Directed by Pedro Almodóvar There's a real Hitchcockian vibe to Bad Education. It's a wonderfully crazy movie about revenge, with interweaving narratives, timelines and realities. The revenge isn't even the central focus of the movie, as the character out for revenge isn't exactly front and center here. That would be Ignacio, a man who is impersonated … Continue reading Bad Education (2004)
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Phoenix (2014)
Directed by Christian Petzold Phoenix takes place in Berlin, shortly after the end of World War II. It's a bombed out city with rubble in the streets but with thriving night clubs. Everyone, it seems, just wants to forget about what happened. The protagonist is Nelly (Nina Hoss), a survivor of the concentration camps only … Continue reading Phoenix (2014)
Transsiberian (2008)
Directed by Brad Anderson Transsiberian is an odd little thriller, like an Alfred Hitchcock picture but filmed in the style of a Jason Bourne movie. It feels a bit cheesy and melodramatic at first, if only because the inciting incident doesn't truly happen until midway through the film. From there it's deeply unsettling, not in … Continue reading Transsiberian (2008)
Charade (1963)
Directed by Stanley Donen Charade was released to a shell-shocked audience a month after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. To some it might've felt suddenly outdated, the bankable Hollywood stars and happy ending proving to be out of touch with an increasingly grim reality, and to others it might've been a soothing sense of … Continue reading Charade (1963)
Spellbound (1945)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock Spellbound is a Hitchcock thriller about psychoanalysis, the first mainstream Hollywood movie to tackle such a topic. That being said the psychoanalysis angle is just the way into this thriller. As Hitchcock himself said the film was "just another manhunt wrapped up in pseudo-psychoanalysis." It's a love story between Dr. Constance Petersen … Continue reading Spellbound (1945)
Gaslight (1940)
Directed by Thorold Dickinson Gaslight is a thriller about the stress of marriage, at least when your husband is a murderous thief intent on convincing you that you need to be institutionalized. The story takes place in a small British neighborhood, where a newlywed couple, Paul and Bella Mallen, move in years after the murder … Continue reading Gaslight (1940)
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Directed by Howard Hawks Bringing Up Baby is a screwball romantic comedy between a paleontologist and the free spirit daughter of a wealthy family. In other words its Ross and Rachel. Cary Grant plays David Huxley, the button-down, stressed-out paleontologist, and Katharine Hepburn plays Susan Vance, the reckless, lovestruck niece of the woman David hopes to … Continue reading Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock Shadow of a Doubt, like Hitchcock's Suspicion (1941), is about the deconstruction of myth, to some extent. They are similar films, following one character's increasing paranoia that someone they love is a monster. In the former, Joan Fontaine begins to worry that the man she married, played by Cary Grant, has … Continue reading Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
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