Nominated for four Academy Awards after its release in 1994, Robert Redford directed an impressive historical film Quiz Show that was eclipsed that year by the awards juggernaut that was Forrest Gump and has since been overshadowed by its fellow nominees Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption.
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For this writer, Paul Thomas Anderson is a divisive tough sell. His movies, while technically sound and visually sharp, can frequently feel tiresome, bizarre, and vague to me. For many critics and cinephiles, those adjectives make him a courageous, risk-tasking genius instead. Such can be granted, but, with apologies, his nature and results can still make him exactly the former: tiresome, bizarre, and vague. The Master perpetuates that split sentiment.
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Robot and Frank sneaks up on you. Maybe you won't think as lofty as I did about the impacts and elements of technology and mortality, but the film will challenge you enough to give you pause that equals its entertainment.
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There's never a predictable moment in the entire film. With its recipe of unspoken magic, flawed relationships, and ideals on finding inspiration and perfection and daring to keep them, Ruby Sparks is a wholly different, unique, challenging, and satisfying romantic comedy experience.
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Overall, Lawless is on par with Public Enemies and is a worthy choice for those looking for a Western-like tale and a gangster film with a more rural and gritty country setting. For those modern folks out there, think of it as a prequel to FX's Justified.
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This week, NCM Fathom Events and Turner Classic Movies teamed up for the first of a four movie "Event Series" to celebrate Universal Pictures' 100th Anniversary. The first of the series was Alfred Hitchock's The Birds from 1963.
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From a story standpoint, I could take or leave Paper Moon. Sometimes, movies about thieves and con artists are tough sells because it's hard to root for, identify with, or side with a lawbreaker or despicable person. Paper Moon attempts to inject some family and heart into its story to so-so effect.
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Ingenious tells this true rags-to-riches story with a personable touch and realistic scale. Dallas Roberts and Jeremy Renner play a pair of extremely relatable guys and have outstanding chemistry together as characters and actors.
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Arbitrage is still a worthy film to see this fall season. It offers timely questions and enough entertaining mystery to play off of our tough economic times.
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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest has Nicholson in the spotlight, but it's the little people that make this movie tick. This may sound like an over-reaching superlative, but One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest has easily one the best male ensemble performances of any movie I've ever seen. They were mostly young and middle-age unknown actors then that became go-to character actors after this film.
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While this site has grown to traffic several thousand pageviews a month expanding to people far beyond my circle of friends, I've never had in my mind that it would get "noticed."
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Notorious is far from top-notch Alfred Hitchcock, but, as myself and fellow members of the Alphabet Film Club noted: a bad Hitchcock film is still better than 90% of the other movies out there. I think that assurance rings true. Notorious is a tedious and nearly tiresome melodrama anchored by a Cary Grant character that's hard to like and an Ingrid Bergman character that's even worse.
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