Cape Fear – 1962 Thompson
It is not auteur cinema (though J. Lee Thompson directed The Guns of the Navarone the year before as well) but features a magnetic Robert Mitchum performance and one of the great Bernard Herrmann’s best
War and Peace – 1956 Vidor
A masterpiece like the Tolstoy novel it was adapted from--- it Is not—but I do believe the reputation for King Vidor’s film would be better if it weren’t “War and Peace”Shot in glorious VistaVisionThe tableau
Can You Ever Forgive Me? – 2018 Heller
Viewing 1.0 in 2018 Heller is two for two in the archives with this and her debut from 2015- The Diary of a Teenage Girl – she’s not an overly strong director- but these are
The House That Jack Built – 2018 von Trier
Like so much of von Trier’s work it has moments of utter brilliance and moments you want to throw in the garbage—and not just because of the scandalous nature of it but as an artistic
Luce – 2019 Onah
A dueling vendetta film like 2002’s Changing Lanes—maybe more distant cousins of Crimson Tide or Ridley Scott’s The Duellists The four leads are strong. It’s led by Octavia Spencer (who is always good), from It
Three Times – 2005 Hsiao-Hsien Hou
HHH has a history of making short films and taking part of anthology films (even the brilliant Café Lumiere started out as an anthology project)—this is a three-pronged anthology film about love set in 1966,
The Color of Money – 1986 Scorsese
2nd, or even 3rd tier Scorsese is still better than almost everything else out thereStarts with a voice-over from Scorsese himself like Mean Streets—then we get the strong Robbie Robertson music drop during the credits
No Way Out – 1950 Mankiewicz
It’s a very solid social drama/thriller notable for the debut of Sidney Poitier and the strong performances by both he and Richard Widmark (who play an extremely vile racist) Poitier and Widmark are so good
The 101st Best Director of All-Time: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Weerasethakul. It’ll get to it in stylistic innovations/traits below—but there is no other auteur that makes films like Apichatpong Weerasethakul—completely distinct works that are interconnected, stylistic and narratively bold-- and stick in your memory long
Where’d You Go, Bernadette – 2019 Linklater
It’s a tremendous disappointment for any project directed by Richard Linklater and starring Cate Blanchett to be a fringe recommendation—let’s get that out there first. It lacks authorship and though it’s a solid film (it’s
The Honey Pot – 1967 Mankiewicz
Based on Volpone (in the text all over the place) from Ben Johnson—a play in the 17th century. It’s witty. Definitely feels like Agatha Christie or Charlie Chan (in the text as well) or even
House of Strangers – 1949 Mankiewicz
There’s a stunning shot in the first third of the film as we go from the current strand of time to a long flashback. The camera starts next to a portrait of Edward G. Robinson