Directed by Richard Linklater Fast Food Nation feels most similar, among Linklater's movies, to his 1996 film SubUrbia.  It's definitely a Linklater film, something that takes time to reveal itself, but it's a critique of our society, much as that earlier film was.  Told through an ensemble cast, with loosely or completely unconnected stories, Fast Food Nation … Continue reading Fast Food Nation (2006)

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow Point Break feels like an action movie made in the same style as Tony Scott's Top Gun (1986) and Days of Thunder (1990).  There's the young, handsome, hotshot hero who finds himself thrust into a new world, led by the grizzly veteran whose ultimate demise serves as an extra motivator for our hero … Continue reading Point Break (1991)

Directed by Terrence Malick The story goes that Adrien Brody took his family to the premiere, thinking he was the main character but was surprised to find that he had been mostly cut out of the film, reduced to a side character whose name I can't even remember.  A similar thing happened with Sean Penn … Continue reading The Thin Red Line (1998)

Directed by Terrence Malick Days of Heaven is Terrence Malick's second film, followed by a twenty year gap before his next film, 1998's The Thin Red Line.  Knowing even just that gives this film a mythical quality.  Recent Malick films are very poetic, but they can range from aesthetically and spiritually pleasing to painfully self-indulgent.  It … Continue reading Days of Heaven (1978)

Directed by Sean Baker There's a surprisingly funny shot in The Florida Project, a movie that concerns people who live on the edges of society.  It's a high angle, wide shot of the Magic Castle motel where low income families live, only partially attempting to conceal the permanent length of their stay.  In this shot, the … Continue reading The Florida Project (2017)

Directed by David Lowery I saw A Ghost Story only a couple months ago, so this is probably much too soon to write about it again.  But my backlog is drying up, and I rewatched it so here ya go.  First, I don't remember what I wrote about it when I first saw it, but that's … Continue reading A Ghost Story (2017) [Revisited]

Written by Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright Reading through Shaun of the Dead, I quickly realized that this zombie story is much more about a series of relationships, with the zombies serving as a background metaphor.  One of the consistent jokes in the script is a series of visual gags in which a character isn't seeing the … Continue reading Shaun of the Dead (2004) [Script only]

Directed by Agnes Varda For a film to be titled "Happiness," it better either be the happiest movie of all time or a joke.  This film leans towards the latter.  Part of that is because happiness, as it is in this movie, is seen entirely through the lens of the male character, Francois.  His happiness, … Continue reading Le Bonheur (1965)

Directed by Patrick Vollrath (German, 30 minutes) The title translates to Everything Will Be Okay.  This is a short film about a divorced father's attempts to flee the country with his young daughter.  For about the first third of the thirty minute film, we're not quite sure what the father, Michael, is up to, but he … Continue reading Alles Wird Gut (2015)

Directed by Francois Truffaut Love on the Run is the final installment in the Antoine Doinel saga.  Across 20 years, from age 13 to 33, Truffaut followed his cinematic surrogate through the ups and downs of love.  In the first and most famous film, The 400 Blows, we meet Antoine as a restless spirit, his need … Continue reading Love on the Run (1979)