Directed by John Huston In Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison a marine and a nun find themselves stranded on an island together. This sounds like it's leading to a punchline, but John Huston's film is much more empathetic to the internal code of each character, the respective forces by which they abided that have stranded them on … Continue reading Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957)
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Memphis Belle (1990)
Directed by Michael Caton-Jones Memphis Belle is a pretty straightforward World War II film, but I was smitten with it. Maybe it's the cast, composed of welcome and familiar faces like Matthew Modine, a young Harry Connick Jr., Eric Stoltz, Courtney Gains, Tate Donovan or Sean Astin, as well as the always calming presence of … Continue reading Memphis Belle (1990)
RoboCop (1987)
Directed by Paul Verhoeven RoboCop is a wild movie. It's a fun action movie with layers upon layers of satire. It's dark and grim but also fun and absurd. It's a version of Detroit straight out of Gotham, where crime isn't just rampant but there are movie villains everywhere you look. They laugh like hyenas, … Continue reading RoboCop (1987)
Dawson City: Frozen Time (2016)
Directed by Bill Morrison Dawson City: Frozen Time covers the Gold Rush, the history of film and the quick rise and decline of a small town in Western Canada, all instigated by the 1978 discovery of old silent films believed to have been lost forever. Outside of the opening and closing handful of minutes there … Continue reading Dawson City: Frozen Time (2016)
Pet Sematary (1989)
Directed by Mary Lambert "Sometimes dead is bedduh." Pet Sematary is both horrifying and awful. As a story it is so melodramatic, relentless and populates its thin premise with absurd characters who struggle to convey the depths of their purported emotions. The film, as a result, uses cheap horror to make up for its disturbingly … Continue reading Pet Sematary (1989)
Ordinary People (1980)
Directed by Robert Redford Robert Redford's first film as a director is a doozy. Ordinary People chronicles the struggle of a family to relate to each other and to themselves following the death of a teenaged son. The people left reeling in his wake are parents Beth and Calvin (Mary Tyler Moore, Donald Sutherland) and young … Continue reading Ordinary People (1980)
With Honors (1994)
Directed by Alek Keshishian In With Honors a young, handsome, cocky Harvard senior, Monty (Brendan Fraser) bonds with an old bum, Simon (Joe Pesci), who has stumbled across the last copy of the thesis Monty needs to graduate with honors. Recognizing the value of the 83 remaining pages, Simon makes a deal to exchange each page for … Continue reading With Honors (1994)
Il Bidone (1955)
Directed by Federico Fellini Federico Fellini has a knack for making something simultaneously silly and heartbreaking. Oftentimes this is thanks to the wide, doe eyed look of Giulietta Masina (his wife and frequent collaborator) and an apparent willingness to make things bleak. Il Bidone begins more on the silly side, with shades of heartbreak. We … Continue reading Il Bidone (1955)
Vision Quest (1985)
Directed by Harold Becker In Vision Quest a young wrestler risks his own health and sanity to lose enough weight in order to wrestle the Nazi youth-looking wrestler from a rival high school. This very, very 80s film is a blend of traditional 80s tropes and a subtextual message about seizing the day before it seizes … Continue reading Vision Quest (1985)
Calling All Earthlings (2018)
Directed by Jonathan Berman Calling All Earthlings describes the work of George Van Tassel, who tried to build a time machine in the desert near Joshua Tree. That in itself seems pretty interesting, particularly as we know (I think?) that his machine never quite worked as intended. Still, the documentary seems to miss the mark … Continue reading Calling All Earthlings (2018)
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