Instead of listing my top ten movies of 2017, I'm giving you my top 15 moviegoing experiences of the year. What's the difference? I consider the theater, the quality of the print or digital source, the enthusiasm of the audience, and live onstage supplements such as musical accompaniment and filmmaker Q&As. I also consider the … Continue reading Top 15 Moviegoing Experiences of 2017
Category: Great Films
A+ List: Top Hat
Few Hollywood features have celebrated their own wholly unreal artifice like Top Hat, the best Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers musical. Despite its contemporary setting (contemporary for 1935, the year it was released), it contains almost nothing that suggests the real world. Thanks to that artifice, the songs, the madcap comic dialog and hijinks, and most of … Continue reading A+ List: Top Hat
Revisiting Schindler’s List
I loved Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List when I first saw it in 1993. It blew me away. Within a year or so I bought the Laserdisc (used), and watched it two or three times over the next decade. I recently revisited it for the first time in maybe 15 years - this time via Netflix. … Continue reading Revisiting Schindler’s List
A+ List: The Thief of Bagdad (1940 version)
Arabian Nights movies seem to have gone out of fashion, and that's probably not much of a loss. Most of them were laughably bad. But a few good ones got made, along with one true masterpiece: Alexander Korda's The Thief of Bagdad. With its loosely-weaved story, poetic dialog, beautiful color design, groundbreaking special effects, and … Continue reading A+ List: The Thief of Bagdad (1940 version)
The 100 Best Comedies, according to the BBC
Last week, the BBC issued a list of the greatest comedy films ever made. Or at least the best ones listed by the hive mind of 253 film critics from 52 countries. A lot of cinephiles disapprove of such lists, and I understand why. They're an attempt to create an objective version of the entirely … Continue reading The 100 Best Comedies, according to the BBC
The Greatest Western: Stagecoach
Nine determined people face mortal danger, their own demons, and society's built-in prejudices as they journey from one town to another in John Ford's classic western from 1939, Stagecoach. I first saw Stagecoach in a film history class almost 45 years ago. It immediately became my all-time favorite western, and remains so to this day. … Continue reading The Greatest Western: Stagecoach
Barton Fink still strange and textured in new Blu-ray
The Coen brother's fourth film, and their first financed by a major Hollywood studio, may just be their weirdest. It's outrageous, surreal, occasionally gross, and at times screamingly funny. Much of the story is never explained. It's one of their best. That Barton Fink is the Coen's first Hollywood film seems appropriate, because the movie … Continue reading Barton Fink still strange and textured in new Blu-ray
John Sayles’ accidental trilogy: The Secret of Roan Inish, Lone Star, and Men with Guns
Note: This article was published on Fandor in the summer of 2016. I recently discovered that the article is no longer available on that site. I therefore placed it here. John Sayles' Lone Star turns 20 this year. Few people will notice it, and that's a shame. Both commercially and artistically, Lone Star was the peak … Continue reading John Sayles’ accidental trilogy: The Secret of Roan Inish, Lone Star, and Men with Guns
A+ List: Before Sunrise (and a bit about the sequels)
After seeing Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise in 1995, I described the film as My Dinner with Andre, with scenery and sex appeal. Today most people have forgotten the Wallace Shawn/Andre Gregory talkfest, but those who have watched Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy walking and talking and falling in love happily retain the memory. How many … Continue reading A+ List: Before Sunrise (and a bit about the sequels)
A+ List: Stop Making Sense at the Elmwood
Great films can affect you in different ways. Some make you laugh, cry, or think. But the Talking Heads concert movie, Stop Making Sense, makes you want to jump out of your seat and dance. I saw this 1984 film two or three times long ago at the UC Theatre, and people were dancing in … Continue reading A+ List: Stop Making Sense at the Elmwood
Bayflicks 