Directed by Jafar Panahi 3 Faces opens with cell phone footage of a young girl's call for help. She lives in a remote Iranian village with hopes of studying at an acting conservatory in Tehran. Her family, notably her brother, can't stand the idea, and they marry her off in hopes she'll abandon such dreams. … Continue reading 3 Faces (2018)
Month: May 2019
The Legend of Cocaine Island (2018)
Directed by Theo Love The Legend of Cocaine Island has a lot in common with another recent docudrama, 2018's American Animals. Near the beginning of both movies we're told that the assorted narrators here are unreliable, a framing device which never detracts from the quality of the story and which enables the filmmakers to take their … Continue reading The Legend of Cocaine Island (2018)
The Palm Beach Story (1942)
Directed by Preston Sturges The characters of The Palm Beach Story are both practical and delusional. They tirelessly seek various fortunes, both financial and spiritual, but do so through the most inane of means, which is a given for a comedy such as this. The character, it seems, must be consumed by the task before them, … Continue reading The Palm Beach Story (1942)
The Weather Man (2005)
Directed by Gore Verbinski The Weather Man is about Dave Spritz’s (Nicolas Cage) general disaffection with life, both personal and professional, and his plan to escape through a “very American accomplishment,” to become the national weatherman on “Hello America,” a program very much meant to resemble “Good Morning America” or “The Today Show.” Dave is … Continue reading The Weather Man (2005)
Jeff, Who Lives at Home (2011)
Directed by Mark & Jay Duplass Some movies shove intimacy into plot because it seems like they have to. The Duplass brothers do the inverse. Their movies are all about the eventual, revealing quiet moments between two characters, and everything else is constructed just to deliver those moments. Jeff, Who Lives at Home finds several … Continue reading Jeff, Who Lives at Home (2011)
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Directed by Norman Jewison In the Heat of the Night tackled overt racism in a small Southern town at a time when to do such a thing was a bit of a risk (in contrast to, for example, 2018's Green Book). In Sparta, Missouri a young Philadelphia cop, Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier) finds himself pulled into … Continue reading In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Halloween (2018)
Directed by David Gordon Green Halloween turns Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) into a hunter on the 40th anniversary of the events of the original Halloween. She barricades herself in a cabin fortress somewhere in the woods, prepared for the day Michael Myers would come back for her. Whether she fears it or is excited … Continue reading Halloween (2018)
The Lost Boys (1987)
Directed by Joel Schumacher "You'll never grow old Michael, and you'll never die." So eternal youth is on full display in Joel Schumacher's The Lost Boys, a supremely 80s movie about a group of vampires who rule the summer nights at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. Well it's a town called Santa Carla, but having grown up … Continue reading The Lost Boys (1987)
The Conjuring (2013)
Directed by James Wan Yeah so for someone like me who doesn't like to be startled, The Conjuring is terrifying. It's a straight up horror movie, for better or worse, and I can see why genre fans like it and why others may not. The thing about horror movies (and this is coming from a … Continue reading The Conjuring (2013)
Halloween (1978)
Directed by John Carpenter The term "serial killer" didn't exist when Halloween first came out. So yeah, there had never really been anything quite like Michael Myers before he showed up. There had been ghosts and ghouls, zombies and aliens, even the perhaps slightly more human antagonists of the occult (Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist) but there had … Continue reading Halloween (1978)
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