a film-goer, a sense that perhaps having a … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Thirty-Seven
#2 — Judy Davis as Caroline Chasseur in The Ref (Ted Demme, 1994) Judy Davis radiates strength. There’s an edgy intelligence in her eyes and forthright authority in her manner. She comes across as someone who will never quite get backed into a corner, but could manage to shove someone else into that position with a little more than a few withering glances. She’s imposing in the brittle exactitude of her domination of a scene. That is not, however, the entirety of who she is onscreen. She’s just as lucky to use that personal potency to heighten the vividness of … Continue reading Greatish Performances #2
Coffee for Two 