The third film from Quentin Tarantino--- a very strong effort if falling short of the transcendent brilliance of Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs Tarantino’s first (and only to date) adaption- Elmore Leonard’s “Rum Punch”   Tarantino himself compares the film to Rio Bravo praising the hangoutability or rewatchability of the film and how the best part of Hawks masterpiece is just hanging out with Wayne, Dean Martin, Walter Brennan and Ricky Nelson—and he’s right about Rio Bravo but that film has an relaxed narrative and has the four lead actors just holed up together in a room for the

A three-pronged masterpiece--- magnificent writing (on par with or superior to the great works of say Bergman or Before Sunset),  tour de force direction behind the camera (the dance contest sequence, the freeze frame on Amanda Plummer with soundtrack drop), and a structural non-linear sonic boom Such confidence from Tarantino- this thing could have gone so wrong— Wigs on our three leads, 40 minutes longer than Reservoir Dogs (153 minutes)The freeze frame on Amanda Plummer opening is a jaw-dropper—I’ve overlooked it- one of cinema’s great freeze frames--- holy hell. And then we go to the music drop of “The

A remarkable debut—a born virtuoso-- like Welles, The Coen Brothers or our two fathers of the French New Wave this one comes direct from Tarantino as a wholly realized voice and cinematic vision A taut 99 minutes— so weird given the rest of QT’s sometimes overly-talky work (I mostly don’t even acknowledge Death Proof but even that is 113 minutes) Dark and nihilisticNo score to speak of – all pop/rock soundtrack work (which would be a Scorsese’ism—as is the casting of Keitel)—the closest connection to the plot would probably be Kubrick’s The Killing but there are references to many

Kenneth Lonergan’s debut- an undoubtedly gifted writerGratifying setting-- small-town AmericaGlowing 4 stars from Travers and EbertRich characterizations and performances from Laura Linney, Mark Ruffalo, Matthew Broderick and the young Rory Culkin – Linney is wonderful- this is the first of three nominations for her—and this is a coming out for the revelatory Ruffalo. He’s wounded, vulnerable, a little dangerous- this would be Ruffalo’s second best performance to date behind 2007’s Zodiac Between drama we get a little bit of a moody score and Bach with shots of the small town and country sideThese people are lost, Linney’s character balancing

11 separate vignettes filmed over the course of nearly two decades Black and white, stationary camera, urban coffee houses—vices (cigarettes and coffee as the title states), graffiti on the wall to start us on the Steven Wright and Roberto Benigni I won’t go as far to say it’s a meditation on anything but it’s an intelligent look at awkward silences, human interaction and encounter It’s clearly minor Jarmusch—slight—one critic calls it an auteurs “doodles” and I like that —he has a background in shorts and his films prior to Dead Man—clearly created segments in Stranger in Paradise- Night on

Like all of Jarmusch’s work- a heavy formal achievement—here the main feats are the dissolve edits (largely in the first 30 minutes), Rza’s score, and the meditative readings (through title card breaks)—the pairing of all of these with the stoic performance by Forest Whitaker and the use of pigeons as a reoccurring motif formal mastery from Jarmusch Whitaker is on screen almost the entire time but doesn’t have any diegetic dialogue (he does some voice over) until 35+ minutes into the film Rza’s score echoes Neil Young’s in Dead Man- repetitive (which fits Jarmusch’s formal renderings of his works)

Hypnotic masterpiece – Jarmusch’s greatest achievement Goes back to black and white photography after two consecutive color films- he’s 3/3 even through 6 films at the time of Dead Man This is his first narrative structure since Permanent Vacation that isn’t broken into distinct sections by region—in Stranger Than Paradise it’s NJ/Cleveland/Florida, then Down by Law it’s New Orleans/prison/escape and of course the 5 separate cities in Night on Earth Easily his most beautiful film visually from a photographic standpoint The final film performance by Robert Mitchum (couple of great funny scenes) Name “William Blake”- and the poetry is

A weaker effort (box office bomb not that that matters) from Lubitsch which is no insult but not enough to vie for one of his best or 1941’s best. A remake of his own work Kiss Me AgainBreezy, it moves Lubitsch was a different kind of escapism in the depression era- rich, sophisticated (if not a little silly), idle rich, films- this is his first set in the US but it’s the Park Avenue upper crustSig Ruman comes along and gives the film a shot of life—Melvyn Douglas, Burgess Meredith and Merle Oberon all equip themselves well in the