California Suite (Herbert Ross, 1978). Adapted by Neil Simon from his 1976 play of the same name (a sequel to the 1968 hit Plaza Suite), this comedy sets a posh Los Angeles hotel as its home base. A series of … Continue reading Then Playing — California Suite; Good Time; Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
Plan B (Natalie Morales, 2021). To invoke the movie algebra that feels inescapable in this instance, the second feature directed by Natalie Morales is Never Rarely Sometimes Always put into a polynomial equation with Booksmart to solve for the x … Continue reading Then Playing — Plan B; This Is the Sea; Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World
The Innocents (Jack Clayton, 1961). A horror movie that favors spooky atmosphere over jolting shocks, The Innocents is adapted from the Henry James novella The Turn of the Screw. Miss Giddens (Deborah Kerr) takes a position as a governess at … Continue reading Then Playing — The Innocents; Marshall; Things to Come
American Made (Doug Liman, 2017). Now that Tom Cruise has moved entirely into the phase of his career that involves constantly putting his own well-being in peril to the delight of the audience, more serious fare — even something as … Continue reading Then Playing — American Made; Dark Phoenix; Hellboy
Foreign Correspondent (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940). Alfred Hitchcock’s second Hollywood picture is basically a trial run for all slam-bang entertainments that would follow in his career. On the leading edge of World War II, a New York newspaper sends a metro … Continue reading Then Playing — Foreign Correspondent; The Rape of Recy Taylor; In Fabric
Cold Pursuit (Hans Petter Moland, 2019). Norwegian director Hans Petter Moland makes his English-language debut with a remake of one of his own previous features, presumably because the narrative framework was well-suite to the very-particular-set-of-skills era of Liam Neeson’s career. … Continue reading Then Playing — Cold Pursuit; The Book of Henry; The Naked Spur
A Fantastic Woman (Sebastián Lelio, 2017). Marina (Daniela Vega) is Chilean who works as a waitress and sometimes moonlights as a singer. She’s engaged in a romance with an older gentleman named Orlando (Francisco Reyes), who dies of a brain … Continue reading Then Playing — A Fantastic Woman; The Quiet Man; Blow the Man Down
Panic in Year Zero (Ray Milland, 1962). This Cold War drama, one of a handful of films directed by Ray Milland, takes a fascinating approach to its tale of U.S. society in the immediate aftermath of nuclear weapons leveling a … Continue reading Playing Catch-Up — Panic in Year Zero; Searching; Stronger
Bad Company (Robert Benton, 1972). A relatively obscure entry in the legion of films from the late-nineteen-sixties and early-nineteen-seventies that sought to strip away the romanticizing so entrenched in the Western genre. A young man named Drew (Barry Brown) flees … Continue reading Playing Catch-Up — Bad Company; Abacus: Small Enough to Jail; Son of Saul
Marty (Delbert Mann, 1955). Boasting an exemplary Paddy Chayefsky screenplay of downbeat eloquence, Marty manages to examine small-scale lives without a whiff of condescension. Marty Piletti (Ernest Borgnine) is a thirty-four-year-old butcher who lives in the Bronx with his mother (Esther … Continue reading Playing Catch-Up — Marty; A Kid Like Jake; The Lego Batman Movie
Coffee for Two 