#36 — Prizzi’s Honor (John Huston, 1985) I always think of Prizzi’s Honor of the kind of film that results when old pro cinematic creators settle in and have some fun. I do mean to imply that the film is … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 80s — Number Thirty-Six
Black Dynamite (Scott Sanders, 2009). An inspired spoof of nineteen-seventies Blaxploitation films, Black Dynamite stars Michael Jai White as the title character, who dispenses justice on the mean streets while searching for his brother’s killer. Sanders gets the tone exactly right, mocking the conventions of the subgenre without lapsing into condescension. There’s a clear affection here, a conviction that no matter what else the original films may have been, they were also fun. How many movies can have claim major climactic sequences taking place on Kung Fu Island? Clever as it is, it’s a hard conceit to sustain over the … Continue reading Aldrich, Huston, Kore-Eda, Lee, Sanders
Atlantic City (Louis Malle, 1980). Malle’s film is about the ways in the which the glimmers of remaining light at the end of the day can lure the most desperate into believing it’s actually the unexpected emergence of a new dawn. Burt Lancaster plays the old-time small-timer at the heart of the film, conveying his forlorn desperation and self-deluding rejuvenation with great delicacy. You can feel the character shift as his opportunities the become the big operator he’s always fancied himself begin to come to pass. But the film is about reality rather than aspirations. Malle keeps it all grounded, … Continue reading Wasting time, dropping lines like “I could get you into movies”
Breaking and Entering (Anthony Minghella, 2006). Unexpectedly standing as the last feature film from Minghella, Breaking is evidence that we’ve lost someone from the dwindling population of directors interested in crafting films for grown-ups. With its tricky plot, its examination of delicate matters such as the growing chasm between economic classes and its unapologetic willingness to let the messiness of life seep into its framework, it’s hard to imagine that anyone ever expected this to become a substantial earner at the box office. Yet there it is, playing out with delicate insight and unfussy emotion. There’s a quiet ache to … Continue reading Here comes the movies with dialogue so cool — why did they never tell me to speak like that in primary school?
Divorce American Style (Bud Yorkin, 1967). I had my reasons for watching this, but expectations of quality wasn’t one of them. That’s fortuitous since hints of quality were hard to come by in this comedy steeped in creaky examination of social issues. Four years before he transformed television with All in the Family, Norman Lear copped an Oscar nomination (with Robert Kaufman) for penning this screenplay that centers on one man careening towards divorce from his combative wife. The film’s point of view is scattered and confused, seemingly in an attempt to cover every bit of ground in consideration of … Continue reading Hollywood, you got a lot of pretty things, I saw a lot of movie stars with diamond rings
Coffee for Two 