#48 — Big Night (Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott, 1996) I have a very distinct memory about driving home from my viewing of Big Night. I saw it at the Hilldale Theater, a two-screen cinema in Madison, Wisconsin that predominantly … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Forty-Eight
#49 — The Age of Innocence (Martin Scorsese, 1993) The most famous and justly revered films of Martin Scorsese’s career are notable for their muscular rawness, their willingness to dive headlong into the toughest territory, those streets that will never … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Forty-Nine
This time of year, I wind up devoting an awful lot of time to bloated awards shows, often shows that I’m not even interested in except for their suspected influence on the ceremony I can’t resist. Turns out I should just learn to wait, because some enterprising soul is bound to come up with a more compact version. (Posted simultaneously to “Jelly-Town!”) Continue reading Like a thief in the night see the world by candlelight
Things I learned about this year’s Oscar race from tonight’s Golden Globes awards: –Any meager lingering doubts that the Best Supporting Actress is done are now gone as Mo’Nique handled her Globes victory the same way she handled her big scene in Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire. She, to lean on a pertinent cliche, knocked it out of the park. –Any meager lingering doubts that the Best Actor race is done are wiped out by some simple awards ceremony arithmetic. If my count is correct, there were three standing ovations tonight. One was for Martin Scorsese when … Continue reading When you’re golden, I’m your beast
She barely says a word. As Bang Bang in Rian Johnson’s second feature, The Brothers Bloom, Rinko Kikuchi does not have the benefit of hefty monologues that plumb her character’s soul, nor does she get the sort of clever, stylized … Continue reading Class of 2009 Supporting Actress Blogathon: Rinko Kikuchi in The Brothers Bloom
It’s hard to deny the emotional wallop built right in to Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire. Set in 1987, the film tells the story of an overweight black teenager living in poverty with her abusive mother in … Continue reading Now Howard the Duck and Mr. Stress both stayed trapped in a world that they never made
I suspect I’ve already tipped my hand about my pick for the best animated film of 2009, but if the Oscars let Wes Anderson accept a trophy in the same fashion that he employed for the National Board of Review awards ceremony, I may have to shift my rooting interest in the the relevant category to Fantastic Mr. Fox. They undoubtedly won’t, so I’ll be able to bypass those conflicting emotions. (Posted simultaneously to “Jelly-Town!”) Continue reading Fox in the snow, where do you go to find something you can eat?
Summer of Sam (Spike Lee, 1999). Lee certainly wasn’t lacking in ambition with this film. It depicts the sweltering New York summer of 1977, marked by an ascendant Yankees ballclub, record-setting heat, and paralyzing fear over the unpredictable Son of Sam serial killer. Bringing his own distinctive flourishes to a screenplay by actor friends Victor Colicchio and Michael Imperioli, Lee piles more story and heavy import than just about any film could bear. Discotheques and punk rockers, gritty urban newscasts and brash bellowing neighborhoods, and it quickly collapses under its own weight. As with all of his more compromised efforts, … Continue reading Capra, Hopkins, Kieslowski, Lee, Pichel
#50 — Galaxy Quest (Dean Parisot, 1999) Galaxy Quest is easy to dismiss. It was certainly easy for me. We saw it upon its Christmas Day release, honoring a beloved household tradition of spending the biggest holiday of the year … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Fifty
And something of a post-mortem on the Top Fifty Films of the 00s. You know. While we’re here. When I embarked on that little jaunt across the past ten years of moviemaking, trying the best I could to rank the films I loved most, and identify why I loved them, it was with the hope that grappling with each of the entries would be a rewarding challenge. It was that, and then some. I’m not sure if the unexpected praise I received after typing out those last thousand words or so upon reaching the number one film on New Year’s … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — An Introduction
