Directed by John Carpenter So The Thing is pretty great.  It's a contained sci-fi horror movie with more emphasis on the horror than the science fiction.  The movie takes place almost entirely inside of a lab in Antarctica where a bunch of scientists, led by Carpenter favorite Kurt Russell, run into 'the thing,' an alien organism … Continue reading The Thing (1982)

Directed by Alex Proyos So Dark City is on Roger Ebert's 'Great Movies' list, and that's about the only reason I watched it.  I'm not particularly drawn to high concept, sci-fi movies like these even if they're the types of stories I aspired to write in high school.  Creating the rules of an entire universe is … Continue reading Dark City (1998)

Directed by Agnes Varda, JR Faces Places is a documentary following two artists around the French countryside.  One of them is 88 year old Agnes Varda, one of the leading filmmakers of the French New Wave movement which dominated cinema in the 1950s and 60s.  The other is JR, a hip 33 year old photographer … Continue reading Faces Places (2017)

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson Paul Thomas Anderson is something special.  Like Quentin Tarantino or Wes Anderson he is beloved by enough people to make you suspicious, but damn he earns all the praise, and Punch-Drunk Love, one of his lesser discussed movies is amazing. I'd like to use a different adjective, but amazing is all … Continue reading Punch-Drunk Love (2002)

Directed by Julius Onah The Cloverfield Paradox is a blend of Alien and Rick and Morty.  It's the third movie in the Cloverfield franchise, though like 2016's 10 Cloverfield Lane it's only loosely connected to the broader story.  The most noteworthy thing about this movie is how it was released, only hours after the first trailer dropped on Super Bowl … Continue reading The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)

Directed by Billy Wilder Alright, so as I see it a melodrama buys into its characters hopes and fears, and a comedy calls its characters on their bulls*t.  Sabrina alternately does both.  This is a film about a love triangle, inherently a melodramatic situation, and it begins as a sort of cultural satire, undermining David's … Continue reading Sabrina (1954)

Directed by Elia Kazan A Streetcar Named Desire is the first collaboration between director Elia Kazan and star Marlon Brandon, a pairing which would prove fruitful and serve as a precursor to the collaboration between Kazan and James Dean. Marlon Brando made this film revolutionary.  It's a melodrama to which he adds real weight and real … Continue reading A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

Directed by A. Edward Sutherland W.C. Fields is one of those comic figures like the Marx Brothers or Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and even later caricatures like Mr. Bean and a series of characters played by Woody Allen.  He's a comic persona, playing the same role through a series of different films.  At least, that's … Continue reading International House (1933)

Directed by John Sturges Alright, so westerns, pretty dope huh?  They are, but they take a bit of getting used to.  Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is one of those westerns with good versus evil, something that Sergio Leone's later Spaghetti Westerns worked to undermine.  And while I enjoy nuance and shades of gray within … Continue reading Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)

Directed by Quentin Tarantino Alright so Reservoir Dogs is Quentin Tarantino's first film.  It's an inspired little movie, self-contained in much the same way 2015's The Hateful Eight is.  The movie is unmistakably a Tarantino film, complete with memorable characters, cartoonish amounts of blood, and an amount of gun violence that acts almost as the chorus of … Continue reading Reservoir Dogs (1992)