Nearly twenty-five years ago, The Birdcage was released to enthusiastic reviews. There were dissenters within the critical community, though, including at least one writer I remember who took great offense at the Mike Nichols–directed film mining comedy from gay men … Continue reading Now Playing — Happiest Season
Born in Flames (Lizzie Borden, 1983). Lizzie Borden’s riveting experimental film is set in a fuzzily defined near future following a revolution that presumably created a more equitable society. Instead, women are still regularly belittled, persecuted, and attacked, and different … Continue reading Then Playing — Born in Flames; Beau Travail; First Cow
#5 — The Last Black Man in San Francisco (Joe Talbot, 2019) At the beginning of The Last Black Man in San Francisco, the main characters are waiting. Jimmie (Jimmie Fails) and Mont (Jonathan Majors) are sitting at the side … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Five
#6 — Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, 2012) Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom is enamored with stories and storytelling. The celebration manifests in part through the mils obsession of Suzy Bishop (Kara Hayward), a youthful resident of the island community New Penzance … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Six
Sometimes comedy illuminates hard truths with a pointed urgency that other means can’t quite achieve. Sometimes comedy is just funny. This series of posts is mostly about the former instances, but the latter is valuable, too. Before I ever watched … Continue reading Laughing Matters — Taxi Driver, the sitcom
The Hitch-Hiker (Ida Lupino, 1953). Widely credited as the only classic Hollywood film noir directed by a woman, The Hitch-Hiker is a nasty hard knot of a movie. Inspired by a real crime spree that took place across the Western … Continue reading Then Playing — The Hitch-Hiker; Shoes; The Way Back
#7 — Little Women (Greta Gerwig, 2019) “Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,” grumbled Jo, lying on the rug. So begins Little Women, the novel by Louisa May Alcott that was first published in two installments of 1868 and … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Seven
Martin Eden (Pietro Marcello, 2020). In adapting Jack London’s 1909 novel, Martin Eden, director Pietro Marcello moves the action from the U.S. to Italy and nudges forward in time to better capture the tumult of the middle, embattled years of … Continue reading Then Playing — Martin Eden; Sea Fever; The Invisible Man
#8 — Burning (Lee Chang-dong, 2018) Burning, directed be Lee Chang-dong, has the pulse of a thriller and the aura of an aching, soulful meditation on life. Like the best thrillers — or at least the most honest ones — it … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Eight
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. This Art of the Sell post has not been paid for by Warner Bros. I’m assuming they … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — “The Candidate” movie poster
