Contemporary political films, especially those made in the United States, tend to overindulge in on-the-nose partisan messaging. Director Robert Redford’s “The Conspirator” and “Lions for Lambs,” for instance, housed admirable statements about the corrosion of American politics, but Redford undermined these with a zealot’s sledgehammer. This is why Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín’s more nuanced approach […]
Streaming Pick: “Tony Manero” (2008) Read More »
Stay tuned later today for more tributes to the life and work of Tony Scott from the rest of the Critic Speak team. It would be difficult to argue that Tony Scott’s “Domino” is his best work by any objective measure–it’s the kind of filmmaking that values messy passion over technical precision–but it’s my personal
Streaming Pick: “Domino” (2005) Read More »
The surprise is a lost art in contemporary cinema. Further, when new films actually manage to pull off unpredictable twists and turns–see Christopher Nolan’s “Memento”–they tend to sacrifice relatable characters to better service their plot tricks. Stanley Donen’s 1963 film “Charade,” on the other hand, is both unpredictable and emotionally resonant. The dynamic between the
Streaming Pick: “Charade” (1963) Read More »
Had “Get the Gringo” been released 10 years ago, surely two things would have been different: 1. Its budget would have been several times the reported $20 million spent on the current product and 2. It would have received a theatrical release and a top-tier advertising campaign showcasing star/producer/writer Mel Gibson. Then again, Gibson arguably
Streaming Pick: “Get the Gringo” Read More »
When the auteur theory, arguing that a film is primarily a reflection of its director and their creative vision, was originally put forward, another issue was inadvertently raised: content versus execution. Can a director overcome a trite premise and create a masterpiece or, more precisely, can a filmmaker take a seemingly broad and cliche story
Streaming Pick: “Fish Tank” (2009) Read More »
Composed almost entirely of stock footage from 1966-‘71, “When You’re Strange” is a rock documentary narrated by Johnny Depp on the career of seminal blues-psychedelic band The Doors. On a stylistic level, the film succeeds admirably. The grainy footage gives the audience a sense of what the band must have really looked and sounded like, both
Streaming Pick: “When You’re Strange” (2009) Read More »
“The Usual Suspects” scribe Christopher McQuarrie’s “The Way of the Gun” failed to catch on during its 2000 release. More than a decade later, little has changed, as the film has reached the edges of cult admiration yet remains generally unacknowledged, a work with admired elements and scenes that barely registers on the movie landscape
Streaming Pick: “The Way of the Gun” (2000) Read More »
Although film noir is a genre that traditionally refers to certain crime films made by Hollywood during the 1940s and ‘50s, the French, who originally coined the term and defended its artistic merits, made several examples of their own, following the German occupation. The French New Wave, in particular—that loose collective of critics-turned-filmmakers who so
Streaming Pick: “Elevator to the Gallows” (1958) Read More »
1991’s “Slacker” captures roughly 24 hours in the lives of dozens of hipsters in the city of Austin, Texas. As one of the first movies of the so-called American independent film renaissance, Richard Linklater’s first feature remains his best — an intelligent film whose unorthodox narrative structure remains as innovative today as it was 20
Streaming Pick: “Slacker” (1991) Read More »
Don’t let the title, shared with a silly ’80s pop beat, fool you. “I Melt with You” is all doom and gloom, a drug-fueled journey through the miseries of four middle-aged friends over the course of a wild week at a beachside mansion. The four friends, played by Thomas Jane, Rob Lowe, Jeremy Piven, and
Streaming Pick: “I Melt with You” (2011) Read More »
