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574,201 | 4,532,636 | 61,184 | 10 | A Harrowing , Disturbing Film with a Dazzling Performance from Liz Taylor | I've heard many reports that the screen version of Edward Albee's Pulitzer-Prize-winning play greatly dilutes the content and language of the original text , blunting some of its emotional impact . Well , if this is the blunted version , I don't know if I'm prepared for the original . Richard Burton ( who I've never really liked as an actor , but who I have to admit does brilliant work here ) and Elizabeth Taylor ( in the definitive performance of her career ) go at each other like two inmates in a prison brawl , and the results are devastating . To see two people who obviously have a deep bond but who are so intent on deeply hurting each other is enough to make your skin crawl . At the root of their misery is a child , or rather the lack of one , and unable to deal with their own emotional crises , they instead turn their troubles into a grotesque game , where hurting each other becomes perversely the only thing that brings them comfort , because it's less scary than the prospect of facing the skeletons they've packed away in the closets . Burton's George is a loathsome character , a nasty yet beaten man who seems nearly inhuman in his ability to repress any show of true emotion . Taylor's Martha is one of the most fascinating female creations ever put on the stage or the screen , and Taylor tears into the role as if her life depended on it . Ultimately , it's her who will break your heart , this woman who has turned into something everyone detests in an attempt to wring from her husband a sign that she and their marriage still matter to him . I'll never forget the feeling of hollowed-out despair this movie left me with after my first viewing . George Segal and Sandy Dennis play the young couple who suffer the force of George and Martha's attack . They serve as reminders of what George and Martha perhaps once were , while George and Martha serve as warnings of what the younger couple could become . |
573,323 | 4,532,636 | 32,553 | 10 | Chaplin's Plea for Peace | I know many people prefer Charlie Chaplin when he's silent , but I have to rank this as my favorite Chaplin film , sound and all . This is one of those movies chock full of one memorable scene after another : Chaplin's hapless soldier trying to load and fire a giant gun ; his goofy dictator cavorting with an inflatable beach ball designed to look like a globe of the world ; his gentle barber trying to give a member of the Gestapo a shave . I've heard that Chaplin was put on Hitler's death list as a result of this film ; I don't know whether that's true or not , but if he was I'm not surprised . I can't even imagine the guts it took to make a film that so obviously mocked such a scary historical figure . In a time when comedians mock our world leaders left and right , it's easy to forget that there were times ( and still places today ) when doing so could get you killed . Without Chaplin's impassioned plea that closes the movie , in which he steps out of character and warns his audience directly about the consequences of ignoring the gathering storm of Nazi Germany ( and fascism in general ) , " The Great Dictator " would be a marvelous comedy . With that plea , it becomes much more than merely a marvelous comedy ; it becomes an important and inspiring historical document , that happens also to be pretty damn funny too . |
574,476 | 4,532,636 | 36,868 | 10 | Unbelievably Honest Movie for Its Time | It's been a long time since I've seen " The Best Years of Our Lives , " and I'm sure I was way too young when I did see it to fully appreciate it , but even then I could tell it wasn't quite like other old black and white movies I was used to . This film came out during a period in which Hollywood was interested in producing socially conscious message movies . " The Lost Weekend " addressed alcoholism ; " Spellbound " addressed psychotherapy ; " Mildred Pierce " addressed the impact WWII had on the women left behind ; " Gentlemen's Agreement " addressed anti-Semitism . But these other films were heavy-handed , steeped highly in melodrama , and they seem laughable today , despite their good intentions . " The Best Years of Our Lives " is different . It's a highly sensitive and understated look at what happened to men when they returned from WWII and tried to acclimate themselves back into the world they left . And remember that this came out not ten years after the end of the war , when historical perspective could safely remove the sting . This came out one year after the war's end ! How often does a film , especially from back then , directly address a social concern while it's actually happening . This movie follows three men and their stories . We see Fredric March return to the bank at which he formerly held an executive position , forced to take a menial , secretarial job well below his skills . The pettiness of the civilian world is brought home to him when he gets into an argument with a supervisor over office supplies . We see Dana Andrews return to a wife that he doesn't know anymore , and who doesn't know him . Other war stories show men and their loves pining for one another while they're separated , faithfully awaiting the time when they can be together again . They don't mention that perhaps the strain on the relationship can cause people to fall out of love . And in the film's most uncomfortable storyline , we see a man who has lost both arms trying to deal with being handicapped in a society in which people with handicaps are viewed as second-class citizens . Much has been made of the fact that Harold Russell ( who won both a special Oscar and the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role ) was not a professional actor , and was handicapped in real life . It's really amazing to think how brave this movie was in speaking frankly about one topic after another that until that time had remained unspeakable . This movie definitely deserves a second look from me , and a first look from anyone who hasn't seen yet seen it at all . |
573,908 | 4,532,636 | 68,327 | 10 | A Perfect Film About One of History's Darkest Hours | Bob Fosse's most accomplished film is one of the most accomplished films ever made , period . Fosse understood that the days of the old-fashioned Hollywood musical were over , at least as of 1972 , so he gave audiences a musical that doesn't feel like a musical . Based on Christopher Isherwood's fine collection of novellas , " Goodbye Berlin , " and the subsequent stage musical based on them , " Cabaret " takes elements of both sources to create something completely unique . It tells the story of Brian Roberts ( Michael York ) , a British professor who travels to 1931 Berlin to give English lessons to a wealthy heiress of a German Jewish family . He meets the irrepressible Sally Bowles ( Liza Minelli , in a dynamite performance ) , an American and fellow lodger in his boarding house , and the two begin a madcap friendship and sort-of romance , eventually falling in with a wealthy German baron until they all fall out with one another . Meanwhile , revellers come to the Kit Kat Klub , the cabaret where Sally performs , to join the sinister Master of Ceremonies ( Joel Grey , recreating his Broadway performance ) in laughing away the dark cloud of Nazism building on the German horizon . Fosse sharpened his directorial teeth on " Sweet Charity " three years earlier , and while I greatly admire that film , I can admit how uneven it is as a movie . " Cabaret " proves Fosse to be a master behind the camera , with a directorial style as unique and instantly recognizable as his choreography . The Kit Kat Klub and its devilish M . C . provide stylized commentary on the world rotting away outside the cabaret's decadent interior ; the musical numbers don't advance the plot as much as comment on it . Fosse's way of filming musical numbers is fascinating , using quick edits to capture movement from multiple angles almost simultaneously . But what gives " Cabaret " its shattering power is the way it depicts the Nazi movement's insidious rise to power even as people were dismissing it as a joke . For all of the film's stylized panache , it provides one of the most realistic documents I've ever seen of just how the Nazis positioned themselves to dominate Germany . It's no coincidence that the film's most disturbing moment comes not in the nightmare , feverish world of the cabaret's stage , but rather in the realistically depicted world of a German beer garden , where the angelic voice of a Nazi youth raised in song becomes a rallying cry and call to arms for the German people . The acting is phenomenal . Liza Minelli gives easily the best performance of her career and one of the best performances in the history of cinema . Joel Grey creates a character who manages to be no one and everyone at the same time . One can't imagine this vampirish imp of a man existing outside of the dark , lurid walls of the cabaret . And Michael York does terrific work as well , even if his role isn't as showy . I think " Cabaret " has been underrated because people have labeled it as a musical , and musicals never get taken as seriously as other genres . But I would caution anyone against dismissing this film on those grounds . Yes , there is music in it , but what " Cabaret " is more than anything else is a haunting warning about the dangers in any time and place of ignoring the unpleasantness of the present and near future for the hedonistic pleasures of the moment . |
574,508 | 4,532,636 | 112,818 | 10 | Exceptional Examination of the Death Penalty Issue | A stunning film about a nun ( Susan Sarandon ) enlisted to comfort a death row inmate ( Sean Penn ) in the days leading up to his execution and the tentative friendship the two develop . Sarandon and Penn are at the top of their game , as is director Tim Robbins , who uses his film not as a liberal diatribe against the death penalty , but rather as a tool for fairly examining both sides of the issue . Whether or not you believe in the death penalty , or whether or not you believe the Penn character deserves to die for his crimes , is beside the point - - I defy anyone to watch this film and not at least be somewhat moved by the sheer warm pulse of humanity that courses through it . I remember being unable to speak walking out of the theatre after seeing this for fear that I would burst into tears . |
573,537 | 4,532,636 | 32,599 | 10 | Roz Russell Is on the Case | Every good thing you've heard about this movie is true . It may very well be the fastest paced movie I've ever seen . Jerry Bruckheimer's most hyperbolic action movie ain't got nothing ' on this one . Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell were a brilliant screen pair ( indeed , it seems that no one was bad casting when paired with Cary Grant ) as rival reporters in a furiously paced news office . Russell is the odd man , or should I say odd girl , out , due to her lack of a penis , but she proves herself more than capable of holding her own with the boys . Russell charges across the screen and never loses momentum for a second . She's goofy , sexy and hysterical . The funniest moment in the film comes when she's chasing a man down the street ( I won't go into details ) and dive tackles him to the ground . One of the first films from the 40s and a highlight of the decade . |
574,346 | 4,532,636 | 95,705 | 10 | Knee Slappin ' Funny | Movies just don't get much funnier than " The Naked Gun . " From the people that brought you " Airplane ! " comes a comedy in a similar vein , stuffed with one-liners and sight gags . Leslie Nielsen is perfect for this kind of comedy . He's droll and oblivious to the absurdity around him . He takes everything completely seriously but manages to make fun of himself in the process somehow anyway . It's hard to explain but you'll see what I mean when you watch the movie . Ever since " The Naked Gun " was released in 1988 , it's been one of those movies I watch every once in a while when I just want some mindless entertainment or when there's nothing else on , and it never fails to disappoint . It holds up well ( I think even better than " Airplane ! " ) and deserves to be counted among the best screen comedies ever made . |
574,025 | 4,532,636 | 433,383 | 10 | Best Film About American Media Since " Network " | Every once in a while , a character actor who has made a living popping up here and there in mostly unmemorable roles , is cast in a film and does such an amazing job that everyone starts immediately wondering why he or she isn't more famous . However , if you think about it , this sort of makes sense . Character actors don't carry around the baggage of being big-name Hollywood personas ; they can entirely sink into a role and not fight audience tendencies to watch them as a celebrity rather than as a character . This works even more to their advantage when they're asked to play real people . I'm not even that familiar with Edward R . Murrow , the famous American newscaster who waged a media war that eventually brought down Joseph McCarthy , but even if David Strathairn comes nowhere close to accurately impersonating Murrow , he gives a fantastic and intense performance . This movie is a terse , succinct account of the Murrow / McCarthy debates ; there's not really a wasted moment or one single superfluous scene or line of dialogue . George Clooney ( who deserves much credit for his work as director on the film ) plays Fred Friendly , producer at CBS and , as portrayed here , Murrow's chief ally . The chemistry between he and Strathairn is terrific , especially in a scene toward the end of the film when they both have their hands slapped by the head of CBS , played by Frank Langella . Despite the fact that he appears in virtually every scene , and as good as he is , Strathairn does not walk away with the picture ; it's a generous lead performance in that he allows every other actor , even in mostly small roles , to shine ( Clooney should probably be credited for this as well ) . Robert Downey , Jr . and Patricia Clarkson play a secretly married couple who work on Murrow's news team . Their storyline might feel unnecessary on a casual viewing , but I thought it brought a nice dose of humanism to the film , and reminded the viewer that the war against McCarthyism was not simply an effort to save careers and professional reputations , but also to save personal and private lives . The movie is so tightly contained and so confined to the world of the news room , that it would be easy not to think of anyone in the film as having actual lives beyond the ones they lead at CBS , and the Clarkson / Downey , Jr . storyline is a clever way to convey that . And let me throw in one last bit of praise for another actor , Jeff Daniels , who in recent years has really impressed me with his versatility , and makes quite an impression in this film in only two or three brief scenes . " Good Night , and Good Luck " is unashamedly one-sided . Clooney obviously has very strong feelings about the role media should play in American culture , and the responsibility news providers should feel in brining the public what they think the public needs , not necessarily what it wants . Given the fact that a recent devastating earthquake in Pakistan has been all but ignored by American media in favor of World Series coverage , I'd say this message has significant relevance . And in the lessons learned by the McCarthy debacle , it's not hard to draw a parallel to the current Bush Administration , and its efforts to label anyone remotely critical of American policy in Iraq as unsupportive of our troops or as unpatriotic , a band wagon on to which too many Americans are jumping for my comfort . I've not seen as good a film about the American media since " Network , " and in some ways I like this movie even more . " Network " is satire , effective satire , but satire nonetheless ; it never feels exactly real . " Good Night . . . " , on the other hand , is remarkable for how authentic it feels ; I never felt like I was watching scripted actors , but rather was watching an especially exciting documentary . This is easily one of the " must see " films of the year . |
574,265 | 4,532,636 | 41,959 | 10 | Heaven for Graham Greene Fans | Is there any greater entrance in cinema history than Orson Welles's in this movie ? His character , Harry Lyme , supposedly dead , is hiding in a dark doorway . His American friend , Holly Martins ( Joseph Cotten ) , who came to Vienna to see Lyme and instead has gotten wrapped up in trying to solve the mystery of his death , is looking toward the doorway at the figure in shadow . Suddenly , someone in an upstairs apartment across the way turns their light on , which shines directly on Harry's face , revealing him to his friend . The look Welles gives at that moment was singlehandedly deserving of an Academy Award . With just a faint smirk on his lips , a twinkle in his eye , and not one single word of dialogue , he manages to say " hello " to his friend , apologize for lying to him , and invite Holly in on what Harry seems to think is a great big joke . When people talk about those classic moments in films , they're talking about moments like this . " The Third Man " is like a Graham Greene novel come to life , and not surprisingly , since Greene wrote the screenplay . But it catches the tone of a Greene novel in a way no adaptation of any of his stories has ever been able to do . Many people will call " The Third Man " a film noir , but it's not really . It's got noirish elements , but underneath the seriousness of the storyline , there's a tremendous sense of fun that is unique to Greene's style of storytelling . He's out primarily to entertain you , but if he makes you think a little bit along the way , that's o . k . too . The atmosphere of post-WWII Vienna is brought to vivid life with lots of location shooting amid bombed out buildings and rubble . This movie has some of the best black and white cinematography ever , shown to best advantage in the breathless race through the sewers at the film's climax . And of course , there's that glorious zither theme that recurs throughout the movie , which adds much to the funhouse tone of the film . The performances are flawless . Welles is great as mentioned . Cotten has almost never been better . Trevor Howard is urbane and witty and Wilfrid Hyde-White ( you'll know him as Pickering in the film version of " My Fair Lady " ) is a hoot as a dotty Englishman ( when he finds out that Holly came to Vienna to meet a friend who has shown up dead , his response is " I say , that's rather awkward . " ) Only Alida Valli disappoints . She's a vapid actress who delivers everything in a boring monotone , but in this case her acting style fits the character she's playing so well that it doesn't hurt the film . A fantastic film that I can watch again and again . Heartily recommended . |
574,009 | 4,532,636 | 65,214 | 10 | Sam Peckinpah's Bloody Wild West | Sam Peckinpah's sensational , elegiac western did for that genre what " Bonnie and Clyde " had done for the lovers-on-the-lam genre two years earlier . William Holden , Ernest Borgnine , Edmond O'Brien and Robert Ryan - - all throwbacks to an earlier , more traditional style of Hollywood film-making - - star in this revisionist western about a group of over-the-hill outlaws looking to pull off one big last score before packing it in for good . Set in the days just before World War I , the film shows how technological progress gradually begins to make these outlaws obsolete . Cars replace horses ; machine guns replace rifles . At the same time , the moral code that governed the wild west makes way for a newer , more chaotic moral order , where the good guys can no longer necessarily be separated from the bad . The literal story of aging gunfighters serves dual purposes under Peckinpah's direction . He's as much interested in the death of the traditional Hollywood western as he is the death of these specific characters . With Vietnam raging , the quaintness and black and white simplicity of John Wayne simply didn't fit in any longer with the reality of the times . Peckinpah gave us violence in " The Wild Bunch " that matched the grim images bleeding their way into families ' homes via television . Therefore , in this film , when somebody gets shot , he doesn't fall neatly and bloodlessly into the dust . Wounds in this film spurt blood into the air ; bullets tear through flesh . The violence in " The Wild Bunch " is tame when compared to the graphic violence in films today , but it shocks more , mostly because it seems to matter in a way that violence in today's films doesn't . Superbly edited as well as directed , " The Wild Bunch " is terribly exciting and quite disturbing . It's a high-water mark of 1960s film-making . |
574,363 | 4,532,636 | 266,697 | 10 | Kill Bill Is a Killer | I keep waiting for Tarantino to stumble , but he hasn't disappointed me yet . The first installment of " Kill Bill " is sensational from start to finish and shouldn't disappoint anyone who expects Tarantino to meet the bar he set with " Pulp Fiction " and " Jackie Brown . " I don't know if there's another director out there who can borrow so heavily from other movies and directors , yet make such original and unique works of film . The comments here at IMDb on " Kill Bill " number in the thousands , so there's no need for me to mention the plot or even any of what makes this film so hugely entertaining . I just wanted to add my voice to those who love this movie . If you're a movie buff , I don't see how you could come away from this film anything but dazzled , since , if nothing else , " Kill Bill " is a joyous celebration of movies at their most eager desire to entertain . An energetic , startling , vivid , funny and at times surprisingly beautiful movie . |
574,521 | 4,532,636 | 405,094 | 10 | A Beautiful Statement About Humanity Triumphing Over Oppression | This superb , gripping film tells the story of a celebrated playwright , Georg Dreyman ( played subtly by Sebastian Koch ) living in the stifling oppression of the German Democratic Republic in the early 1980s , who is put under surveillance by a cabinet minister who loves Dreyman's girlfriend , the ill-fated Christa-Maria Sieland ( Martina Gedeck ) , and wants an excuse to ruin Dreyman's life . Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler ( Ulrich Muhe , giving the film's best performance ) is assigned surveillance duties , and stakes himself out in the attic of Dreyman's apartment building , listening in on Dreyman's conversations and numerous intimacies . Dreyman is not a subversive , at least not in deed , until a beloved friend in the theatre commits suicide because of a ruined career brought about by the GDR officials . This loss compels Dreyman to action , and he writes a scathing indictment of the GDR which he publishes anonymously in a West German liberal magazine . Wiesler knows that Dreyman is the author , but has become so fascinated by Dreyman and his life , and so doubtful as to the moral motives of the GDR , that instead of turning Dreyman into the authorities , he becomes his secret accomplice . " The Lives of Others " begins solidly but unremarkably . I enjoyed the first half hour or so of the film , but wasn't heavily involved in it . But it works a kind of intense , gradual spell , and before I realized it , I was engrossed in this story and cared deeply about how it would end . A plot summary makes it sound like a highbrow soap opera , or like something we've seen before , but it's not either of these things . It's a thematically rich film anchored by a strong central character in Wiesler . He's fascinated by Dreyman's life - - his artistic abilities , his circle of friends and the stimulus of freely shared ideas , the love and companionship he shares with an attractive woman - - but it's Wiesler who for us becomes the fascinating character . We see his life juxtaposed to Dreyman's - - coming home to an empty apartment , hiring a prostitute for a fleeting moment of intimacy - - and we understand exactly why he takes the actions he does throughout the film . His life is utterly lacking in any kind of artistic or intellectual freedom , and when he begins to fake reports about the goings on in Dreyman's apartment , making up entire episodes and even giving elaborate details about a fake play he claims Dreyman is writing , we see how just the tiny bit of freedom granted him to create something completely his own becomes the crack in the foundation of his loyalty to his superiors . It's a wonderful statement about the power of free thought to combat oppression , and at the same time a lovely story about simple human kindness . The ending especially is breathtaking in its sweet simplicity . And as I'm a fan of film scores , let me say that this film has a marvelous one , especially the recurring passage of pulsing strings that drives the movie forward and creates all the hair-raising tension of a Hitchcock film . |
573,679 | 4,532,636 | 61,418 | 10 | One of the First , and Still Best , Movies About America's Obsession with Violence | Every time I watch " Bonnie and Clyde " I'm convinced that this time it won't shock me . And every time I'm proved wrong . " Bonnie and Clyde " was one of the first American movies to acknowledge that Americans are turned on by violence . People blame this movie for ushering in the increasingly graphic content of movies that in the present day makes it seem as if nothing is off limits . But this is wishful thinking on the part of people who don't want to admit that America has been a violent culture from day one . " Bonnie and Clyde " was a huge hit , but it's because it gave people what they wanted , not because it introduced them to something they'd never thought of before . At least in this film , you see what happens when a bullet tears through human flesh - - I can't say the same for the countless morale-boosting WWII films from the 1940s or the John Wayne westerns that are so beloved by conservative America . In the world of " Bonnie and Clyde , " sex and violence are extensions of the same impulse . Clyde can't get one " gun " to work , so he uses another . Bonnie is as restless as a cat in heat - - but Clyde won't scratch her itch , so she finds other ways of releasing tension . It's a movie that makes us identify with the killers . They're gorgeous and glamorous , but they're also vulnerable . They're Robin Hoods , justifying their crime by stealing from the rich and giving to the poor ; but they're also naive in thinking that when they steal money from banks they're not also stealing from the poor rural people who use those banks . Authority figures aren't seen much in the film , but when they are , they're sadistic . Sheriff Hamer is a stony , craggy mass in comparison to the movie-star killers , and C . W . Moss's dad , who's finally the one to turn Bonnie and Clyde in , does what is right morally , but that's overshadowed by the fact that all we see him do is beat C . W . and call him white trash . It's no wonder this half-wit kid ran away with the Barrow gang in the first place . We know there's only one possible ending to the movie , yet by the time it comes , we find ourselves half hoping that Bonnie and Clyde can start over and make the American dream a reality . We've forgotten that they've killed , many times , in cold blood . The most haunting scene in the film is the one in which Bonnie visits her mother for one last time , and her mom tells her what the audience has known all along but hasn't consciously acknowledged until that point : " You try to live within three miles of me , and you won't live long honey . You best keep runnin ' . " It's one of the most chilling and effective moments I've ever seen in a movie . |
574,506 | 4,532,636 | 41,859 | 10 | Robert Ryan Gives a Sensational Forgotten Performance in a Perfect Little Movie | A nearly perfect small B movie from director Robert Wise . Robert Ryan beautifully plays an aging boxer aching for a win , whose manager has so little faith in his abilities that he hasn't even told him he agreed to a fixed fight , so certain is he that Ryan will go down without having to lay down . Audrey Totter is Ryan's wife , tired of a life spent in flea-bag hotels in forgotten American towns , worrying that each fight will be Ryan's last . Ryan couldn't be better , and he's become one of my favorite noir actors . Totter is a little less well served by the script , but she's fine for what she's asked to do ( for a very different performance , see her as a deliciously evil femme fatale in " Tension " from 1950 ) . The movie takes place in real time , and it provides a fascinating , almost documentary like look behind the scenes of the boxing world . We see the boxers preparing for their bouts , both the young ones who are just starting out on their careers and the old ones who are clinging to theirs ' out of desperation . Ryan's boxing match is filmed in its entirety with fantastic editing adding to the excitement . The movie is completely lacking in sentimentality and has a marvelous authenticity to it that reminded me of some of the superb , gritty and naturalistic films that would become vogue in the 1970s . In many ways , " The Set-Up , " for all its modest budget and ambitions , feels way ahead of its time . A little known film , but one absolutely worth checking out . |
573,992 | 4,532,636 | 41,587 | 10 | Exceptional Whodunit | This superbly written and acted soap opera brought writer / director Joseph L . Mankiewicz Best Director and Best Screenplay Oscars the year before he repeated the exact same wins with " All About Eve , " to my knowledge the only time that's happened . Jeanne Crain , Ann Sothern and Linda Darnell play three friends who go off on a children's ' outing for the day . Before they leave , they receive a letter from the fourth member of their circle , the enigmatic Addie Ross , who tells them she has run off with one of their husbands . The rest of the film plays out like a murder mystery , each woman thinking back over her marriage and wondering if her husband's the guilty party . In both this and " All About Eve , " Mankiewicz proved himself to be a wonderful writer for women . He had a knack for addressing some of the negative aspects of the female personality , but in a way that felt honest rather than stereotypical . Many of the usual " types " are present in this film - - the career woman , the golddigger , the man stealer - - but the women themselves are so richly written that they're not easily pigeonholed . Crain plays the country bumpkin who feels inadequate among her affluent husband's set ; Sothern is the working woman who begins to lose her identity to a job ; Darnell is the aforementioned golddigger who treats marriage like a business deal . All three actresses give lovely performances , especially Sothern and Darnell , and the film builds a great deal of suspense as it works toward its revealing conclusion . The supporting cast features Kirk Douglas and Paul Douglas as two of the husbands ; Thelma Ritter , unsurprisingly stealing scenes as Sothern's maid ; and Celeste Holm , heard but never seen as the voice of Addie Ross . |
573,747 | 4,532,636 | 110,912 | 10 | Where to Begin ? | What more is there to say about " Pulp Fiction . " Released in 1994 , the film was an adrenaline shot to the heart of the film industry . Though the movie payed homage to a variety of film genres and styles ( film noir , gangster film , French New Wave ) , it managed to be unlike anything seen before . Whether you love " Pulp Fiction " or hate it ( and I , for one , love it ) you can't deny the impact it had on film-making moving forward into the 21st Century . While watching " Pulp Fiction " for the first time , I knew sitting there in the theatre that I was seeing something that would immediately influence movies forever , and it has . I won't bother to summarize the plot , since plot in this movie is only of incidental importance anyway . I won't bother to single out individual performances , since the performances are uniformly excellent . I will save my praise for Quentin Tarantino's audacious attempts to show us something original , daring and experimental and for giving us a welcome break from the stale products Hollywood studios have been churning out for years . If you're one of the handful of people in the world who haven't yet seen this film , run out and see it now . I can't guarantee you'll like it , but I can guarantee that you'll have a definite opinion about it , and even that is refreshing these days . |
573,724 | 4,532,636 | 23,622 | 10 | No Trouble with This Lubitsch Comedy | That rare thing : the perfect film comedy . " Trouble in Paradise , " Ernst Lubitsch's sparkling 1932 comedy , stars Herbert Marshall and an adorable Miriam Hopkins as con artists in love , while Kay Francis plays the woman who comes between them . The film is fast , sexy , effortless and absolutely charming . People always refer to " the Lubitsch touch " when talking about the famous director's films , and I understand completely what they mean . There's something about his films that's common to all of them but is very hard to describe . It has something to do with tone - - all of his films feel like they're perfectly balanced between humor , sentimentality , pathos and melancholy . They're funny , but none of them feel like insignificant fluff ; there's an underlying strain of melancholy running through all of them , yet none of them make the mistake of taking the world too seriously . I don't know what it was that made his films so delightful , but I love it . |
574,056 | 4,532,636 | 85,794 | 10 | One of Scorsese's Best | This hugely underrated film is one of Martin Scorsese's best , and further proof that as a director he has much more range than many might give him credit for . Robert De Niro and Jerry Lewis deliver pitch-perfect performances as a stand-up comic wannabe and a popular T . V . personality , respectively , when their worlds collide due to De Niro's ( whose character's name , Rupert Pupkin , has to be one of the most perfect ever created for a movie role ) fanatic devotion to his idol . It's a subject uncomfortably familiar to Scorsese , given the obsession Ronald Reagan's attempted assassin , John Hinckley , had with Jodie Foster , largely because of her performance in " Taxi Driver . " The tone and storyline to this film were incredibly tricky to pull off . If those involved had carried the humour and slapstick elements of it too far , it might have come across as glib ; but if they played up the disturbing elements too much , it would have ceased to be funny and would have seemed like a warm-over of " Taxi Driver . " As it is , I don't see how the film could be better . De Niro makes his character warm and endearing enough to keep you sympathetic with him , while making him menacing enough to take seriously , while Lewis for once shows himself adept at playing the straight guy , and gives a spectacular performance as a hang-dog celebrity whose quiet and sober personal demeanor is at odds with that of his on-screen personality . And praise also must go to Sandra Bernhard , who gives a delightfully wacky take on another aspiring star and accomplice to Rupert , whose plans go awry in hilarious and unpredictable ways . Bernhard is a ball of energy here , and I've never liked her better . This is truly a must-see film . |
573,663 | 4,532,636 | 63,462 | 10 | Don't Be Stupid , Be a Smarty , Come and Join the Nazi Party | Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder aim Mel Brooks ' bawdy jokes at the third balcony , and the result is one of the funniest movies ever made . As anyone who doesn't live under a rock by now knows , Mostel and Wilder play Max Bialystock , failing Broadway producer , and his hysterical accountant , Leo Bloom , respectively . When the two realize that they can make more money off a Broadway flop than they can with a hit , they set out to make the worst show ever made , and " Springtime for Hitler " is born . The fun in " The Producers " is watching Max and Leo assemble their team of show-biz disasters . Not since Dorothy skipped down the yellow brick road on the way to Oz has a more colorful assortment of characters been added one by one to a film's cast . There's the play's author Franz Liebkind , who spontaneously bursts into the Nazi anthem and whose plans include world domination ; Ulla , the Swedish tease , whose hips move independently from her torso and who Max meets in the public library ; Roger DeBris , who thinks the third act of the play " has got to go " because the Nazis are losing the war ; his " assistant " Carmen Ghia , who slinks around wearing a pointy beard and a monocle and who enjoys ( maybe too much ) his ride in the elevator with Max and Leo ; and last but not least , Lorenzo St . DuBois , also known as LSD , who sings perhaps the film's funniest song , " Love Power , " while wearing furry thigh boots and finger cymbals and which ends with him breaking a banana in half and sticking his thumb in his mouth . The high point of the movie , of course , is the " Springtime for Hitler " production number , that includes dancing girls dressed as pretzels and beer tankards and includes lines like " We're marching to a faster pace / Look out , here comes the master race . " Just the shot of the audience watching the show , their mouths hanging open in dumbstruck shock at its awfulness , is alone worth sitting through the movie for . My only complaint with " The Producers " is really a compliment , and it's that there's not enough of it . The whole movie has a sketch-comedy feel , and each supporting character gets really no more than a big scene or two . I really wanted more of Roger and Carmen , and more of LSD . And of course it would have been great if Brooks had filled out " Springtime for Hitler " even more . Indeed , that number is such a show stopper that the movie deflates a bit after it's over and never quite recovers . This is easily Brooks ' best film , and it's wonderful to see such an unapologetically in-your-face comedy work so well . It's crass and crude and silly , yet remarkably intelligent all at the same time . If you don't come away with at least a dozen lines to quote , you weren't paying attention . |
573,424 | 4,532,636 | 83,866 | 10 | I Will Always Watch This Movie As a 7-Year-Old Boy | There are some movies it's simply impossible to review with a critical eye , and " E . T . " is one of them . Come on - - I was seven when this movie came out . I belonged an E . T . fan club , for God's sake ! Let's just say that Steven Spielberg is in his element when working on movies like this , and it's only when he devotes himself to unadulterated fantasy and adventure that his penchant for over sentimentalization is bearable . I recently saw John Williams conduct music from several of his film scores at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra , and one of the pieces they performed was a medley set to images from the respective films , " E . T . " among them . I'm becoming such a sap as I get older that just the theme and some shots of little Drew Barrymore in pigtails almost made me cry . |
573,321 | 4,532,636 | 32,904 | 10 | Royal Wedding - - Just Not the One You Expect | The stars were aligned during the shooting of this film , and the results gave us one of the most perfect films in screen history . Katharine Hepburn gives the best performance of her career as Tracy Lord , uppity society heiress who's about to be married to a stuffed shirt . James Stewart and Ruth Hussey play an acerbic journalist and photographer , respectively , sent to the Lord estate to cover the wedding for a trashy gossip magazine . And Cary Grant , Tracy's ex-husband , saunters in to stir things up just to give his ex-wife a hard time . Everyone performs at peak level here , and there's not a misstep in the movie . Stewart is laid back and winning . It's refreshing to see him play a rather cocky and sexy love interest as opposed to the everyman he usually played . Cary Grant is as charming as can be trading sarcastic barbs with Hepburn . And Hussey drops one droll throw-away line after another like a pro . Of course , the movie all comes down to Hepburn , and it's a case of absolutely perfect casting . At the nadir of her career , Hepburn made the brilliant decision to bring this stage play to the screen with herself in the lead role , cast as an untouchable snob who just wants to be loved . Movie audiences got to see her brought down a peg , and their appreciation was instantly apparent : Hepburn catapulted to the top of Hollywood royalty and never came down . Screen comedies don't get more sophisticated than this . |
574,281 | 4,532,636 | 54,632 | 10 | Alain Resnais ' Haunted Hotel | A man and woman wander around the baroque corridors of a fancy hotel . He keeps insisting that they met the previous year and that she promised to run away with him . She keeps insisting that she doesn't remember him and made no such promise . There are other people at the hotel , notably a man who may be this woman's husband , but for all intents and purposes these two interact in a world of their own creation . All the while , the man intones in voice over about the hotel's mirrors , chandeliers , doors opening on other doors and hallways leading to other hallways . Is the man a messenger of death , come to claim his prize ? Is the woman suffering from some type of mental breakdown ? Is the movie an allegory for the journey an artist takes in bringing to life his creations ? Is it about opportunities missed ? Is it about the game of love ? Could it be all of these things , or none of these things ? In the end , is the movie " about " anything ? Is it about whatever we want it to be ? Does is matter ? " Last Year at Marienbad " may sound like an academic slog to sit through , but I was surprised to find how deeply engrossed I was in this film , even if I can't with any confidence tell someone else what it's about . You will be frustrated instantly if you try to watch this movie in the traditional way . But if you instead give yourself up to its strange rhythms , and approach it more in the way you would approach an abstract painting or a poem , you might find yourself enjoying it quite a lot . This is a film where narrative is secondary to recurring images and sounds . It's one of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen . Not only is the hotel itself magnificent , but director Alain Resnais uses his actors like chess pieces , decking them out in black and white clothing and placing them strategically around the frame to create striking compositions . There's something incredibly eerie about the film , and its look has much to do with that - - we feel as if we're spending time in a haunted hotel , surrounded by ghosts . In its use of camera-work and shock editing , it reminded me of Stanley Kubrick ( and especially of " The Shining " ) and the labyrinthine , dream-like narrative brought to mind David Lynch . Like a lot of abstract modern art , I think " Last Year at Marienbad " is about whatever you bring to it , and in that way it's fascinating . I wouldn't want my cinematic diet to consist of nothing but movies like this , but I'm so glad movies like this exist , because they push the boundaries of the medium and help it to grow as an art form . |
573,451 | 4,532,636 | 39,192 | 10 | A Hypnotic and Dazzling Film | This spellbinding movie from that spellbinding film-making team ( Powell and Pressburger ) is another entry in the long line of literary and film stories that revolve around British restraint and repression unraveling under the force of mysterious foreign cultures ( usually Eastern and frequently Indian ) , and it's one of the best . A group of nuns travel to the Himalayas to do missionary work among the natives , but instead find themselves coming under the mystical spell of the place and people around them . Deborah Kerr is stunning as the head nun , who's determined to maintain order and British civility at all costs . I still can't decide whether this or " The Innocents " ( 1961 ) gave her her best role . At the other extreme is Kathleen Byron's Sister Ruth , who renounces her vows , paints her lips bright red , and engages in a fierce battle of wills with Kerr . What follows is a film that is surprisingly sexual , erotic and wild . Powell and Pressburger are experts at using color . Instead of employing their Technicolor to simply make their film look pretty , the color almost becomes a character in itself , creating a feverish , hyper-realistic glow to the film . Legendary cameraman Jack Cardiff is responsible for the sterling and Oscar-winning cinematography . Equally stunning is the art direction , which created very realistic mountains out of papier-mache . A simply sensational film , one that holds up completely and could be watched again and again . This and " Out of the Past " vie in my esteem for best film released in 1947 . |
573,907 | 4,532,636 | 68,473 | 10 | A Terrifyingly Disturbing Man Against Nature Tale | Deliverance is the kind of movie that gets in your mind and stays there forever . I will never forget this movie , nor the haunted feeling it left me with after seeing it for the first time . Four men from the city go on a fishing trip somewhere in the wilds of Appalachia , and are attacked by a couple of psychotic hillbillys . The men's vacation quickly turns into a hellish ordeal , and the sense of adventure offered by the challenge of navigating the tricky rapids of a raging river becomes instead a Darwinian lesson in survival of the fittest . This movie is blunt , brutal and intensely affecting . It's a clenched gut of a film ; the sour smell of fear and exhaustion that bathes these men by the time the movie is over practically comes wafting from the screen . Jon Voight is the nominal star of the film - - if the movie is about any one of the four men , it's about him . But to single him out is to do a disservice to Burt Reynolds , Ned Beatty and Ronny Cox , all of whom do smashing work and create full-bodied characters in whose lives we become utterly invested . Of course the initial confrontation with the hillbillys and the notorious rape scene are what this movie is remembered for now , but I think in this day of global warming and environmental crisis , it's interesting to re-watch this movie and see how much in tune with environmental issues director John Boorman was when he made it . Through plot exposition , we learn that the river these man are traveling down is being dammed and redirected to make way for development . The men's callous disregard for the natural world comes back to haunt them when the natural world ceases to be a friend and becomes instead an enemy . There are not many films like this one , and certainly few that are as chillingly disturbing . |
573,944 | 4,532,636 | 72,271 | 10 | A Deeply , Deeply Scary Movie | I don't know that I've ever been more scared on a purely gut level by any horror film as much as I was by Tobe Hooper's grisly 1974 cult classic . The current batch of torture porn crap passing as horror films obviously owe much to this film , and they've borrowed certain characteristics wholesale : the fetid , rotten production design ; the fixation on human dismemberment and carnage ; the depiction of rural Americans as psychotic , deformed cannibals . But the original " Texas Chain Saw Massacre " is better than just about every modern-day horror film in just about every way . Advanced technology has allowed horror-brat directors like Eli Roth and Alexandre Aja to show the destruction of a human body in literal and painstaking detail , but they have no idea how to actually scare an audience . Hooper , by contrast , uses actual skill to suggest much more than he actually shows , and if you think about this film afterwards , you'll realize that there is very little bloodshed . The violence in this film is actually somewhat understated , and it's all the more terrifying for that . I will never forget the first appearance of Leatherface , who thumps a guy on the head with a mallet and drags him down to his lab with all the nonchalance of a butcher readying a slab of meat for sale . Eli Roth would have focused all of his attention on the impact of the mallet with the skull - - we probably would have been treated to an image of the skull caving in and blood splattering the walls . Hooper , instead , understands that it's the casual nature of the killing that's most disturbing - - not the bloodshed - - and that's what he shows . Hooper decided to make his movie about frightening situations rather than graphic gore and as a result created a small horror masterpiece . |
573,945 | 4,532,636 | 63,350 | 10 | The Zombie Movie to End All Zombie Movies | Perhaps the premier example of how low-budget restrictions can work to the advantage of a film . George Romero's 1968 grindhouse shocker is the granddaddy of every zombie flick made since , and it remains by far the best . A scrappy group of survivors hole up in a deserted farmhouse to take a stand against a horde of rampaging zombies . The usual social dynamics present in movies like this are turned on their ear by the fact that the most capable of the group is black , and Romero makes no attempt to hide the thread of racial tension that this creates . The terrible film stock and remedial editing hide the otherwise likely laughable makeup and special effects , so that the zombies are truly scary , and the gore truly nauseating . This is a visceral , gut-churning and terribly scary , scary movie . |
573,301 | 4,532,636 | 118,111 | 10 | Guest's First Ensemble Comedy Is Perfect | Waiting for Guffman may just be that rare thing : the perfect comedy . It's brilliantly ( and I don't use that word lightly ) written and acted . I think it would be easy to dismiss the talent that went into this film , because it looks so effortless on screen , but you would have to be a wonderful actor to make material this subtle and dead pan work as well as it does here . " Guffman " is better than any of the follow up films Christopher Guest and his recurrent ensemble have made since because it doesn't stretch itself too thin . Guest focuses on a handful of main characters , and all of his other players get much smaller but no less hysterical roles to play . This is in sharp contrast to his most recent movie , " For Your Consideration , " in which he tries to give everyone equal screen time with the results being that everyone gets short changed . I grew up in a tiny town of 500 people in rural Illinois , and I remember our town celebrating its bicentennial . We even had a little pageant full of skits ( I had a part in it myself ) . And I have to say that it was EXACTLY like this movie . The actors don't even have to exaggerate much to capture that feeling of small-town folks who take themselves and their little village ultra-seriously . Councilman / Pharmacist : " Corky , our budget for the entire year is $50 , 000 , and that includes swimming . " Corky : " Well , I don't have any swimming in my show . " I'm sorry , but if you can't understand why an exchange like that is funny , I can't help you . |
574,026 | 4,532,636 | 55,018 | 10 | One of the Best " Ghost Story " Movies | The Innocents begs comparison with Robert Wise's " The Haunting " from 1963 . Both films were made in the ' 60's , in the then popular ' Scope technique of photography . Both feature a female protagonist through whose eyes we see events and who may or may not be entirely reliable . And both feature a big , spooky house with things that go bump in the night . But " The Innocents " is better than the other film in just about every way , and may be the best " ghost story " movie ever made , or at least the best I've ever seen . Deborah Kerr is perfectly cast as a prim governess who is given charge of two strange children in a huge , rambling English country estate . Kerr was known for playing nuns and nannies , and was the epitome of British refinement . So to see her playing this sprightly governess , who gradually unravels under the influence of the creepy goings on taking place in the house around her , adds an extra jolt of shock to her performance . I don't know that I've ever seen her play a role better than she does here , with perhaps the exception of " Black Narcissus . " In the story this film is based on , Henry James's " Turn of the Screw , " the state of the governess's mind is left ambiguous . Is she correct in assuming that evil forces are at work and are manipulating the children , or is she manufacturing everything in her head ? The film's director , Jack Clayton , does an admirable job of trying to achieve this same ambiguity . The children are just creepy enough , and objective parties like the housekeeper seem freaked out enough , that the viewer suspects the house may indeed be haunted by ghosts . But Deborah Kerr plays the role so well , that it seems just as likely that she's conjuring situations from her paranoia . I won't tell you which is true , but few movies have an ending more shattering than this one . " The Innocents " is the best kind of creepy movie , because the creepiness is in the psychology of the characters , not in the film's effects . For a relatively short movie , it packs a lot of themes into its story : sexual repression and deviance , obsessive protective instincts , the nature of evil . On top of that , it's got top-notch production values . The b & w cinematography has been much lauded , but kudos need to go to the art director for taking full advantage of the massive set ( notice the use of flowers ) and to the film editor for terrific use of dissolve editing . There really are not many films quite like this one . |
573,494 | 4,532,636 | 65,571 | 10 | One of the Most Visually Hypnotic Films I've Ever Seen | Bernardo Bertolucci's stunning early-1970s classic looks absolutely beautiful nearly forty years later . It tells the story of a fascist in 1930s Italy who is assigned to root out and assassinate anti-fascists . As the story develops , we learn that a childhood event played a large role in shaping this man's perception of himself , and that the life he is leading is largely a lie . The story Bertolucci tells is odd and compelling , but what kept me glued to the television screen was the film's mesmerizing visual style . Bertolucci collaborated with cinematographer Vittorio Storaro , and it's not an exaggeration to say that they create some of the most beautiful images I've ever seen in a film . One might expect Bertolucci to adopt a sombre color palette for telling such a gloomy story , but that's not the case . On the contrary , he opts for lush colors , striking contrasts , and stylized lighting to create a slightly surrealistic environment that's one small step removed from reality as we know it . A truly remarkable movie . |
573,845 | 4,532,636 | 401,383 | 10 | A Phenomenal Movie About a Phenomenal Story | After hearing the numerous critical accolades heaped on this film , I thought there was no way it could live up to its hype . I was wrong . What a sensational , beautiful movie . Julian Schnabel , whose past efforts have left me cold , tells this amazing story with a nearly perfect directorial approach . It's about Jean-Dominique Bauby , former editor of Elle magazine , who suffered a rare kind of stroke that left him completely paralyzed from head to toe , but with his mental faculties completely intact . He learns to communicate by blinking an eyelid , and with the help of a translator , wrote the memoir on which this film is based one letter at a time . I haven't seen a movie this year that more perfectly matches visual style to subject matter . The first half an hour or so of the film is told strictly through Bauby's point of view - - the world appears as a series of blurry , fragmented images . This style nearly sent me out of my skin with claustrophobia , and while it can't come near to recreating what Bauby himself must have suffered , it's effective enough . But then the movie opens up as Bauby's world begins to expand , and the film becomes as much about the remarkable people around him who supported him in his recovery as it is about Bauby himself . Once Bauby's perceptions of the world become limited to what he can hear and what he can see through one eye , he realizes that he's lived his life somewhat deaf and dumb to the world around him , and so - - as the film implies - - do we all . But the film isn't preachy or over sentimental . It didn't really even have anything to say that I haven't heard before , yet it took such an original approach to the material that it all felt brand new . Mathieu Amalric delivers a marvelous performance as Bauby , and Max von Sydow will break your heart in two brief but devastating scenes as Bauby's dad . |
574,014 | 4,532,636 | 91,877 | 10 | Be Ruthless - - It's Good for You | Ruthless People has one of the best premises in film comedy history . Spandex miniskirt millionaire Sam Stone ( Danny DeVito ) plans to kill his battle axe wife ( Bette Midler ) for her inheritance . However , his plan is put on hold when she is kidnapped and held for ransom . The kidnappers threaten to kill her if Sam doesn't pay , which is a-o . k . with Sam , and means he doesn't have to do his own dirty work . But the kidnappers ( Judge Reinhold and Helen Slater ) are too kind hearted to follow through with what they start . Meanwhile , Sam's floozy mistress ( a smokin ' Anita Morris ) knows about Sam's plans , and sends her doofus boyfriend ( Bill Pullman ) out to videotape what he thinks is Sam killing his wife so that they can blackmail him . This is a lot of plot to cram into a brisk 90 minutes , but this well written film never feels forced or rushed . Every scene conveys something important either for the story or about one of the characters , and not a moment feels wasted . The ensemble is terrific , each actor landing his / her jokes without fail . The standouts , though , are Bette Midler , who gives an outrageously vulgar performance pitched to the third balcony ; and Judge Reinhold , who gives the film its heart . One of the most quotable movies ever , the film also boasts a great opening credits sequence , one more reason to lament the fact that movies hardly ever have opening credits anymore . |
573,453 | 4,532,636 | 39,628 | 10 | Natalie Wood Is Adorable | By and large , child actors of the 1940s were a nauseating bunch , so how wonderful that we have Natalie Wood's performance in " Miracle on 34th Street " as a document of just how adorable a child actor could be . Natalie joins hands with Edmund Gwenn ( who just IS Santa Claus ) and runs easily away with this holiday favorite . On the downside , Maureen O'Hara gives a performance that wouldn't be out of place in a high school play , though John Payne shows off his manly cleft chin to fine effect , but neither of them matter , because this movie belongs to Santa and his little helper . It's a surprisingly unsentimental and even cynical movie for its time . Despite its happy ending and magical elements , it really does a good job of capturing the dead materialism of Christmas and a culture that has become too sophisticated for its own good - - - and this was in 1947 ! Movies like this are timeless for a reason - - they were relevant then , and they're still relevant now . Aside from " A Christmas Story " probably my favorite Christmas movie . |
574,239 | 4,532,636 | 449,059 | 10 | A Movie That Will Make You Proud to Be Ordinary | Much of " Little Miss Sunshine " shouldn't work , yet almost all of it does . One of the best ensemble casts in recent memory delivers this outrageous material with a tremendous amount of heart and conviction and , as a result , a screenplay that threatens to stretch the bounds of credibility comes across as believable and achingly poignant . The characters are given such strong motivations for their actions that everything they do and say feels utterly plausible , even when the film itself threatens to teeter into Faulknerian Southern Gothic crossed with National Lampoon's " Vacation . " The writers , director and cast stubbornly refuse to allow us any tidy character assessments . Therefore , we see the brittle and harsh side of Toni Collette's otherwise loving mom ; the warm , charming and please-like-me vulnerability of Greg Kinnear's otherwise smarmy and nearly intolerable dad ; the intellectual pompousness and snobbery that peeks its head through Steve Carell's otherwise emotionally wounded suicide case ; and the affectionate patriarch lurking behind the otherwise gruff and offensive exterior of Alan Arkin's grandfather , whose greatest crime may be that he's too honest . " Little Miss Sunshine " hands over this motley cast of characters and lets us glory in their imperfections , and through doing so helps us feel better about our own . As the movie points out , perfection isn't possible , and the aggressive pressure in American culture to achieve it is only making people miserable about failing at something they never had a chance of succeeding at in the first place . The movie is so warm hearted though , that its ultimate lesson isn't a downer . At the end , this close-knit family realizes that they're proud to be ordinary , and dammit , so am I . |
573,437 | 4,532,636 | 60,827 | 10 | It's Movies Like This That Earned Bergman His Reputation | Ingmar Bergman made films like " Persona " ( and " Wild Strawberries " and " Cries and Whispers " ) that make me forgive him for making other films like " Hour of the Wolf " and " Winter Light . " In " Persona , " a nurse is charged with taking care of a mentally deteriorating actress , and through a series of enigmatic , dream-like scenes , we are left wondering which of the two actually exists and which is the figment of the other's imagination . It's a sort of precursor to " Mulholland Drive , " and the comparison is even more apt as both films are very much about the art of acting and the art of making movies . The most stunning ( and stunningly simple ) moment in the film comes when one of the actresses delivers a lengthy monologue while the camera slowly zooms into a close up of her face , and then the entire scene plays out again , with the other actress delivering the same monologue . Somehow , Bergman manages to overcome some of the stifling trappings that make so many of his other movies slogs , and gives us a bracing , haunting masterpiece . " Wild Strawberries " may be the Bergman movie I like the most , because of its warmth , but " Persona " is the one I can't get out of my head . |
573,344 | 4,532,636 | 53,198 | 10 | One of the Best Non-English Films Ever Made | This marvelous film from one of my favorite foreign directors , Francois Truffaut , remains one of the best foreign-language films ever made . To many , the word " foreign " as it applies to movies means difficult , but " The 400 Blows " is actually a very simple tale simply told about a young man who turns to a life of petty crime for a lack of anything better to do with his life . It's a picaresque tale that is refreshingly free of a moral . We don't necessarily watch the film to see that the young boy eventually sees the error of his ways ; we watch simply to see what will happen to him , because we care about him . Truffaut gets his audience to feel for the boy exactly what the society in which he lives doesn't - - compassion - - and which , more than anything , would likely be most effective in convincing him to give up his delinquent ways . And there's that wonderful closing shot , the freeze on the boy's face , careless and free , qualities that the audience recognize as luxuries only the young can afford . |
573,883 | 4,532,636 | 51,036 | 10 | A Cookie Full of Arsenic | Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster play against type in this unapologetically but delightfully nasty film about the desire to be " known " in the New York social scene , and the lengths to which people will go , or the depths to which they will sink , to achieve fame . It's rare to come across such a blisteringly pessimistic film as this one , even today . Lancaster gives one of the best performances of his career as J . J . Hunsecker , gossip columnist to NY's social elite , who lurks in dark corners of exclusive restaurants like a bird of prey waiting to pounce on those weaker than him . He can make or break a career with a few words put to paper , and he doesn't insist that the words be true . Tony Curtis plays slimy loser Sidney Falco , who desperately wants to be somebody , and jumps to J . J . ' s commands like a circus animal . Together , these two prowl the grimy , shadowy streets of a nightmare version of the Big Apple , creating a vision more steeped in film noir than the most noirish detective movie . Accusations of Communist sympathies are made , while Hunsecker reveals an unnatural fondness for his sister . All of this is set to a discordant and jazzy score that's like the aural version of neon signs . You could fill a book with the quotable lines from this film . My favorite . . . . . " That fish is four days old , and I ain't buyin ' it . " Or the ever classic " I'd hate to take a bite out of you . You're a cookie full of arsenic . " Indeed , the movie is a cookie full of arsenic - - bitter at its center , but so damn sweet and enjoyable . |
573,755 | 4,532,636 | 32,138 | 10 | This One Takes Me Back | It's nearly impossible for me to write objectively about the quality of " The Wizard of Oz , " so bundled up is it with associations from my childhood . It's like trying to do a critical analysis of " Star Wars . " Sorry , can't be done - - - at least , not by me . " Oz " is such a strange movie , in some ways so creaky and old-fashioned , in other ways so incredibly ahead of its time . Few films I've seen during my lifetime have such a complete vision as " Oz " does - - - such painstaking care went into the look and design of the film ; it's as if the filmmakers really did create a whole other world for this film to take place in . It's odd that during a time in American film history , when movies were being cranked out like cars on an assembly line , a film could feel like such an auteurish product ( increasingly odd , since the credited director , Victor Fleming , actually shared directing duties with several others . The same is true for " Gone with the Wind , " released in the same year and also bearing Fleming's name as sole director . He was quite a lucky guy in 1939 ) . The plot and feeling of " Oz " veers quite a bit from that of the book on which it is based . The book is much nastier and darker , but the film manages its fair share of grimness for all that . The Wicked Witch is spectacularly scary ( Margaret Hamilton admits to regretting the intensity with which she approached this character ) as are the Flying Monkeys . There's such a feeling of ominous dread under-laying this entire film . As if the land of Oz is a bit too beautiful and perfect , like a perfectly ripe piece of fruit that at any moment can begin to rot at the edges . Really , despite her scariness , the Witch is the most fun character in the film - - - it's really a riot to watch this film as an adult and enjoy her sarcasm and nastiness ; it's refreshing as juxtaposed to the goody goodiness of the other characters . Frank Morgan in a variety of roles is also great . A cloud of darkness has come to surround this film over the last couple of decades , due to the urban legends about the stagehand supposedly caught on film hanging himself and the truly bizarre stories about the arduous process of making the film ( and the many accidents and tragedies that occurred along the way ) . This reputation may be responsible for the cult status that has arisen around this film and perhaps even for elevating it to the level of admiration it has received . On a side note , an excellent book by Gregory Maguire called " Wicked " offers back story to the events leading up to " The Wizard of Oz , " and most particularly focuses on the early life of the Wicked Witch of the West . It's an outstanding book , and I venture that you won't be able to watch " Oz " in quite the same way again after reading it . |
574,143 | 4,532,636 | 37,558 | 10 | Powerfully Romantic | Quite simply , the most intensely romantic movie ever made . Plain Jane Celia Johnson meets dashing rogue Trevor Howard in a train station cafe . She has a loving husband but is obviously bored with a life that doesn't fill her time . He's a successful doctor having marital problems . They reach out to one another and make increasingly forward overtures at starting up an affair . With none of the melodramatic trappings that were the bread and butter of swoony romances up to that point in time , " Brief Encounter " is a love story for a more cynical , jaded audience . It exists in a world forever altered by a horrible world war , and it's a very realistic and adult portrait of adultery . We get swept up in the passion these two strangers feel for one another , but we are never allowed to forget that the indulgence of their urges could very well come at the expense of those they love . And , one also suspects that they likewise are not going to find the satisfaction they're looking for in one another ; if they have the affair , how long before the forbidden glow wears off and they're faced again with the cold reality of their lives . Celia Johnson gives an astonishing performance as the heart and soul of this film . Her acting is wonderfully understated and intelligent , and she creates a wholly believable heroine . I don't understand how she didn't go on to have a more robust film career , unless her less glamorous looks held her back . My wife and I got a copy of this movie from our library , and with about half an hour to go , the DVD crapped out on us and we couldn't finish it . None of our local video stores had it , so we bought it just so we could see the end . Now we watch it regularly . So I guess that's my review in a nutshell : it's good enough to buy so that you can see how it ends . And I can never hear that Rachmaninoff theme without instantly thinking of this movie . |
573,585 | 4,532,636 | 82,971 | 10 | THE Ultimate Adventure Movie | The 1980s were a dark time for cinema - - they didn't give us much to remember them by , unless you have a love of stuffy British dramas . However , the 80s DID do two things very well : adult-oriented comedies and adventure movies . " Raiders of the Lost Ark " is THE ultimate adventure movie . There had never been one quite like it and I don't think there ever will be one to match it , not even its sequels . This was a case of everything working just right . Steven Spielberg is at the top of his craft when in playful mode like this ; Harrison Ford , though you'd never know it from his wooden persona today , made a perfect Indiana Jones ( I can't imagine anyone else playing him ) ; Karen Allen was able to convince you that she could be a damsel in distress one minute and then take you out back and kick the crap out of you the next ; and John Williams contributed one of his best and most memorable scores . The film simply races from one dazzling set piece to the next , and the joy is in seeing just how much more over the top the film can get with each passing minute . |
574,269 | 4,532,636 | 378,194 | 10 | Vol . 1 Was Dessert - - This Is the Main Course | Kill Bill Vol . 2 is the second half of one large story , and it creates a cohesive whole with the first part , but in many ways it's a completely different movie from Vol . 1 . The first half was all about movement - - it was almost balletic in its merging of images and music . Vol . 2 slows down , WAY down , to create a stoic , mythic conclusion . Where events in Vol . 1 rushed by in a glib montage , with blood spewing and limbs flying around the screen in a parody of film violence , everything about Vol . 2 feels heavy with consequence - - - there's much less violence , but what there is feels like it matters far more . Uma Thurman gave a nimble , athletic performance in Vol . 1 , but really impresses here with her ability to get to the dramatic bottom of her character . Beatrix Kiddo's conflict emerges - - - she becomes a flesh and blood human character rather than a comic book hero seeking revenge . David Carradine , as Bill , is the second part's most significant addition , and he plays his part perfectly . And I got a kick out of Daryl Hannah's Elle Driver , who turns in a memorable cameo in the first part , but really gets a chance to strut her stuff in the second . I don't think it's a criticism of Tarantino's films to say that the first part is all style while the second part is the substance ; it's like eating your dessert before the main meal . I think Tarantino would be the first to agree , and both parts exhibit all the signs of being thoughtfully and carefully assembled . One thing you're never in doubt of when dealing with Tarantino is that you're seeing the exact movie he wants you to see . But why spend time worrying about which one is better or which one succeeds more ? They're both part of the same movie - - - one wouldn't exist without the other . And they're both remarkable . |
573,342 | 4,532,636 | 50,986 | 10 | Stunning Bergman Masterpiece - - Maybe His Best ? | Wild Strawberries profoundly moved me . The theme - - an old man coming up fast on death and wondering if his life has had any meaning - - is an old one for Bergman , and one which he explored ad nauseum throughout the subsequent decades . But here Bergman approaches the question with an uncharacteristic optimism and sense of hope . For once , he seems to come close to finding some peace with the unknowns of life that obviously preoccupied him as an artist , and the movie he gives us is sad but immensely warm ; resigned but calm and reflective . An unequivocal masterpiece , and only one of a handful of Bergman films ( " Persona " and " Cries and Whispers " being two others ) that don't drive me over the edge when I watch them now . |
574,505 | 4,532,636 | 80,678 | 10 | One of Lynch's Most Mainstream Films Is Also One of His Best | This lacerating film about John Merrick , a man in 19th century England who suffered from a terrible physical deformity and was treated as a circus sideshow by a public who did not understand his condition , proves that David Lynch is as adept at mainstream , linear storytelling as he is at putting miraculous fever dreams on the screen . I experienced " The Elephant Man " as something physical ; my heart literally ached while watching this profoundly sad yet oddly exhilarating film . People may not think of Lynch as an especially emotional director ; his experimental approach at film-making may leave some feeling detached . But the more I see of his films , the more I come to appreciate that all of his films have a strong emotional core to them , so it doesn't surprise me that he would do so well with this story . He films in beautiful black and white , which gives the film an old-fashioned look that feels right for its time period and subject matter , and he makes use of a brilliant musical score . All of the actors are terrific , but especially John Hurt , who is able to act through heaps of prosthetic makeup ( the actor himself is completely unrecognizable ) , to deliver a powerhouse performance . I defy even the most cold-hearted cinephile to watch his final scene and not have to sniffle back at least a tear or two . What a wonderful , wonderful movie . |
573,920 | 4,532,636 | 80,684 | 10 | The Boy Who Loves " Star Wars " | A long time ago , in a galaxy far , far away . . . . . There was a boy who was only two years old when the original " Star Wars " film was released . He doesn't remember first seeing the movie , but he also doesn't remember life before it . He does remember the first " Star Wars " themed gift he got . . . a shoebox full of action figures from the original set . He was too young to fully appreciate how special that gift would be . But years later , he would get what to this day goes down as one of the best gifts he's ever received : another box full of action figures , ten of the final twelve he needed to complete his collection . It's now legendary in this boy's family how the last action figure he needed , Anakin Skywalker , stopped being produced and carried in stores , and how this boy went for about ten years ( until he got into college ) trying to track one down and finally bought it from someone on his dorm floor for a bag of beer nuggets ( don't ask . . . it's a Northern Illinois University thing ) . I can't review " Star Wars " as a movie . It represents absolutely everything good , fun and magical about my childhood . There's no separating it in my mind from Christmases , birthdays , summers and winters growing up . In the winter , my friends and I would build snow forts and pretend we were on Hoth ( I was always Han Solo ) . My friends ' dad built them a kick-ass tree house , and that served as the Ewok village . They also had a huge pine tree whose bottom branches were high enough to create a sort of cave underneath it , and this made a great spot to pretend we were in Yoda's home . I am unabashedly dorky when it comes to " Star Wars " and I think people either just understand that or they don't . I don't get the appeal of " Lord of the Rings " or " Star Trek " but I understand the rabid flocks of fans that follow them because I am a rabid fan of George Lucas's films . I feel no need to defend my opinion of these movies as some of the greatest of all time . Every time I put them in the DVD player , I feel like I'm eight years old again , when life was simple and the biggest problem I had was figuring out how I was going to track down a figure of Anakin Skywalker . Grade ( for the entire trilogy ) : |
573,653 | 4,532,636 | 910,970 | 10 | One Little Robot with One Gigantic Heart | Mesmerizing . This little film about a little robot has one of the biggest hearts I've ever seen in a movie , and its message , about the responsibility humans must accept in changing their own lives and the life of their planet for the better , is perhaps the single most important message film as an art form can be communicating right now . " Wall-E " did for me what so few films are able to do : it transported me to a place where , for the hour and a half that I was watching it , nothing existed for me but this movie . It made me feel like a kid again , and recreated the feelings I had watching " Star Wars " or " E . T . " for the very first time , which would account for the countless scenes that made me tear up for vaguely nostalgic reasons . Despite the fact that we spend most of our time with mechanical robots , a love of humanity and of the earth pulses from every frame of " Wall-E " . Movies , television and the news media spend so much time trying to convince us that the world is a terrible place to live , that one rickety little robot with big eyes telling us otherwise comes as a revelation . |
573,432 | 4,532,636 | 206,634 | 10 | Left Me Speechless | I'm nearly at a loss for words . " Children of Men " took my breath away with the sheer visual audacity of its storytelling and the deep strength of feeling contained in it . Alfonso Cuaron , adding his voice to the many other directors who have made post - films about the grim state of a world governed by terror and hopelessness , has given us one of the most memorable and dramatically satisfying films I've seen in a long , long time . Much ballyhoo has greeted the trio of Mexican directors who released films this year , and people have been wetting themselves over Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu's " Babel " and especially Guillermo Del Toro's " Pan's Labyrinth . " " Children of Men " blows both of these films off the map . Cuaron's world view seems to be as grim as his compatriots , but unlike Innaritu and Del Toro , Cuaron seems to think that the world in which we live is worth saving and uses his movie to deliver a practical message of hope that resonates in the here and now . " Children of Men " is the most uplifting downer I think I've ever seen , and the long scene in which a small , crying baby temporarily halts the warfare and carnage taking place around it , for one instant uniting enemies in the wonder and glory of new life , reduced this viewer to tears ( and I don't cry easily at movies ) . Cuaron's visual style is absolutely stunning . He creates a meticulously detailed vision of a nightmare future that is all the more horrifying for its plausibility . And there are a couple of extended set pieces ( I'm thinking most notably of the one in which a car containing our hero , Clive Owen , and a group of activists / terrorists is attacked by an angry mob , the entire scene filmed in one long take by a camera that never leaves the car ) that astounded me with their showmanship . And yet , for all of its directorial panache , I never felt that style overwhelmed substance - - Cuaron ably and completely welds style to subject in such a way that his approach always perfectly serves the story he's telling without drawing attention to itself . I think it's very interesting that the end of this film is inspiring so much debate , and that different people have completely opposite readings of it . Some think it's dismally depressing , lacking in any sign of hope . Others think it's optimistic , the happiest ending possible in such a dystopian work of fiction . I believe the ambiguity is intentional on Cuaron's part , and I personally came away exhilarated by the powerful message of hope , and a reinforcement of the belief that there will always be good people willing to do good things for others in the belief that the world can change for the better . Maybe I read into the ending what I wanted to read into it , but maybe that's the point . Perhaps those who think this movie has nothing to say have given up already on the state of the world , while those of us who find in it a happy ending are those who will continue to refuse to accept that a world governed by panic and fear is acceptable . " Children of Men " makes a nice companion piece to this year's " Little Children , " another downer that ended up being one of the biggest feel-good movies of the year for me . It's so refreshing to find that there are directors who want to do more than simply wallow in gloominess , and actually offer solutions even as they highlight problems . |
573,921 | 4,532,636 | 76,759 | 10 | The Boy Who Loved " Star Wars " | A long time ago , in a galaxy far , far away . . . . . There was a boy who was only two years old when the original " Star Wars " film was released . He doesn't remember first seeing the movie , but he also doesn't remember life before it . He does remember the first " Star Wars " themed gift he got . . . a shoebox full of action figures from the original set . He was too young to fully appreciate how special that gift would be . But years later , he would get what to this day goes down as one of the best gifts he's ever received : another box full of action figures , ten of the final twelve he needed to complete his collection . It's now legendary in this boy's family how the last action figure he needed , Anakin Skywalker , stopped being produced and carried in stores , and how this boy went for about ten years ( until he got into college ) trying to track one down and finally bought it from someone on his dorm floor for a bag of beer nuggets ( don't ask . . . it's a Northern Illinois University thing ) . I can't review " Star Wars " as a movie . It represents absolutely everything good , fun and magical about my childhood . There's no separating it in my mind from Christmases , birthdays , summers and winters growing up . In the winter , my friends and I would build snow forts and pretend we were on Hoth ( I was always Han Solo ) . My friends ' dad built them a kick-ass tree house , and that served as the Ewok village . They also had a huge pine tree whose bottom branches were high enough to create a sort of cave underneath it , and this made a great spot to pretend we were in Yoda's home . I am unabashedly dorky when it comes to " Star Wars " and I think people either just understand that or they don't . I don't get the appeal of " Lord of the Rings " or " Star Trek " but I understand the rabid flocks of fans that follow them because I am a rabid fan of George Lucas's films . I feel no need to defend my opinion of these movies as some of the greatest of all time . Every time I put them in the DVD player , I feel like I'm eight years old again , when life was simple and the biggest problem I had was figuring out how I was going to track down a figure of Anakin Skywalker . Grade ( for the entire trilogy ) : |
574,263 | 4,532,636 | 29,947 | 10 | Pure Craziness from Start to Finish | This is probably the craziest of all 30s screwball comedies , and it seems almost impossible today that it could have bombed when first released in 1938 . I'm not sure Katharine Hepburn was ever much of an actress - - I think she was good at picking roles in which she could just be Katharine Hepburn . But when she set her mind to playing ding-bats , she could be as ditzy as the best of them , and her character here may just be the ditziest ditz ever captured on film . Cary Grant was sort of a male Kate Hepburn in a way . He was never really called upon to act ; directors just hired him whenever they needed someone to play Cary Grant . But the befuddled , exasperated character he creates in this movie is sensational , even if it didn't require Grant to flex his acting chops . Together , Grant and Hepburn are an unforgettable pair , and they make an unforgettable movie . It seems pointless to mention specific classic scenes in a movie in which every scene could rightfully be considered a classic . But my favorite just may be when Grant and Hepburn go charging around her family home's extensive grounds , chasing after the dog George . Not to be missed by anyone who enjoys film comedy . |
573,602 | 4,532,636 | 274,558 | 10 | Stunning Film ; Why All the Hate ? | I'm really amazed by all of the spiteful , vitriolic insults hurled at this film from other users . Why all the anger ? If you don't like the movie because you think it's boring , or because you think nothing happens , or whatever , fine . . . but there are reviewers who are actually dismissing it because it's " feminist tripe " and because all of the characters are " queer . " I also saw the word " dyke " used . Sadly , these people are only helping to make the film's point . It's funny that people hate this movie for the reason that nothing happens , because I feel that SO much happens . Maybe not in a traditional Hollywood narrative sense , but this isn't a traditional Hollywood narrative , and God bless it for that . It's hard to get your mind around a discussion of " The Hours , " because it's about so much . It's about women and women's roles , it's about making choices and regretting those choices , it's about taking control of your life when others have become complacent in theirs , it's about the power of art to change lives , it's about taking care of the people in your life . And reviewers are saying it's about NOTHING ? I have to believe that the users who hate this movie the most live the kinds of lives the women in this movie are struggling to fight their ways out of : dull , complacent , bland , satisfied with banalities . These people don't get why Laura Brown might be revolted by the antiseptic sameness of a Los Angeles suburb , where her day consists of making cakes and being bored . She's whiny , they'll say . She has no right to complain because her life's so easy , they'll say . Easy to say indeed when you yourself are living a life constructed for you by the mainstream and haven't once in your life challenged a social norm . I personally know a woman who lives a life very similar to Laura Brown's , and she's suicidal , literally . She loves her little boy , but she's suffocated by a life so lacking in stimulation that there's nothing to get her out of bed every day . And she's not an unfeeling monster . " The Hours " is a beautiful film that gets everything right , and just may be the best book to screen adaptation I've ever seen . Maybe it would be more difficult to understand if you haven't read the book first - - - I'll concede that . But I think the movie is virtually flawless as is , and it frustrates me to read comments by so many people who have a total lack of sympathy for characters struggling with their own emotions . Just because you can't understand the emotions at play doesn't mean the work is at fault - - try turning an introspective eye on yourself and see how far you get . Kudos to all of the reviewers here who have seen and praised this film . We can take comfort in the fact that there are still film makers out there who are willing to challenge and exhilarate us . |
573,884 | 4,532,636 | 50,825 | 10 | A Brilliant Indictment of the Military Institution | Before indulging in the ponderousness that could mar his otherwise exceptional later films , Stanley Kubrick directed this terse , no-nonsense account of a group of men tried for mutiny during the horrific trench warfare of World War I . " Paths of Glory " exists mainly as a scathing indictment of the bureaucracy behind the world's wars . The accused men in this film are scapegoats for commanders who failed at their own duties , but in the military , as in the world outside the military , the power resides with a few , and the masses have little power against them . Kirk Douglas delivers a fierce performance as an officer who sees the injustice and refuses to tolerate it . There's a throbbing human passion in the way he attacks the character , as there is throughout the entire film , somewhat rare for Kubrick , whose later movies would tend toward the emotionally detached . A surprisingly candid film for its time , " Paths of Glory " would be tough medicine for people to swallow today , when everyone wants to believe that the military establishment has nothing but our best interests at heart . The film suggests that soldiers have as much to fear from their allies within as they do their enemies without . |
574,138 | 4,532,636 | 39,689 | 10 | The Best 40s Noir | There's nothing wrong with " Out of the Past . " It is hands down the best film noir to be released in the 1940s ( even better than " Double Indemnity , " high praise indeed from me ) , and it rivals " Sunset Boulevard " and " Kiss Me Deadly " as my favorite noir of all time . Robert Mitchum plays a regular Joe , quietly living an ordinary life in some out of the way sleepy American town , whose criminal past catches up with him and refuses to let him go . It's reminiscent of last year's " A History of Violence , " and explores some of the same themes as David Cronenberg's film : Can we forget the past if the past doesn't want to forget us ? Mitchum delivers a spectacular performance ; his craggy , mournful face is the very picture of a man who knows he's living on borrowed time . Jane Greer is the sizzling femme fatale who has his number . And Kirk Douglas appears in an early performance as a cold-blooded crime boss . What else can I say about the movie other than it's virtually flawless . Stark , moody cinematography ; haunting score ; terrific , sharp dialogue . This is one of the most quotable films ever . A don't miss . |
574,111 | 4,532,636 | 25,878 | 10 | An Unbeatable Pair | Watch out Fred and Ginger , Hepburn and Tracy , Bonnie and Clyde , because Nick and Nora ( or should I say Powell and Loy ) are hot on your tails as all-time great screen couple . " The Thin Man " was the first film to team up William Powell and Myrna Loy as famed sleuthing team , not to mention husband and wife , Nick and Nora Charles . A film like this could only have been made in the 30s - - I don't think there's a scene where Powell doesn't have a martini in his hand , and the movie's filled with those sarcastic bon mots that defined 30s screen comedies . Don't even ask me to summarize the plot , because it doesn't matter . The whodunit aspect of the movie is beside the point , and I didn't really care who the killer was , or indeed if the killer was ever even caught . What matters here , of course , is watching the chemistry between Powell and Loy , which practically melts the television screen . William Powell was a sort of Clark Gable with an edge . He looked remarkably like Gable , and he also had that droll way of delivering a line , but he wasn't as much of an everyman as Gable . Myrna Loy is absolutely adorable , one of my favorite actresses from this time period , even though I'm still convinced she was never really used to her full potential . Her appearance in this is as close as any film maker ever came to taking full advantage of her sex appeal , cuteness and comedic flair , but even at that she too often takes a back seat to Powell . And of course special mention must be made of Asta , giving one of the best performances ever delivered by a canine in a motion picture . The later films in the " Thin Man " series weren't ever able to recapture the magic of this first installment , but that would be a difficult feat for any movie . |
574,116 | 4,532,636 | 22,100 | 10 | Unforgettable | I can't begin to imagine what audiences made of this film upon its release in 1931 . The idea of having your protagonist be a child killer , and one the audience is meant to feel pity for , would be a tough sell TODAY let alone then . But that's exactly what director Fritz Lang gives us , and in Peter Lorre he found the perfect actor to create this wounded soul . Lorre , with his frazzled appearance and bug eyes , gives perhaps one of cinema's greatest and most chilling performances . He seems to be pleading for mercy without even saying a word . His child killer is one who is driven to do what he does by forces beyond his control - - not something audiences who turn to movies for black / white , right / wrong moral messages want to hear . His frantic soliloquy at the movie's end , where he pleads for mercy and understanding , is a triumph of writing and acting . In a period when director after director was handed the new technique of sound and then didn't know what to do with it , Lang seems perfectly at home with the new medium , and in fact one can't quite imagine " M " without sound . It's a deeply disturbing and effective film , and not to be missed . |
573,949 | 4,532,636 | 47,478 | 10 | There's Not One Thing Wrong with This Film | If you think a three-hour Japanese movie from the mid-50s about an ancient time in history sounds like one big snoozer , you'd be right . It SOUNDS like a snoozer . But just sit down to watch this film , and you'll realize how wrong you are . " Seven Samurai " is one of the most exciting , suspenseful films I've ever seen , and the running time passed so quickly that I wasn't even ready for the film to be over . I've watched T . V . sitcoms that felt longer . Akira Kurosawa displays utter mastery of every aspect of cinema . There's not a flaw in this film : it's flawlessly acted , paced , edited , composed , scored . It's an action film for thinking people , one that more than holds its own against any movie released today . Astoundingly good . |
573,750 | 4,532,636 | 33,467 | 10 | A Reputation Deserved | There's not much to say about " Citizen Kane " that hasn't already been said . I know there are people who don't understand why this film is considered to be one of the most brilliantly made films ever produced , but I propose the reason for that is this : the film and narrative techniques on display in " Kane " have become so integral to every film made since that they no longer seem special in Orson Welles ' film when looked at from a 21st Century perspective . I encourage anyone still in doubt of this film's greatness to instead look at it from an historical perspective ; just compare it to any other movie that also came out in 1941 and I think " Kane " ' s uniqueness will be apparent . I don't think the film is without flaws . Welles ' pacing can be slow at times , and I think the last quarter of the movie especially drags . The story itself isn't particularly interesting or even novel for its time , but one doesn't ( or shouldn't ) watch " Kane " for the originality of the story . Instead , pay attention to how the story is told and who's telling it . When the film is over , ask yourself this : can you say you've been given an objective account of Kane's story ? Do you really know what happened to him ? This is radical stuff for 1941 . Can you imagine a movie being released at that time that didn't answer the questions it raised ? The motivation that puts the entire world of the film in motion remains unresolved . That doesn't happen very often in films even now , let alone then . And if none of this is reason enough to watch " Citizen Kane , " just watch it for the stunning cinematography and compositions . Virtually every frame is a work of art in itself . And if that isn't reason enough to watch it , then just watch it for Orson Welles ' mesmerizing performance in the title role . Easily one of the ten best in cinema history . And if that isn't reason enough to watch it , you're on your own . |
574,069 | 4,532,636 | 47,472 | 10 | A Flawless Musical Comedy | Seven Brides for Seven Brothers just may be my favorite splashy MGM musical from the 1940s and 50s , and holds a place up there with my favorite movie musicals of all time . " Brides / Brothers " bursts on to the screen with the energy of a cheerleading squad on amphetamines , and that energy never dissipates . But it doesn't feel manic or overwrought in any way . The movie wholeheartedly embraces sheer ridiculousness in its plot about a bunch of hillbilly mountain men brothers who decide they all want wives , and kidnap a bunch of townswomen to get them . It's like " Snow White " gone all wrong . Of course the women start to fall for the brothers as they begin to domesticate them , taking copious time out for great songs and showstopping dance numbers , showcasing some of the best choreography ever put to screen . Of course leave it to a dopey , escapist piece of entertainment like this to give us one of the most productive representations of gender roles in a decade known for its straight-jacket treatment of both women and men . The men sacrifice none of their masculine identity in becoming a bit more cultured and sophisticated , and the women avoid becoming dewey , housewife stereotypes . Other movies from the same time period that tried much more earnestly to address issues related to gender studies don't do it as well as this one . If I had to choose one word to describe this movie , it would be " rollicking . " Hope that helps . |
574,068 | 4,532,636 | 47,396 | 10 | THE Ultimate Hitchcock Movie | Rear Window represents Alfred Hitchcock at his most playful . This is Hitchcock's most fully realized comment about the obsession with voyeurism that reared its head repeatedly throughout his ouvre , an obsession not only of his , but one shared by the characters in his films and the audience watching them - - for without the delight that comes in watching other people , who would filmmakers be making films for ? " Rear Window " is a nearly perfect movie : perfectly plotted , perfectly directed , perfectly acted . James Stewart could play characters like this in his sleep , but that fact does not make his performance any less entertaining . Some of the ice melts off of Grace Kelly's facade , and she gives the wittiest and sexiest performance of her career . And who can say enough about Thelma Ritter ? A truly unique character actor in the history of cinema , Ritter always played the audience's id , thinking and saying all of the things all of the other characters in the film were too polite or nervous to think and say themselves . She could recite a weather forecast in that sardonic , world-weary monotone of hers , and it would still be funny . Hitchcock was always able to blend suspense , romance and social commentary to varying degrees of success , but almost always better than most other directors could manage . " Rear Window " stands as an example of what happened when he struck a perfect balance between all three . |
573,572 | 4,532,636 | 317,248 | 10 | Visceral and Fabulous | City of God is an adrenaline jolt of a film that for once manages to find a balance between stylistics and substance . The director , Fernando Meirelles , stuffs his movie to the brim with machine-gun editing , swirling cinematography and pounding music , but while this reliance on fancy tricks has ruined other films , Meirelles is so expert at blending them seamlessly into an engrossing story that the viewer quickly accepts them as inseparable from the world of the film . He delivers a deeply emotional and human story that obviously owes much to Scorsese and Tarantino - - - but his movie feels completely original , never like a rip off . And underneath all of the action and plotting , there is a compelling message about about the power of art ( specifically the camera ) and a suggestion that , just as the pen is mightier than the sword , the camera is mightier than the gun . Can't recommend it enough . |
573,657 | 4,532,636 | 388,795 | 10 | Ang Lee's Last Picture Show | Perhaps the saddest thing about " Brokeback Mountain " is that , though the story begins in 1963 and ends roughly in the early 80s , Ang Lee's film could have been set in the present day and not much would be different . Homosexuality has become almost stylish in America's urban areas , but out in the heartland , where men are still meant to be MEN , I can still see how homosexuals could spend their entire life in the closet for fear of being completely rejected , if not worse , by the society around them . " Brokeback Mountain " put me in the mind of last year's " Million Dollar Baby " in its approach to controversial subject matter . Like Clint Eastwood's film , " Mountain " avoids becoming an " issue " movie . The point is not whether you think homosexuality is sinful , or that all gay people are damned to hell , etc . The point is about whether two human beings who share an emotional connection should be able to act on that . And I would think someone would have to have a heart of ice to come out of this film and not recognize how tragic it is that two people who obviously care as much about each other as the two men in this film do should have to live in fear of expressing their bond . The film also put me in mind of " Baby " in its style - - spare , quiet , unsentimental . The most important thoughts and feelings are conveyed through what remains unsaid . Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal give sensational and , for two straight heartthrob Hollywood actors , quite brave performances . Ledger especially is a revelation . Nothing he's ever done up to this point , with maybe the exception of his brief performance in " Monster's Ball , " prepared me for his work here . He has a tough role , as Ennis Delmar , the character he plays , has an instinctual inability to show emotion of any kind . You can see in Ledger's face that his character thinks it's unmanly to expose himself , so his Ennis is all clenched jaw and swallowed words . The only emotion he expresses is violence ; whether it's anger , grief , despair or even lust , his first instinct is to lash out and cause pain . Gyllenhaal's Jack Twist is the more gregarious of the two , and the more willing to take risks with their shared secret . Ennis is more grounded in the reality of his environment . He accepts an occasional escape with Jack up into the mountains as more than either of them have the right to expect . Jack , on the other hand , as he says at one point in the film , isn't able to get what he needs from a secret meeting every couple of years . He wants a full committed relationship with Ennis , and is too rebellious to let the cowboy culture in which they live prevent them from having that . His character comes across as restless and reckless . You're left wondering whether Jack is attached to Ennis specifically or just the satisfying of desires that Ennis makes possible , until the film's final moments , when you realize just how important a role Ennis played in Jack's life . Meanwhile , the two principal actresses , Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway , deliver bravura performances in small roles , conveying loads of emotion in a facial expression or gesture . Watch Williams's face when she sees her husband , Ennis , locked in a kiss with Jack . Or watch Hathaway's when Ennis calls her near the end of the film to talk about Jack , and you realize that this wife who appeared throughout the film to know nothing about her husband's clandestine personal life seems to know a great deal , and has been hurt considerably by it . Ang Lee nails the good ol ' boy culture of the American west . One has to think that screenwriter Larry McMurty also helped in this department . Like his " The Last Picture Show , " " Brokeback Mountain " paints a desolate portrait of deserted Western towns . These are essentially ghost towns , even though they're full of people . Boredom and stagnation are the norm . Men are men and women are women . Gender roles are strictly assigned and there's no deviation . In fact , one wonders at times whether or not Ennis is strictly gay , or whether he forms a bond with Jack because he's the one person with whom Ennis feels safe to be freely emotional without the fear of judgement . At times , it seems as if Ennis is drawn to Jack not because he's a man , but because he's another human being who seems to understand him . It's really amazing and heartening that a film with this subject matter is finding such mainstream appeal . It remains to be seen how much of an audience it draws outside of the urban areas . It would be nice to think that Americans everywhere will be able to put aside preconceived attitudes and be able to appreciate what is essentially a tragedy about two caring human beings , but that's probably too much to hope for . But even if this film makes a few people across the country think twice about passing judgement on people different from themselves , it will have served a valuable purpose . |
573,971 | 4,532,636 | 43,014 | 10 | One of the Few Perfect Movies in Existence | On the one hand , it seems pointless to add yet one more comment to the numerous comments already here testifying to the greatness of this film , but I love this movie so much that it seems just wrong to not have it included in my index of reviews . There are only a few movies I've seen that I would be tempted to label perfect . " Bonnie and Clyde " is one . " Taxi Driver " is another . These films are unimprovable as far as I'm concerned . Add " Sunset Boulevard " to that list . " Boulevard " represents Billy Wilder at his most acidic and ghoulish , but it's a testament to his genius as a film maker that he could create a film as relentlessly bleak and cynical as this one and make it devilishly entertaining ( and even quite funny at times ) rather than unbearably depressing . There's a big fat heart at the center of Wilder's bitter pill , and it's one that could be easily missed amid the dark , film-noirish exterior . I think that ultimately " Sunset Boulevard " is about the love of movies . You can tell that Wilder loves movies as much as the sad and decaying film star Norma Desmond , played brilliantly ( and I don't toss that word around lightly ) by Gloria Swanson . But he understands with an insider's point of view that there's a seedy underside to every business , and that's what he sets out to expose in his film . Movies get made and stars are born , but for every birth there's a death . I don't know how much of Swanson's performance is acting or her just being herself . If you allow yourself to think about it too long , Wilder's use of her is almost cruel , as making fun of Norma Desmond the character nearly amounts to making fun of Swanson the actress . The whole movie is uncomfortable in that same way - - it's like a bunch of Hollywood used-to-be's got together and decided to let themselves be parodied for a greater cause . But the film stops just short of cruelty , because in many ways Norma is the most sympathetic character in the film , and every so often there's a glimpse of the vulnerable human being underneath that ridiculous getup that begs to be loved , and who can't relate to that ? William Holden is perfect in a non-showy role that it would be tempting to pass off as an easy one . But I don't think it is an easy role . Holden has to be responsible for tempering the audience's reaction to Norma - - he's the moral conscience of the film , and his steady presence anchors it and keeps it from sailing headlong into camp . There are so many quotable lines in this film , I don't know where to begin . Imagine this film and " All About Eve " coming out in the same year . It's a movie quote fan's wet dream . In an eerie bit of prophetic trivia , apparently Gloria Swanson thought this film would signal such a major comeback for her that she began plans to write a stage musical based on the film , starring herself . ( She might even have gotten as far as completing it ) . Of course nothing ever came of it , and Swanson sunk quickly back into obscurity . But she would be vindicated to know that a stage musical did eventually appear , courtesy of Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber , and it actually does quite a bit of justice to Wilder's film . |
574,203 | 4,532,636 | 60,665 | 10 | Perhaps the Best Costume Drama Ever Made | A Man for All Seasons is that rare treasure : a costume drama that actually feels alive and lived in , rather than like a meticulously detailed museum exhibit . Paul Scofield plays Sir Thomas More with tremendous dignity and without an ounce of actorly self-consciousness . Never once will you catch him Acting with a capital " A . " He immerses himself utterly in the character , and creates a wholly believable portrait of a man facing a profound , and potentially fatal , moral crisis . Wendy Hiller does serviceable work in the role of noble suffering wife , and Robert Shaw adds another to the long list of performances that depict Henry VIII as a loud , crass , obnoxious boor ( though in fairness , perhaps there isn't any other way to play Henry VIII ) . A very young Susannah York appears as well , as Thomas More's daughter . Director Fred Zinnemann takes a no-fuss approach to the material , and directs with a minimum of frills so as not to detract from the strength of the writing and acting . However , the directing style doesn't feel anonymous , and one senses that Zinnemann is in total control at all times . Everyone knows how the story ends , so the movie by default is a bit of a bummer , but it's still a bracing and exhilarating film nonetheless , and the depressing ending is offset by the thrill of seeing a story about a man who stands up for what he believes in presented in an intelligent way without a bunch of phony Hollywood hooey . |
574,469 | 4,532,636 | 80,437 | 10 | An Excellent War Film | A magnificent film . Samuel Fuller adds his voice to the countless others who have recorded WWII stories , yet manages to create a movie that's completely original in its vision . The largely autobiographical story follows the Big Red One , the nickname for an infantry rifle squad , through many of the war's major battles . Unlike other war films , Fuller's movie resists the urge to reduce each man to an easily recognizable type , and instead creates living , breathing characters who we very much care about by the time the film is over . There are no philosophical pontifications about the absurdity of war , a la an Oliver Stone film or " Saving Private Ryan . " These are kids being asked to fulfill a role for which they're not emotionally mature enough to fulfill , and they're wholly believable . At the center of the squad is its commander , played by Lee Marvin in a mesmerizing performance . Marvin's character is a career soldier ; a prologue to the film shows him serving in WWI as well . He utters few lines and resists any shows of emotion , but Marvin nonetheless conveys so much with a glance or a gesture that a full-bodied portrait of this man emerges . With his men he's crabby , grumpy and full of macho bravado . But the film is peppered with scenes involving assorted children that the squad comes across in its various military engagements , and Marvin's moments with these kids bring an aching warmth to his character . You don't learn anything about his character's life outside of the military , and yet at the same time you learn a great deal about the kind of man he is . He's a father figure to his squad , he's paternal with these kids - - - yet he's devoted his life to the military . . . . leaving you to wonder if there's a single person in his civilian life who feels any sense of loss at his absence . His is a portrait of loneliness in the midst of constant human interaction . The film has an episodic structure , and it's to Fuller's credit as a writer that he manages to keep his film focused despite the rambling existence of these soldiers ' day-to-day lives . There are countless moments that vie for most memorable : a battle set in the ruins of what appear to be some sort of arena , in which a group of North Africans on horseback come to the aid of the Americans and the ancient and modern worlds collide bizarrely . . . . . . Fuller's representation of the Normandy invasion , in which the progress of the battle is represented through recurring shots of a watch on the wrist of a dead man floating in the surf . . . . . a hilarious sequence in which the squad help a foreign lady deliver a baby in a tank . . . . a harrowing battle scene set in an asylum for the insane . . . . . and the film's final battle to liberate a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia , in which the higher goal of the war becomes apparent to these men for whom war has consisted of nothing but disconnected and seemingly purposeless moments of violence . " The Big Red One " was released after a decade of war films that criticized war and everything it stands for : " MASH , " " Catch-22 , " " The Deer Hunter , " " Apocalypse Now . " But it stands apart from these films , for while it acknowledges the horror , brutality and sometime absurdity of war , it doesn't offer a blanket indictment of it . Fuller understands that war is sometimes an unpleasant necessity , and it's no accident that the movie , which could have chosen any one of a number of endings , ends with the liberation of the camps , suggesting that perhaps there was a point to the carnage after all . A remarkable movie , an award-worthy performance from Lee Marvin , and further proof ( if any was still needed ) that Samuel Fuller is one of cinema's greatest unsung directors . |
573,358 | 4,532,636 | 25,316 | 10 | Colbert Can Catch a Lift with Me Any Day | It Happened One Night is an example of what happens when everything in a movie works just right . This movie probably had low aspirations when it was first released in 1934 , but everything clicked so well that it's now considered to be the supreme example of screwball comedy , one of the best movies of the 30s , and one of the best movies of all time . Clark Gable and the adorable Claudette Colbert could not have more chemistry together . Their sassy back and forth is a joy to watch . And though this movie came out in the first year of the enforced Production Code , their relationship is refreshingly sexy . Dig Clark Gable in his undershirt ( gasp ! ) . And check out Claudette Colbert's shapely gams when she uses them to hitch a ride in one of the movie's classic scenes . Though the film is light and frothy , the spectre of the Depression isn't totally absent . For example , in one brief scene , Gable pauses at a railroad crossing to watch a freight train go past , loaded with hobos presumably off to find work somewhere , anywhere they can . One wonders if this was even staged or if Capra happened to catch an authentic moment from a dark time in America's history . The screwball comedy is not a genre that's managed to survive throughout the years , so all the more reason to enjoy this funny , breezy , sophisticated piece of cinema magic . |
573,730 | 4,532,636 | 67,185 | 10 | A Movie That Actually Influenced the Way I Think | Bud Cort appeared in two of my favorite ( and two of the quirkiest ) movies from the 1970s : " Harold and Maude " and " Brewster McCloud . " He also appeared in a cameo at the tail-end of " Sweet Charity , " another of my favorites . Given that little resume of movie roles , he has forever won a place in my heart , as has this movie . " Harold and Maude " is a modest little masterpiece from Hal Ashby , and deserves to be viewed as more than just an eccentric little cult hit appreciated by an elite few . It's hard to think of another movie whose success relies so entirely upon its pitch-perfect tone . Ashby's film walks a tightrope between black ( almost too black ) comedy and sentimental ( almost too sentimental ) pathos , but manages to blend the two perfectly to produce something quite unlike anything else I've ever seen . Harold is a gloomy misfit with a morbid death obsession , who likes to stage his own fake suicides in order to win the attention of his dithery and oblivious mother ( Vivian Pickles , in an uproarious performance ) . He meets Maude ( Ruth Gordon ) , an eccentric old lady with a taste for fast driving and an unparalleled lust for life . Maude teaches Harold how to enjoy the world around him instead of letting it slowly pass him by , while Harold gives Maude someone to share her days with . It's an achingly beautiful movie , in a low-key kind of way . Ashby is the king of understatement , and everything , both the outrageous comedy and the tender , sad moments , are delivered simply and effectively . He's got great actors in a great story , and he trusts both enough to stand back and let them work their magic . Ruth Gordon gives one of my favorite film performances of all time as Maude . It would be easy to dismiss her role as easy , if it were not for those quiet moments when Maude lets her enthusiastic guard down and we get glimpses of some sadness in her life that she's made a willful decision not to let overcome her . There are moments in this movie that actually made me think differently about the world we live in . Just for an example , there's a scene when Harold and Maude are sitting by a pond , and Harold gives Maude a ring he won for her in a carnival . She clutches it to her chest , thanks him for it , and then throws it into the water . Harold at first looks outraged that she would throw his gift away . But she says , " Now I'll always know where it is , " and Harold's hurt look transforms into a smile of understanding . If I could think about life the way the character of Maude does in this movie , I know I would be a happier person . " Harold and Maude " is a shining gem from the 1970s , and one of those movies I just have to watch every once in a while . Along with the two leads , there's of course Pickles ' off-the-wall performance , and very funny support from actors in minor roles , like Harold's therapist ( " sagging buttocks " ) and his war-crazed uncle . Plus , there's the wonderful score comprised of Cat Stevens songs , which caps off the tone of the movie beautifully . |
574,309 | 4,532,636 | 440,963 | 10 | Perhaps a Perfect Action Thriller | Paul Greengrass's sophomore outing as director of the Jason Bourne franchise is the best yet of the series . This is a sensational film , exciting and wildly entertaining . For what it sets out to be , it's nearly perfect . The other entries were also good , but what I came away praising in those were individual action scenes . In " Ultimatum , " I was finally impressed with the writing of this series . They're very carefully constructed in and of themselves , but what's more , they're carefully constructed AS a series , so that characters and plot lines develop throughout the films , and little hooks in each film keep enough loose ends untied to make you care about what happens next . For example , though these movies are streamlined as can be , and stick pretty closely with Bourne , one of my favorite elements in this film was the expansion of Joan Allen's role and the battle of wills that occurs between her character and her rival CIA agent , played coolly and icily by David Strathairn . And though there's nothing in this film to match the sheer technical mastery of the car chase scene in the second installment , there's a hair-raising chase in this one set amongst the rooftops and maze-like alleyways of Tangier that should go down as a classic nailbiter . There hasn't been a movie this summer I've enjoyed as much as this one . |
574,132 | 4,532,636 | 36,244 | 10 | A Fabulous Study of Mob Mentality | Before " 12 Angry Men " there was " The Ox-Bow Incident , " a bleaker and never less than fascinating exploration of the nature of mob violence . Unlike " 12 Angry Men , " this film has no clear-cut heroes . It takes place in a more primitive , wilder time and location , and the principal question at the crux of this movie's conflict is whether or not three suspected cattle thieves should be punished without due legal process . A small group is in favor of letting the frontier town sheriff handle the situation , while a much larger group smells only blood ( and in some cases are motivated by personal vengeance ) and convince themselves of the suspects ' guilt without listening to any of the evidence . It's quite a frightening movie in its own way , and it has a stark look at odds with the average studio film being churned out at the time ( 1943 ) . Henry Fonda is quite good , as usual , in the closest thing the movie has to a main character , but it seems pointless to single him out in what is obviously such an ensemble effort , and in a movie that only lasts a mere 75 minutes or so and has such a large cast , each actor manages to color his / her character with delightful details , sometimes with no more than a single line of dialogue or one reaction shot . " The Ox-Bow Incident " is a fantastic film . I don't think it's well-remembered now , but I'm thrilled to see it on DVD and hope that it will be rediscovered . |
573,644 | 4,532,636 | 404,203 | 10 | A Highly Unusual and Exceptional Film | Can there be such a thing as a feel-good movie about marital infidelity and suburban ennui ? If so , then I believe this haunting , powerful and superb new movie from Todd Field may be it . A feel-good movie was not in the least what I was expecting from this , based on the trailers and on Field's prior film , the astringent and depressing " In the Bedroom . " And it's not like I left the theatre feeling the need to break into song . But unlike other films about the stultifying atmosphere of suburban America , and the prisons so many people seem to make out of their domestic worlds , " Little Children " ends with a distinct feeling of hope and optimism . In other domestic dramas , the characters are frequently unlikable , and they appear to drift through their worlds allowing things to happen to them without taking any responsibility for themselves . In " Little Children , " Field does not present us with a handful of caustic stereotypes , but rather with a cast of actors who create warm but flawed human beings . These characters don't drift through life . They have things they care about , and they want and feel that they deserve some of the small happinesses that all human beings have a right to . But they also screw up , make bad decisions , act irrationally . What saves them , and the movie , is that in the end they all wake up , realize they're chasing dreams , and decide to make something of the lives they have rather than the lives they think they want . I thought this was a hopeful message , and one that carries with it a tremendous impact in this post - culture , when the safety nets on which we've built our existences have been ripped out from under us and we're left trying to make sense of a scary world . This film , in its closing moments , states outright that there's no time like now to begin taking control of our own worlds and making of them what we want . The best weapon we can wield against an uncertain future are our children , who can learn from our mistakes and make something new rather than simply repeat an endless cycle . As for the acting . . . . . Kate Winslet shines as Sarah , the suburban mom who doesn't fit in and embarks upon a reckless affair to fill a void in her days . Her performance is one of those small triumphs of acting , in which Winslet builds a living , breathing human being from the ground up through a series of subtle and thoughtful choices . Patrick Wilson , such a limp noodle in the screen version of " The Phantom of the Opera , " is pitch perfect as Brad , the stud who attracts Sarah's eye . And the other actors take full advantage of their smaller roles : Jennifer Connelly as Brad's loving but distracted wife ; Jackie Earle Haley as the film's most tragic figure , Noah Emmerich as an ex-cop who takes homeland security into his own hands ; and Phyllis Somerville , who has a couple of beautifully heart-breaking moments as the mom of an outcast . The screenplay is thematically elaborate . There's hardly an element of one character's storyline that doesn't find a parallel in the storyline of another . The theme of parenting is of course central , but beyond simply focusing on the responsibilities parents owe their children , the film goes deeper and examines how parents ' behavior affects their children and the extent to which parents can change the world for good or bad through what they hand down to the children who inherit it . A bracing , fantastic film . |
573,656 | 4,532,636 | 94,562 | 10 | Altman and Trudeau Are a Match Made in Movie Heaven | After a contentious decade for Robert Altman , during which he was pretty much shunned by the Hollywood system and made some of his worst films , it's only fitting that he should cap the decade off with an absolute triumph , this absorbing mini-series made for HBO . I don't know why it took so long for someone to pair " Doonesbury " writer Garry Trudeau with Altman , because in retrospect , it seems like a match made in heaven . Both have the exact same sarcastic sense of humor and the talent for seeing the absurd in the mundane . They crafted a fascinating look into the world of political machinations , following the story of fictitious 1988 presidential candidate Jack Tanner but setting it against the real world of the democratic primaries . Therefore , actual members of the political scene at the time interact with star Michael Murphy as if he's a real presidential nominee , and the viewer is never sure what action is authentic and what is staged . Murphy is superb as Tanner , and he's perfectly cast . Tanner is handsome and charismatic enough to make a fairly successful run for the nomination , but he's too bland and too nice to make it all the way . The series examines one of the major conundrums about American politics : to have a candidate with conviction and good ideas isn't enough . He must also be a personality and be able to navigate the tricky terrain of the American media , with the result that those who go farthest are those who know how to work the system , not those who are most honest . " Tanner ' 88 " captured perfectly my own feelings about presidential elections . On the one hand , they're of supreme importance , because they determine who will be the leader of one of the most powerful nations in the world . But on the other hand , they seem like such pointless exercises , and it's hard to muster up the energy to care time after time . But one of the strongest and most serious points made by this series comes in an episode in which Tanner visits the slums of Detroit in his home state of Michigan . He realizes that he is completely out of touch with the very people he promises to help , and has no clue about what their lives are really like . That's painfully true about our own leadership - - it was in 1988 and still is today . There's a vast and probably insurmountable gap between the privileged few who ever have the remotest hope of being president and the millions of average Americans over whom they govern . All of the acting in " Tanner ' 88 " is sensational , to the point where I forgot I wasn't just watching real people being filmed by a documentary filmmaker . Most notable are Pamela Reed , as Tanner's campaign manager , Cynthia Nixon , as his overbearing and very young daughter , and E . G . Marshall , who makes a few memorable appearances as Tanner's awful father . This is a must see for Altman fans , or really anyone with an interest in American politics . |
573,433 | 4,532,636 | 34,240 | 10 | Preston Sturges Defends Mindless Comedy in a Film with a Big Brain and an Even Bigger Heart | Joel McCrea plays Sullivan , a big-time director of movie comedies and musicals , who decides he wants to direct a film with a message , and rides the rails as a bum to find out what it's like to be poor . He takes with him Veronica Lake , playing a Hollywood starlet wannabe who's just about ready to throw in the towel . Together , they find out that they can't really ever know what it's like to be poor unless they're actually poor , a fate that eventually befalls Sullivan through a crazy turn of events , after which he rediscovers the value of using film to make people laugh . " Sullivan's Travels " is one of those reflexive movies about Hollywood and the business of film making that can be wonderful when done well and entirely too self conscious when done poorly . I can't imagine writer / director Preston Sturges having done a better job than he does here with this simply marvelous film , easily one of the best of the 1940s and perhaps one of the best ever . Rarely have I felt that a director has made his point as clearly and effectively as Sturges does with this film . He manipulates his audience dexterously but not cheaply . When the film takes a dark and sobering turn , we fidget anxiously and wait for it to get funny again , which is exactly the reaction the studio executives in the film's opening tell Sullivan he can expect from his " important " film , and why they tell him to stick to comedy in the first place . The irony of course is that in making a film about the value of mindless comedy , Sturges at the same time made a quite important picture that more forcefully addressed the plight of the working man than any number of other films that treated the subject more seriously . I've never liked Joel McCrea better than I do here . His laconic way with a one liner is perfectly suited to Sturges ' brand of quick and witty writing . Indeed , the patter comes at you so quickly that your brain may have trouble keeping up with the jokes . Veronica Lake is cute and droll , and she and McCrea get on well together . The film's best moments come when the pair are learning how to be hobos . And Sturges fills out the rest of his film with a cast of regulars from his stable of character actors , with virtually every member getting some bit of business or a line to remember him by . However , despite Sturges ' wonderful dialogue , the film's most memorable and beautiful moment comes when everybody shuts up , and a montage of scenes showing McCrea and Lake experiencing life as it was for countless homeless and unemployed regular Americans at the tail end of the Depression plays out with no sound , accompanied only by a pretty musical passage . In a movie that will take your breath away with its pace and crack comic timing , this moment will take your breath away for different reasons altogether . |
573,523 | 4,532,636 | 31,725 | 10 | Garbo Laughs , and Makes Me Laugh with Her | The only word to describe this Ernst Lubitsch comedy is : sparkling . Tremendously sweet and funny in that gentle way that was unique to Ernst Lubitsch comedies , " Ninotchka " features a winning Greta Garbo as a Soviet envoy dispatched to Paris to check up on the work of her comrades . They have been sent to sell the confiscated jewels of a Russian countess , played haughtily by Ina Claire . She refuses to let them go without a fight , and enlists the help of her attorney and playboy ( Melvyn Douglas ) to win them back . Unfortunately for her , he falls under the charms of Ninotchka , as do we . I have never been a fan of Garbo or the moody brooding she was always asked to do in her films . Lubitsch completely understood the image she had in the public's collective mind , and so for the first half of this movie , Garbo presents a parody of herself , refusing to crack a smile despite Douglas's herculean efforts to make her . But then Ninotchka gradually begins to fall under the spell of Paris , its good food and fashionable hats , a pratfall involving Douglas is finally enough to make her laugh , and from that moment on , she's a delight . For an example of just how good a comedienne Garbo could be , watch Ninotchka's face as Douglas's character tells her corny joke after corny joke in an attempt to win a smile from her ; or the scene set in a nightclub when Ninotchka discovers the capitalist wonders of champagne . |
573,311 | 4,532,636 | 73,486 | 10 | One of the Last Anti-Establishment Films of the 1970s | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is about the triumph of the human spirit , but it's depressing as hell . Jack Nicholson gave the last of his great performances before he started playing parodies of himself , and Louise Fletcher plays one of the screen's greatest villains , the only role this forgotten actress was really ever known for . Their battle of wills in a mental institution symbolizes the battle of humanity against oppressive authoritarianism , and if Nicholson's character happens to lose this particular battle , the movie implies , humanity is determined to win the war . Looked at now in historical context , this film was one of the last gasps of anti-establishment film making . Vietnam was ending , American political corruption was starting to fade into memory , and the boom years of the 1980s were not far away . " Cuckoo's Nest " stands as one of the supreme examples of what made 1970s film making great . |
573,363 | 4,532,636 | 60,345 | 10 | The Perfect Cartoon | Is this the perfect cartoon ? Possibly . I loved the character of the Grinch when I was a kid - - something about his cynical , jaded personality appealed to me , and I shared his annoyed scorn for the syrupy Whovillians . Some of his facial expressions are classic , especially those that he aims directly at the camera , usually in response to something his dog , Max , is doing at the moment . And by the way , I've never seen a cartoon version of a dog more adorable , or more like a real dog , than Max . In some ways I kind of regret that movies like this are available on DVD . When I was a kid , it was a big deal when the Grinch aired on T . V . , and it usually was only on once during the holiday season . You had to sit through commercials and all to see how it would end , year after year , and the anticipation made it all the more magical . |
574,029 | 4,532,636 | 1,045,670 | 10 | I Loved Spending Time with Poppy | Another wonderful character study from Mike Leigh . Sally Hawkins is giving one of the best performances of the year as Poppy , an inexhaustibly energetic 30-year old who giggles and goofs her way through life . When we first meet her , we wonder if she's not somewhat deranged . She pesters a book-store clerk into conversation even though he's clearly put off by her ; when her bike is stolen , her first reaction is to lament the fact that she didn't get to say goodbye . But as the film develops , we see that there's much more to Poppy than her happy exterior reveals . She teaches grade school , and she's terrific at it , expertly handling a situation involving a young boy who's suffering abuse at home . She manages without bitterness to salvage a relationship with an uptight , suburban sister who harps on Polly for not being responsible enough . But the biggest revelation about Poppy's character comes from her interaction with Scott , a driving instructor who's probably the exact opposite of her . Vitriolic and angry , Scott sees conspiracy everywhere and spits out hateful generalizations willy-nilly . Played expertly by Eddie Marsan , the scenes between Scott and Poppy are some of the funniest in the film , until Scott turns abusive and Poppy is forced to drop her happy-go-lucky approach , and face down Scott in the film's most emotionally resonant moment . I always look to Mike Leigh films for excellent acting , and " Happy-Go-Lucky " does not disappoint . I haven't seen a performance as fresh and unique as Hawkins ' for some time . She makes it clear that Poppy's ebullient attitude is achieved only by constant and hard work . The unhappiness of the world is lurking around every corner , and indeed , in one unsettling scene in which Poppy tries to engage a homeless man in conversation , Poppy seems every once in a while to be drawn to it . Various characters in the film try to explain Poppy's behavior . Scott accuses her of always needing to be the center of attention ; her girlfriend claims that she wants to change the world . But to me , Poppy seems more motivated by the need simply to understand what makes unhappy people the way they are , and I was left wondering why everyone ( the characters in the film , people I know in the real world , myself ) feel the need to justify the happiness in others , as if it's either a scam or the result of some secret magic . The movie is as close to a feel good movie as Mike Leigh will probably ever get - - it's reminiscent in tone of his marvelous " Life Is Sweet . " Every once in a while I see a film that actually makes me think differently about my own attitudes to life and the world , and this is one of them . Wouldn't the world be a better place if there were a few more Poppies in it ? |
574,083 | 4,532,636 | 119,396 | 10 | Foxy Grier | Jackie Brown was widely received as a disappointing follow-up to Quentin Tarantino's " Pulp Fiction , " but I think it's actually a better movie , if less obviously so . It's hard not to be blown away by " Fiction " because of it's sheer audacity ; " Jackie Brown " is a quieter film that shows Tarantino has the potential to become a mature and sophisticated director . It's somewhat ironic that Tarantino , associated with the young hipster audience , made this film , because at the basic level " Jackie Brown " is about getting old . All of Jackie's motivations spring from the fact that starting over will soon become impossible for her . That the options available to a a middle-aged , lower income level , black woman in modern America are severely limited . Tarantino shows an amazing prowess for getting into the head of this woman . His sensitive direction coupled with Pam Grier's top-notch performance combine to make Jackie one of the most compelling and honest female characters to hit the movie screen in recent years . The rest of the cast is uniformly excellent too . Robert Forster stands out as bail bondsman Max Cherry , who becomes Jackie's partner in crime , as it were . Samuel L . Jackson does well with the kind of part he seems born to play , but his character is not as interesting as the others and so makes less of an impression . Bridget Fonda is a scene stealer as a California beach bunny , and the contrast between her and Pam Grier is used quite effectively . It's interesting to note that in the book this movie was based on , " Rum Punch " by Elmore Leonard , Jackie was white . Changing the race of the title character to black adds a whole other dimension to the film that the book lacks . This is one case where the movie greatly improves on its source material . " Jackie Brown " will take some commitment on behalf of the viewer . It's leisurely paced and more reliant on character study than Tarantino's other films , but these aren't detriments . They merely illustrate that Tarantino has some range as a director , and I hope he continues to explore that range . |
573,680 | 4,532,636 | 73,440 | 10 | My Pick for Best Film of the 1970s | Nashville is a whirling dervish of a movie that comes blaring out at you from the first moment of its opening credits and never really lets up . Like much of Robert Altman's best work , it's not necessarily about any one thing , but is rather about a bunch of little things . It's a film that is as much about a general spirit as it is a grand theme - - its anarchic tone manages to convey both what is best and worst about American culture . " Nashville " is so in tune with its time , and it feels so immediate , that it's been forgotten today , when other much more " manufactured " films from the time are fondly remembered . It's somewhat understandable - - it's an ugly film , though in this particular case I mean that as a compliment . The actors in it don't look like actors , and Altman incorporates real locations and real Nashvillians ( ? ) into his film in all their unattractive 1975 glory . The sets don't look dressed , the costumes are hideous , all of the interiors look like they're illuminated by unforgiving fluorescent lights and the exteriors exude humidity and sweat . Watching this film is like flipping through a family photo album and making fun of the leisure suits and awful hairstyles . But " Nashville " is one of the most consistently relevant films to have emerged from the 1970s , and I wish people would rediscover it . As the mysterious Hal Philip Walker , who provides the film with its running commentary , might say , " When more people vote for ' American Idol ' than in the latest presidential election , that's politics . " Our obsession with fame and celebrity seems only to increase , and , perhaps because of the sheer pervasiveness of our media , Americans seem less able than ever before to think critically about information and images being presented to them . Kenny , the assassin in the film who shoots Barbara Jean at the finale , seems to be attaching meaning to her that she doesn't warrant ; right before shooting her , he looks from her to a giant American flag behind her , back to her . He seems to be making some connection ; the way the shots are edited asks asks us to make connections too . What exactly does Barbara Jean stand for ? What does the American flag stand for ? Barbara Jean isn't a politician , but she has almost the same amount of influence , maybe more , over her followers . Under what obligations does this put her , if any ? I half way suspect that if Oprah Winfrey ran for President today , she could win . So is Oprah an entertainer , a politician , or some strange hybrid of the two ? Altman has never been interested in answering questions , only asking them . One of the best things about " Nashville " is its ambiguity . It " feels " American , but I can't put my finger on exactly why . Maybe because it's confusing and at times infuriating and at other times beautiful , sometimes sad , sometimes hilarious , but always glorious . |
574,486 | 4,532,636 | 20,629 | 10 | The Beauty of a Butterfly | There are few moments in film history as moving as the last shot of this film , when a soldier fighting in the trenches of World War I is able to shut out the carnage around him to focus on the unlikely beauty of a butterfly that has landed only inches in front of him . The power of this image is an example of what set this film apart from all of the movies that had preceded it and ushered in a new era of sophistication in the art form . " All Quiet on the Western Front " is one of the first movies to feel like a movie . The camera takes part in the action : it moves in and out , frames people in close up . Some of the most memorable images come when the camera tracks along with the soldiers as they charge the enemy trenches . And though sound in cinema was in its infancy , this movie makes terrific use of it . Compare this movie's version of combat to the films that would come out ten years later with the outbreak of WWII , and it almost takes your breath away with how ahead of its time it seems . Easily one of the best war movies ever made , and one of the best movies ever made , period . |
573,843 | 4,532,636 | 469,494 | 10 | The Only American Masterpiece of 2007 | Once in a very rare while ( all too rarely , alas ) I leave a film instantly convinced that I just experienced an enduring classic in real time , and that's how I felt after watching " There Will Be Blood . " It is an amazing film with a performance at its center that defies description , and I haven't been as energized or excited over a new release since last year's " Children of Men . " I've always liked Paul Thomas Anderson , even at his most over indulgent ( " Magnolia " ) , but he's never seemed as mature a filmmaker as he does here . Where other Anderson films have sustained one long fevered pitch and burnt themselves out in exhaustion , this film is restrained and disciplined ; it builds slowly and inexorably to a powerhouse conclusion . Like nearly every Anderson film , it's a love it or hate it movie . It's virtually impossible to have an indifferent reaction to it . And I imagine the ending will be one of the most divisive aspects of the film . I , for one , thought it ended perfectly , and suspect it will be a long time before I get the film's final image and line out of my head . No review of this film is complete without mentioning Daniel Day-Lewis , who is nothing less than a force of nature at its center . His performance is so good it's scary ; what he does in this film can't even be called acting . I've seen other performances this year that I greatly admired : Tommy Lee Jones in " In the Valley of Elah , " Ryan Gosling in " Lars and the Real Girl , " Viggo Mortensen in " Eastern Promises . " But Day-Lewis seems to be working in a completely different stratosphere than these others . In Daniel Plainview , the oilman who's eaten from within by greed and a lust for power , he has created a villain that's one-dimensional yet extremely complex all at the same time . Plainview should be a boring character , because he's so single minded in purpose , yet Day-Lewis makes him endlessly fascinating . And was I the only person who actually liked him a little bit ? In a world full of hypocrisy and men telling one another what they want to hear the better to take advantage , Plainview is refreshingly honest and straightforward , no matter how abominable he may be . He's like the American system of free enterprise taken to its monstrous extreme . Though set in the past , the film is one of the most relevant I've seen this year . The battle over economic and religious domination is obviously one that rages today . Religious and corporate institutions differ only in their methods - - both are driven by a lust for power and control . And to top it all off , Johnny Greenwood provides one of the most unique and sensational scores to grace a movie screen in a long time . I can't say enough good things about this movie . |
573,542 | 4,532,636 | 33,836 | 10 | Davis at Her Evil Best | A gleefully macabre and intensely suspenseful movie based on the Lillian Hellman play . Bette Davis sinks her teeth into the role of icy bitch Regina Giddens with such relish that you can practically hear her sighing with satisfaction at getting away from the noble sufferer roles that had so recently made her famous in films like " Jezebel " and " Dark Victory . " She's monstrous here as the frigid wife of Herbert Marshall , waiting impatiently for him to die so that she can get her talons on his inheritance . A group of conniving brothers are trying to outsmart her and claim the inheritance for themselves , but they have no idea who they're dealing with . We ultimately can forgive Davis for her reptilian selfishness , because she's driven to it out of survival . If you want to play with the big boys , the movie seems to say , you have to learn to be one yourself . This is a lesson her sister-in-law , Birdie , hasn't learned , and as a result is a fluttering , neurotic mess of a woman , bulldozed by her husband and supreme example of exactly the kind of woman Regina refuses to be . Birdie is played by Patricia Collinge in a devastatingly heartbreaking performance . Just watch her in the scene where her husband slaps her ; you can almost literally see the life drain out of her as she accepts her misery as a cage from which she doesn't ever really hope , or feels she deserves , to escape . And as the moral conscience of the film , Teresa Wright plays Regina's daughter , Alexandra , slow to pick up on the treacherous games her own mother is playing . The classic scene in this film is the one in which Regina's husband actually dies . She's sitting feet away from him , watching him gasp for breath while refusing to get the medication that could save his life , and Davis's creepy , empty expression shows us just how little compassion or sympathy , or even any emotion other than greed and vengeance , remains in this grotesque , twisted creature . Marvelous ! |
573,422 | 4,532,636 | 84,805 | 10 | Go , Tootsie , Go | 1980s cinema mostly sucked , but one thing the 80s got right was the R-rated comedy . " Tootsie " is perhaps the premier example of 80s adult comedy at its best , and it's a dynamite film . Dustin Hoffman plays a struggling actor who lands a job on a soap opera under the guise of a tough-talking woman . Things get complicated ( as such things do , of course ) when he / she becomes a national sensation and has to face the prospect of pretending to be a woman for the indefinite future . Hoffman gives a master class in screen comedy , and the success of the entire film rests primarily on his ability to pull off a tricky role . At one point , his character says something about being a better man as a woman than he ever was being a man , and the movie , and his performance , conveys just that . He's ably abetted by a terrific ensemble that includes Bill Murray , Teri Garr , Charles Durning and Sydney Pollack , who also directed . Jessica Lange plays his love interest and won an Oscar for her performance , though I've always found Lange's mannerisms to be distracting and she's not comfortable with some of the more comedic elements . The film is so well written that you can sit back and enjoy it without having to roll your eyes at how implausible it all is . Sometimes clichés say it the best , and such is the case here : they just don't make ' em like this anymore . |
573,832 | 4,532,636 | 71,360 | 10 | Does for Sound Recordings What " Blowup " Did for Photographs | The Conversation is a deeply unsettling film about a surveillance expert ( Gene Hackman ) , who becomes involved in the private lives of a couple on whom he is spying when he hears a fragment of a conversation that suggests the two will be murdered . The truth that he uncovers rocks his world to its foundations , and the man who's spent his life uncovering the secrets of others suddenly is forced to wonder what secrets others might be uncovering about him . " The Conversation " seems to be somewhat overshadowed by Francis Ford Coppola's other 1974 release , " The Godfather Part II , " but I think this is the more fascinating film . He brings an eerie , art-house style to this film that compliments nicely the accessible , linear storytelling of his famous crime saga . This film actually becomes more and more prescient with each passing decade , when the Internet has guaranteed that complete anonymity and privacy is virtually impossible . |
574,433 | 4,532,636 | 69,467 | 10 | An Example of Bergman at the Top of His Game | Bergman at his best . " Cries and Whispers " vies with " Persona " in my esteem as the best film Ingmar Bergman gave us . In this one , a group of sisters gathers at a country house to care for ( or rather avoid caring for ) one of them , who is dying of consumption . It falls to the dying sister's maid to step in and embrace this poor pitiful creature in her final days . This is an emotionally devastating film , with a death scene that is intensely hard to watch and seems to go on forever . Cinematographer Sven Nykvist makes brilliant use of the color photography , which put me in mind of the way Powell and Pressburger or Douglas Sirk used the medium back in the day . Profoundly affecting . Perhaps not the kind of film I would want to see often , but one I'm glad I at least have seen once . |
574,243 | 4,532,636 | 51,411 | 10 | Big Westerns Don't Get Much Better Than This | The Big Country is not a movie that held much appeal for me before I'd seen it . I only rented it because a guy I worked with said this was his favorite movie - - given the fact that he's about as conservative as it's physically possible to be , I had my doubts . But I owe him a huge debt of gratitude for introducing me to this magnificent film . Director William Wyler breaks from the women-focused domestic dramas that made him famous throughout the 1940s and heads out west to tackle cowboys , ranchers and the women who love them . And what a picture he paints ! Everything about this movie feels grand , but not in that lumbering , stodgy way that CinemaScope epics from the 1950s so often did . Crisp editing and compelling performances propel this story along fluidly , as does a glorious score that's perfectly utilized . I've never liked Charlton Heston better than I do here ( except for " Planet of the Apes , " but that's more to make fun of him ) , and Burl Ives anchors the film with his rich baritone and imposing size - - he's a force of nature in this film , and his impressive performance here is only one of two he delivered in 1958 ( " Cat on a Hot Tin Roof " being the other one ) . Highlights of " The Big Country " include a fistfight between Gregory Peck and Heston that each refuses to quit and a breathtakingly suspenseful final showdown in a canyon between Ives and arch rival Charles Bickford set to more of that pulsing , vibrant musical score . A treasure from an on-again-off-again decade . |
573,829 | 4,532,636 | 71,315 | 10 | Welcome to Chinatown ( You've Been Warned ) | With " Chinatown , " Roman Polanski did for the detective crime genre what Todd Haynes did for the Douglas Sirk melodrama in " Far from Heaven . " Polanski created something that was partly an homage to all of those delightfully atmospheric noirs of the 1940s , but went beyond that to deconstruct some of the genre's conventions . Rather than simply making a 1974 film that imitated a film noir from the 40s , Polanski instead made a 1940s film noir infused with the cultural demons of 1974 America . The plot is byzantine and confusing , as any good crime thriller plot should be . But true to the genre , the plot doesn't matter as much as the rotten underbelly of corruption and violence that the plot exposes . No director can do atmosphere ( especially rotten atmosphere ) as well as Polanski , and he's at his best here . Jack Nicholson gives maybe the best performance of his career as detective Jake Gittes , a hard-boiled seen-it-all tough guy who isn't quite tough enough for the nastiness he uncovers ; Faye Dunaway is the elusive and beautiful object of his obsession ; and John Huston gives a frightening performance as a monster in everyday clothing . The film is magnificently shot and scored , and manages to evoke the look and style of an older time period without feeling dated . A mesmerizing and fantastic film . |
573,900 | 4,532,636 | 64,429 | 10 | This Ain't the W | An antidote to every phony show about high school ever shown on the WB , " High School " is another harrowing documentary from that most harrowing of documentarians , Frederick Wiseman . Once again , Wiseman lets his cameras roll and leaves it to the viewer to draw conclusions . But don't be surprised if the conclusion you draw is that this particular high school is a fascist , Orwellian hell for its students , where the faculty are dictators and the attendees their cowering subjects . No other moment in the film nails that point home more than the one in which a bullying principal needlessly humiliates a student . My high school experience wasn't like this , but regardless , this movie didn't make me want to revisit my high school years anytime soon . |
573,695 | 4,532,636 | 75,314 | 10 | One Man's Terrifying Vengeance | A perfect film . Martin Scorsese displays complete mastery over his medium in this deeply disturbing 1976 masterpiece , and to my mind hasn't yet made another movie as good as this one ( no , not even " Raging Bull " ) . In " Taxi Driver , " Robert De Niro plays Travis Bickle , a Vietnam veteran who drives a cab for a living . Isolated and lonely , Travis prowls the hellish streets of New York's worst neighborhoods , willing to drive customers anywhere they want to go , quietly nurturing vague fantasies of vengeance on what he perceives to be a sick culture . The whole movie is a nightmarish fever dream . I've never seen anyone capture visually what on the page would be stream of consciousness narration as well as Scorsese does here . And De Niro gives the performance of his , or anybody else's , career . His Travis is a fascinating creation , and one of the most frightening screen characters in the history of cinema . No one could keep me up nights quite like the seemingly ordinary Joe who's ready to snap at any moment and feels that his grisly duty is handed down to him from on high . Cybill Shepherd plays Travis's nominal love interest with just the right amount of vapidity , and Jodie Foster , in a small , sweet and wonderful performance , plays Iris , the thirteen-year-old prostitute who becomes the object Travis sets out to save from the rotten world that has turned him into what he is . And the late Peter Boyle has a couple of beautiful moments as Travis's fellow cab driver , who tries to give him some counsel but is so obviously out of his league . Shortly after " Taxi Driver " hit screens , Vietnam turned into a subject that film makers felt comfortable addressing directly ( " Coming Home , " " Apocalypse Now , " " The Deer Hunter " ) . But none of these , though so much more actually ABOUT Vietnam , addressed half as well as " Taxi Driver " the toll that that conflict took on the men it sent back home . |
574,388 | 4,532,636 | 50,083 | 10 | The All-Time Great Liberal Agenda Movie | I defy anyone to watch this movie and not be completely absorbed in the group dynamics on display . I could take points off for the overly tidy and convenient script with its TV-movie ending or some of the less subtle methods through which director Sidney Lumet drives home his points . But with a cast as uniformly excellent as this , why quibble ? Henry Fonda is just the person to play the liberal everyman , an extension of his Tom Joad character from " The Grapes of Wrath . " E . G . Marshall is excellent as Fonda's most formidable opponent ; cool-headed and logical , he's the only holdout who bases his verdict on facts instead of emotions . Lee J . Cobb's performance wears thin , and his character is the most poorly written . Ed Begley is almost too good in his role , so revolting is his character . Jack Klugman and Jack Warden register in smaller roles as well . This movie conveys the sweaty , tension-filled atmosphere of a stifling jury room but never feels oppressive , thanks to Lumet's fluid direction . My favorite moment comes when Fonda begins counting off paces around the jury table ( a key piece of evidence hinges on this ) , and the camera drops to floor level and follows his feet as he does so . Choices like this prevent Lumet's film from ever being static or stagy . An important film and a great one . If you haven't already seen it , put it at the top of your list . |
574,165 | 4,532,636 | 48,261 | 10 | Noir for a Nuclear Age | Sleazy , tawdry B-noir doesn't get any sleazier or tawdrier than Robert Aldrich's jazzy and astonishingly entertaining " Kiss Me Deadly . " This film was released late in the life cycle of the film noir genre . By 1958 and Orson Welles ' " Touch of Evil , " true noir would be just about washed up . Any noir film from that point forward would be self-consciously aware that it was tipping its hat to an established genre . But " Deadly " came out when films still didn't have to work at being noirish - - - they just WERE , and dazzlingly so . Born-to-play-a-bully Ralph Meeker plays tough-guy detective Mike Hammer , who's in the wrong place at the wrong time and picks up a mysterious panic-stricken girl ( Cloris Leachman ) , who's just escaped from an asylum . From that moment forward , he finds himself tangled up in a barely lucid plot , in which a bunch of baddies want to get their hands on something the girl either had or knew about . Hammer doesn't know what it is , but he knows that if so many people want it , it's something he probably wants too , and the race for the great " whatsit " is on . If you wanted to teach a film class about the look and attitude of a film noir , you couldn't pick a better film than this one . I found myself on a recent viewing of this film pausing my DVD player and studying the frame ( because , sadly , this is what I do in my spare time ) , rehearsing in my mind what I would tell a class about any particular composition . And aside from the style , the film is steeped in noir sentiment - - it's not simply cynical , like the glossier studio noirs of the 40's ; it's downright apocryphal . It's not simply one man undone by the vengeful forces of fate here , but an entire civilization on the brink of extinction . So pop this in and have a great time with it - - feel free to quote it liberally , as there are plenty of juicy lines worth quoting . But as you watch it , you might want to stay away from the windows , for as Mike Hammer's hot-to-trot sometime girlfriend , sometime secretary Velda says , someone may " blow you a kiss . " |
574,393 | 4,532,636 | 36,775 | 10 | The First Truly Great Noir | The Maltese Falcon is generally considered to be the very first film noir , but Billy Wilder's " Double Indemnity " is the first GREAT noir . With actors that perfectly understood Wilder's penchant for black as tar humour , this film is as seedy , dark and many times funny as they come . Barbara Stanwyck is a knockout as the classic femme fatale , complete with cheap blonde wig and ankle bracelets . Fred MacMurray makes a terrific dope , his silly machimso preventing him from realizing that Stanwyck is one step ahead of him through the entire film . And Edward G . Robinson shines as usual in a small but important role . For me , this film breaks new ground in the hard-boiled / detective / murder mystery genre . I believe it was a bit of a flop when it came out , but that's easy to understand . Films that in retrospect prove themselves to be cutting edge are frequently dismissed at the time of their release . " Double Indemnity " doesn't have the look of other studio films of its period , not even other gritty detective films of its period . The lighting is stark and grimy ; you can almost see every speck of dust in the shafts of light slanting in through the windows . Wilder gets the feel of a corrupt L . A . just right . But even more than its look , the film is years ahead of its time in its moral tone . Not only do the characters in this film not find redemption , they appear to be unredeemable . Each shows him / herself to be colder and more cynical than the other , and there's a " Bonnie and Clyde " - like inevitability to their eventual fates . Simply sensational . And watch for the list of " supposin ' " s MacMurray and Stanwyck throw back and forth at each other in one scene . It's hilarious and perfect , and those who've seen the film will know exactly what I'm talking about . |
574,209 | 4,532,636 | 46,187 | 10 | A Crown Jewel of 1950s Cinema | Samuel Fuller brings his customary playful and stylish direction to this seedy , pulpy story and manages to create one of the undiscovered gems of 1950s cinema . Richard Widmark plays a petty thief tough guy ( a role he perfected over the course of many movies ) , who snatches a young lady's ( Jean Peters ) wallet on a New York subway and with it a piece of much-wanted microfilm . This is 1953 , so of course the microfilm is property of Commie spies who will stop at nothing to get it back . When the girl shows up at Widmark's waterfront shack , sent by an abusive boyfriend to reclaim the film , Widmark senses the opportunity to shake her and her " comrades " down for big money . The plot thickens , people start dying , and Widmark and Peters fall in love . Fuller handles the love story clumsily , but more from a sense of indifference than bad writing or direction . It's as if he included a love story under duress , and so made it intentionally unbelievable , as love stories so frequently were and still are in Hollywood films . Peters gives a remarkable performance as a tough New Yawk cookie , part gangster moll and part damsel in distress . When violence occurs against her , we genuinely care about her well being , and it's typical of Fuller's renegade , ahead-of-his-time style that a happy ending is not necessarily a foregone conclusion . But the ultimate success of " Pickup on South Street " rests squarely on the world-weary shoulders of Thelma Ritter , who plays Moe , a feisty lady who makes money any way she can , whether that be selling neckties or acting as a police informant . Ritter gives the performance of her career ; in a breathtaking monologue , she conveys without ever directly addressing it the entire sad trajectory of her character's life , and the hopelessness she feels waking up every morning to a world of struggle , crime and hardship . It's as if every character Ritter ever played converges for one brief instant to give vent to all of the emotions they weren't given a chance to vent in those other movies . The scene is the highlight of Fuller's film , and a highlight of 50s cinema , period . |
574,482 | 4,532,636 | 17,136 | 10 | For People Who Don't Like Silent Films | For people who think silent films are antiquated , slow , boring ( pick your adjective ) , I ask you to watch " Metropolis " and see if your opinion changes . I think too many people think of the really creaky silent films from cinema's beginnings - - like " The Great Train Robbery " or those first experimental films by George Melies - - when they think of silent film . But remember that " Metropolis " came out in 1927 , the year the industry transitioned to sound ; so really , the only thing separating this movie from some of the most beloved films of the early thirties is the absence of sound . In every other way , technologically speaking , it's just as polished . As for the movie itself , it had me on the edge of my seat . Come on , I defy anyone to not get excited by this classic underdog story ; I'm a sucker for any story where the downtrodden working man revolts against the tyranny of the rich . It's difficult to discuss acting in silent films - - I'll grant dissenters that - - because there's such a different set of standards for it than we're used to . And this movie is as guilty as any other silent film of having melodramatic trappings . But rather than dwell on those criticisms , accept them as part of the experience and enjoy the movie for what it is . And what is it ? It's the granddaddy of every sci-fi movie ever made since . There's hardly a sci-fi film I can think of that doesn't in some way conjure up images from this movie . " Blade Runner " and " Dark City " borrowed its production design ; " Dr . Strangelove " took the crazed scientist with the black-gloved fist and made him a starring character ; " Star Wars " used the android as a prototype for C-3PO . " Metropolis " is a parade of iconic images , offering one memorable set piece after another . I quite literally couldn't find a flaw with it . And one last thing : the DVD version I saw had a magnificent musical score that added immensely to the effect of the movie . It's one of the best scores I've ever heard in a film . |
573,373 | 4,532,636 | 63,522 | 10 | Eat Your Liver , Rosemary | Quite simply , one of the best horror movies ever made . " Rosemary's Baby " is terrifying , and it remains terrifying every time I see it . I watch this , and then I watch what passes today for horror movies ( " The Hills Have Eyes " remake is an example ) , and I simply shake my head in awe and dismay at how far the horror film has fallen . Everything about this movie hits the right notes . The acting is expert , especially Mia Farrow's hugely underrated performance as the impressionable Rosemary . Roman Polanski's direction is perfect ; he eschews the shock horror approach used by directors like William Friedkin and instead creates a subtly creepy atmosphere , ratcheting up the tension gradually until you're ready to jump out of your skin . The production design and cinematography are off-kilter in ways you can't quite define . And the musical score , all plucked strings and jangling piano chords ( except for the sinister lullaby that opens the film ) , is nerve-wracking . Because every element of the film comes together so well , this supernatural tale feels as realistic as it could possibly be , and one feels that if there is indeed such a thing as the coming of an Anti-Christ , it would happen something like this . With John Cassavetes , superbly slimy as the sell-out husband ; Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer , as the Jewish grandma and grandpa from Hell ( literally ) ; Ralph Bellamy as a crooked doctor ; and , most effectively , Maurice Evans , poor Rosemary's only ally . Any number of scenes could qualify as creepiest , but my personal favorite is the one in which Rosemary uses a Scrabble game set to make sense of an anagram . I get shivers just writing about it . |
573,466 | 4,532,636 | 383,028 | 10 | One of the Most Deeply Affecting Movies I've Seen in a Long Time | It's virtually impossible to summarize my feelings on " Synecdoche , New York . " This astonishing brain teaser from the mind of Charlie Kaufman affected me deeply , probably more than any film I've yet seen this year . I can't say it's necessarily enjoyable , because it's full of uncomfortable , brave truths about what it means to be human , and it goes places most movies don't dare to . But watching it is a bracing experience , and it's encouraging to know that there are still filmmakers willing to use film as a means of challenging their audiences and picking at scabs that most people would prefer to remain solidly in place . I can't begin to tell you what " Synecdoche , New York " means , and it wouldn't matter anyway , because I think it will mean different things to different people . A basic summary goes something like this : Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a morose , depressed theatre director who's convinced that fatal diseases are lurking around every blood vessel , and who decides to stage a monstrous , ambitious theatrical work that will leave him remembered after he dies . Soon , the work as he's staging it becomes confused with the life he's living , so that he finds himself directing a version of himself through a story that seems to be made up as it moves along . If this sounds like an act of mental masturbation by a pretentious intellectual with too much time on his hands , rest assured : " Synecdoche , New York " is not one of THOSE films . I didn't become impatient with Kaufman or his characters , like I have with some of his previous projects . In fact , this film made me uneasy because of how much of it I DID relate to . The conclusions it draws are that we are all alone in this big universe , life doesn't necessarily have any meaning other than what one brings to it , and there is not a higher power who is going to make sure our passage through the world makes sense . It was a bit of a wake up call to hear these beliefs , beliefs that I happen to share , stated so boldly , for while I'm confident in what I believe , that confidence doesn't make the beliefs themselves any less scary . But depressing and nihilistic as those beliefs might sound , the film is life affirming in its own way . It suggests that too many of us spend too much time trying to make sense of the world and not enough time living in it . We pull back in loneliness and fear when faced with things bigger than ourselves rather than turning to those who can actually help , namely the other human beings with whom we share our time on this planet . " Synecdoche , New York " will not likely find a big audience , as most people will either not want to work at understanding it or won't like what it has to say . But if you're willing to go into it with an open mind , you might just find yourself amazed . |
573,470 | 4,532,636 | 365,737 | 10 | The Price We Pay | Syriana is a blistering , powerful film about the degree to which governments and corporate conglomerates place the ambition to control the world's oil supply above the well being of their citizens and employees . In this game , there are only bad guys , and what separates the villains from the protagonists is not a question of who's good and who's bad , but rather how bad each is willing to be . So maybe " Syriana " doesn't tell us anything new . But that doesn't mean its points aren't worth making again and again . And though it is complicated , and I'm not going to pretend I followed every detail of its intricate plot , it's not that hard to follow . Stephen Gaghan is a good writer , and he provides a nice summary of the film's action in its final moments . What emerges from this tangled puzzle is a web of corruption and self-interest , all fueled by the need for oil . In one plot thread , the men behind two soon-to-merge oil companies will stop at nothing to make the merger go through , since the new company will be one of the most powerful in the world . In another thread , the law firm representing the company proves that it's eager to cash in on the company's new economic success . Meanwhile , a power struggle between the two sons of an aging king in an unspecified Middle Eastern country ( though Saudi Arabia is obviously suggested ) has attracted the attention of the American government , operating through the CIA . America ( read American business ) has a vested interest in which of the king's sons succeeds him to the throne : It doesn't want the reform-minded eldest son , whose priorities will be building a country to benefit his own people ; it wants instead the younger son , who will continue to relegate his country to a cosy spot in America's hip pocket and take its orders directly from the president of the USA . And in the film's most chilling plot strand , we see how the struggle for oil feeds the radical Islam movement in the Middle East , providing young men with a feeling of brotherhood and righteousness in the face of a region they feel has turned its back on them in favor of big business and Western corruption . " Syriana " is tense , fast and furious . Following it can admittedly be somewhat exhausting , but if you pay very close attention to the first hour or so , as each story is introduced and the relationships between characters become clear , the second half of the movie is easier to digest . I disagree with other comments here that the characters aren't developed or that the acting is unimpressive . On the contrary , I think all of the actors create extremely nuanced , compelling characters , a challenging task given the fact that none of them are allowed more than a minute or so at a time to feed us information about themselves . A movie like this could easily fall prey to filling itself with a bunch of stock villains , all cocked eyebrows and facial mannerisms rather than full-bodied characterizations , and the fact that it avoids this is a tribute to both Gaghan and the cast . And hats off to the editor on this movie , who had perhaps the most daunting task of the year . 2005 has been full of terse , important films , fresh in their immediacy . There have been a small number of sensational , tough , thought-provoking films instead of a larger batch of more mediocre ones , as has been the case recently . " Syriana " is one of the best movies of the year : it's angry , yet it's not hopeless . I hope Americans see this movie . At this time of year , when people are trampling each other in malls in order to be first in line for Christmas sales , I hope they remember that the vast wealth of America frequently comes at the sake of people all over the world who will never have a fraction of the comfort those in our country take for granted . |
364,825 | 4,888,011 | 61,191 | 1 | Several movies in a blender . . . | . . . was how Crow described " The Wild World of Batwoman " when he , Mike and Servo were forced to watch it . The lame excuse for a plot involves a woman and her bikini-clad minions fighting a bevy of bad guys . HOW MANY MOVIES HAVE USED THAT PLOT ? ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! That it made such great " Mystery Science Theater 3000 " fodder is the movie's ONLY redeeming aspect ; otherwise , it's beyond worthless . But , what can you say about a movie that Dr . Forrester and TV's Frank force Mike , Servo and Crow to watch ? Anyway , avoid this junk in it's own form . If you want to enjoy it , watch the " MST3K " version . They've got plenty of great comments , as they always do . |
365,164 | 4,888,011 | 260,571 | 1 | Why study them ? So that Mike , Servo and Crow can make fun of them ! | How in the name of anything holy can " Why Study Industrial Arts ? " claim to be an educational film ? ! If this is education , then I'd rather be an idiot ! Actually , this movie could have only been created by an idiot . The only reason that it's even worth talking about is because " MST3K " once showed this drudgery . As you might imagine , Mike , Servo and Crow had plenty of funny comments . If I ever make an educational film , it will be a promotion of vegetarianism . Here's the plot : in 1950s suburban America , mom and dad are trying to feed little Jimmy meat . Jimmy breaks out into a song ( to the tune of " U Can't Touch This " ) about why he chooses to be a vegetarian . Yeah , that's my kind of educational film . |
364,231 | 4,888,011 | 96,149 | 1 | This actually got made ? | Sometimes , you get the feeling that there are only so many movies that " MST3K " can show . " Space Mutiny " disproves that . Using the words " swill " , " garbage " , " flotsam " , etc . , to describe this movie is woefully insufficient . " Space Mutiny " quite literally makes " Plan 9 from Outer Space " look like a cross between " Gone with the Wind " and " Citizen Kane " . Nothing more than a " Star Wars " ripoff , the movie shows a buff good guy and his buxom girlfriend fighting rebels in a spaceship . There's a lot of gunfights and blowing things up . Naturally , the good guy takes out several people with each shot , while not one bad guy can even graze the good guy ( in the " MST3K " version , Servo even notes that the bad guys would do a little better if they would just aim ) . Downright awful . |
364,233 | 4,888,011 | 78,778 | 1 | the Skipper and Mr . Howell are probably wishing that they'd never gotten off of the island | Angels ' Brigade is about as angelic as a root canal . Seemingly produced for a bunch of men whose hormones outweigh their body mass , the movie follows a bunch of big-breasted women who set out to bring down a drug kingpin's empire . Since there's not really any plot , the movie is mainly noticeable because it stars two " Gilligan's Island " cast members : Alan Hale and Jim Backus ( and wouldn't you know it , they don't even get to share any scenes ) . Although I gave the movie one star , it gets five out of four stars when shown on " MST3K " , and that's only because it gives Mike , Servo and Crow an incentive to come up with some great comments . I'd say that that episode was their most " Gilligan's Island " - related , not just because " Angels ' Brigade " stars the Skipper and Mr . Howell , but also because certain scenes prompt Mike and the ' bots to mention Bob Denver , Natalie Schaefer and Tina Louise ( what , no Russell Johnson or Dawn Wells ? ) . |
363,967 | 4,888,011 | 190,524 | 1 | The only movie that I ever found offensive | So let me get this straight : the only people who can get into heaven are Christians who take every word in the Bible literally ? According to this view , no Jews , Muslims , Hindus , Buddhists , Shintoists , Taoists , Confucians or Sikhs can get into heaven . They're all doomed to stay on Earth when the " Rapture " happens and be forced to live in eternal Hell . Yes , it sounds more like some idea from the Spanish Inquisition , but what I just described is the whole premise of " Left Behind " . This movie is truly the bane of anyone who believes in science . To actually like this movie , you would have to have the Jerry Falwell / Pat Robertson view of the world . Not to mention that the acting resembles the acting in Ed Wood's movies . No , let me rephrase that : in Ed Wood's movies , the acting was so bad that it was funny ; in " Left Behind " , the acting is so bad , that you feel as though someone is drilling a hole in your head . Actually , a head drilling would probably be preferable to watching this movie . So the " virtuous " people who believe in creationism are going to heaven , while the " vicious " people who are either gay or like to watch " Gilligan's Island " ( or both ) are going to hell . If this is Kirk Cameron's view , then he is certainly not one of my idols , and the people who wrote the " Left Behind " books belong in a zoo . |
363,323 | 4,888,011 | 282,562 | 1 | hired to get mocked by Joel , Servo and Crow | Hired ! is another so-called educational film where we don't learn anything . As far as I could tell , the plot involved someone looking for a job ; in my opinion , the people behind this drudge of a movie don't deserve jobs . This one is only noticeable because on " Mystery Science Theater 3000 " , Dr . Forrester made Joel , Servo and Crow watch it before he made them watch " Manos the Hands of Fate " ; if you ask me , " Manos the Hands of Fate " was more interesting . If I made an educational film , it would feature a 1950s suburban boy explaining to his parents - to the tune of " U Can't Touch This - why he won't eat meat . |
362,946 | 4,888,011 | 60,666 | 1 | hands of fate , brains of idiocy | ' Manos ' the Hands of Fate is another grade-Z litany of worthlessness . A family is on vacation and drives up to what looks like an abandoned hotel run by semi-hunchback Torgo , who can't stop talking about his " master " . When we finally meet the master , he turns out to be the Devil's servant , and he's got evil plans for the family . How many times have we seen this kind of story ? ! Fortunately , " MST3K " saved the movie . Mike , Servo and Crow really liked the scene where the master's scantily clad wives were having a fistfight ( there weren't really any other memorable scenes in the movie ) . On it's own , " MTHOF " is a total zero , but the " MST3K " version is a . |
365,047 | 4,888,011 | 86,972 | 1 | this once appeared on " MST3K " , which is where it belongs | Rather than numb your mind trying to watch this half-formed tripe , rent the " Mystery Science Theater 3000 " episode where they make fun of it . The plot , if there really was one , involved a warrior trying to free his teacher from a bad guy . That could have made something good , but " The Cavedwellers " is beyond god-awful . If this movie had only one redeeming quality , it's that it was hilarious fodder for " MST3K " . Overall , the movie had nothing new or creative , just a bunch of buff good guys fighting ugly bad guys . The fact that someone actually put up the money for this makes us question some peoples ' judgment . Absolutely dreadful . |
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