Directed by Ingmar Bergman Are we supposed to pity Isak or feel for him? Wild Strawberries is a very introspective journey by Dr. Isak Borg (Victor Sjostrom), an elderly, nostalgic man who is haunted by his fears of death.  He's on his way to receive an award, but that's hardly the story.  We spend the … Continue reading Wild Strawberries (1957)

Directed by Ingmar Bergman The Seventh Seal begins with a knight (Max von Sydow) playing chess against death.  The knight is named Antonius Block, and he has just returned from the Crusades to find his country picked apart by the Black Plague.  Block is obsessed with finding meaning, and thus God, wherever he can.  He plays … Continue reading The Seventh Seal (1957)

Directed by Federico Fellini La Strada follows the depressing journey of a young woman across Italy, dealing with the abuse of a circus performer until she finally gets the courage to leave him.  Gelsomina (played by Fellini's wife Giulietta Masina) might as well be a puppy dog.  She is filled with a childlike innocence, but … Continue reading La Strada (1954)

Directed by Louis Malle Wally and Andre (Wallace Shawn, Andre Gregory) don't carry on a dialogue throughout their hour and a half or so long dinner as much as they exchange monologues.  The film presents the events of the story as an evolving conversation, and while they do build on what the other says, conveying … Continue reading My Dinner with Andre (1981)

Directed by Jon Watts This is the third new Spider-Man movie since 2002, but this time around we waste no time with Peter Parker (Tom Holland) before the radioactive spider bite turns him into a crime-fighting, wise-cracking superhero.  In the past versions of the story, the first sequence would establish Peter's non-superhero life.  He's a high … Continue reading Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Directed by Louis Malle Au Revoir Les Enfants is a story straight from director Louis Malle's childhood.  It's a very personal film, one you might expect to be among his first rather than thirty years into his professional career.  It's a story about a French boarding school in wartime France.  The Germans had already occupied … Continue reading Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987)

Directed by Nicholas Ray In a Lonely Place is a bit hard to pin down.  The protagonist, Dixon Steele (Humphrey Bogart) is as sardonic and detached from the world as some of Bogart's other characters (Samuel Spade, Rick Blaine), and he's always sure that he's in control of the situation.  In this case, however, his … Continue reading In a Lonely Place (1950)

Directed by Sergio Leone This is probably the most famous of Leone's films, and the final Mexican standoff is likely the most famous scene of any of his films.  And then you have Ennio Morricone's famous score, which is meant to sound like coyotes howling.  It comes in at some of the least expected moments, … Continue reading The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

Directed by John Ford The Searchers is a highly influential Western.  It's the 12th collaboration between director John Ford and star John Wayne, and the cowboys of this era are like the Tony Starks of our era. In this film, Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) searchers for years to find and bring back his niece, Debbie … Continue reading The Searchers (1956)

Directed by Sergio Leone A Fistful of Dollars was the first Spaghetti Western, an Italian-made film set in the old west.  The film follows Joe, (Clint Eastwood) who enters a town ruled by two gangs.  He has no stake in the fight, but we recognize him as the hero when pitted against two tribes that … Continue reading A Fistful of Dollars (1964)