Directed by Shane Acker 9 comes in at only 79 minutes.  It's a quick movie that rushes through all the familiar beats of a slightly longer movie, and because of that the whole thing feels unnecessarily thin.  We meet 9 (voiced by Elijah Wood), a rag doll in a post-apocalyptic world, in one moment, minutes later … Continue reading 9 (2009)

Directed by Billy Wilder The Major and the Minor is what I imagine a lot of old Hollywood films are like.  It's a comedy that's ultimately a romance, and the screwball comedy seems deeply connected to the performative, physical comedy of the silent film era from not so long before.  This film is also the … Continue reading The Major and the Minor (1942)

Directed by Jean-Luc Godard Breathless is still known today because of the time in which it was made and the ways it changed cinema.  In a vacuum, I'd argue that it's not entirely a great film, but it means more because of what it said at the time and what it meant to future filmmakers. … Continue reading Breathless (1960)

Directed by the Coen Brothers   It's hard to get a grip on The Hudsucker Proxy.  It seems to say a lot, after all it is a Coen Brothers movie, but it also comes off as much too silly to take seriously.  Like with A Serious Man, it's hard to tell how much we're supposed to read … Continue reading The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)

Directed by Jean-Luc Godard Weekend is described as anarchic, and that's an understatement.  It's a film that says so much it's hard to know where to begin.  What starts as a mostly conventional, though twisted and absurd, film quickly devolves into a hellscape like something out of Mad Max: Fury Road, and then it takes an … Continue reading Weekend (1967)

Directed by Robert Bresson Pickpocket is a French New Wave film, and when I think about that movement, I think of young, restless, and in some ways rebellious filmmakers who wanted to challenge the ideas of what movies could be.  But then you have someone like Robert Bresson who was nearing 60 at the time, as … Continue reading Pickpocket (1959)

Directed by Richard Linklater Before Sunrise is the first of three movies forming the Before trilogy.  Each film follows Jesse and Celine (Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy) but just for a small amount of time.  In this case, the Before Sunrise story takes place over a handful of hours, yet in that timespan we learn so much about Jesse … Continue reading Before Sunrise (1995)

Directed by Alan Parker The Commitments is a musical, but only because we follow a band that plays music.  It's the same way Once (another movie featuring Glen Hansard) is a musical, and it feels more like The Mighty Ducks, another story about a group of ragtag individuals teaming up to accomplish some kind of goal. Despite … Continue reading The Commitments (1991)

Directed by Patty Jenkins Wonder Woman is a very good super hero movie and an okay movie.  I came to the realization (or theory) that almost every superhero movie has the same act 1 and act 3, and that act 2 is where it gets to set itself apart. In this case, act 1 deals … Continue reading Wonder Woman (2017)

Directed by Theodore Melfi Okay, fuck this, I just wrote a whole review for this film, and it didn't save, and I lost it.  Godammit.  I don't really feel like writing this all again, but maybe I can summarize my points and write something much more concise. Hidden Figures is Oscar-bait.  I don't mean that … Continue reading Hidden Figures (2016)