Directed by David Gordon Green In George Washington, a girl speaks somewhat somberly about a boy she likes, George, but she does so in a way that resembles a eulogy.  We find out early on that George (Donald Holden) has a condition that leaves him with a weaker skull, meaning he can't get his head wet … Continue reading George Washington (2000)

Directed by Jeff Nichols Shotgun Stories is highly melancholic.  It's a story about two warring families more deeply rooted to their past and homes, which seem almost transient, than to anything oriented towards the future.  Those families are connected by a father, one who abandoned the first set of brothers and became a better man … Continue reading Shotgun Stories (2007)

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock Sabotage is very rough around the edges, due almost entirely to the limits of the technology at the time, but if you showed me this film and made me guess the year it was released, I might be inclined to say 1950, until I remember Hitchcock's other films from around the … Continue reading Sabotage (1936)

Directed by Martin Scorsese Tom Cruise is a great actor, and I think that's easy to forget.  He brings such a manic energy to many of his roles, most notably here and in Magnolia.  He's a bit crazy, and when his characters get to be just as crazy, well it seems to work out perfectly.  In The … Continue reading The Color of Money (1986)

Directed by Eric Rohmer In Suzanne's Career, Rohmer focuses on a combination of love, lust and infatuation to get to the heart of why people suck sometimes.  "Love," and the feelings, both positive and negative, that surround such a pursuit are great ways to shed a light into someone's psyche, to see what makes them tick, … Continue reading Suzanne’s Career (1963)

Directed by Shane Acker 9 comes in at only 79 minutes.  It's a quick movie that rushes through all the familiar beats of a slightly longer movie, and because of that the whole thing feels unnecessarily thin.  We meet 9 (voiced by Elijah Wood), a rag doll in a post-apocalyptic world, in one moment, minutes later … Continue reading 9 (2009)

Directed by Billy Wilder The Major and the Minor is what I imagine a lot of old Hollywood films are like.  It's a comedy that's ultimately a romance, and the screwball comedy seems deeply connected to the performative, physical comedy of the silent film era from not so long before.  This film is also the … Continue reading The Major and the Minor (1942)

Directed by Jean-Luc Godard Breathless is still known today because of the time in which it was made and the ways it changed cinema.  In a vacuum, I'd argue that it's not entirely a great film, but it means more because of what it said at the time and what it meant to future filmmakers. … Continue reading Breathless (1960)

Directed by the Coen Brothers   It's hard to get a grip on The Hudsucker Proxy.  It seems to say a lot, after all it is a Coen Brothers movie, but it also comes off as much too silly to take seriously.  Like with A Serious Man, it's hard to tell how much we're supposed to read … Continue reading The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)

Directed by Jean-Luc Godard Weekend is described as anarchic, and that's an understatement.  It's a film that says so much it's hard to know where to begin.  What starts as a mostly conventional, though twisted and absurd, film quickly devolves into a hellscape like something out of Mad Max: Fury Road, and then it takes an … Continue reading Weekend (1967)