A roller-coaster, a time bomb, a heart-attack—you pick the analogy--- the Safdie brothers have confirmed their arrival as major auteurs, in a big way, with Uncut Gems. Their specific brand of narrative propulsion is their directorial trademarkIt’s not even really a story- it’s a scenario—the Safdie’s wind it up and let it go— aided by the proclivity of claustrophobic close-ups, overlapping (and loud) dialogue, New York City, savage selfishnessThe film lacks the level of dedication to the neons and specific color palate in Good Timeambient noise a character in the film, overlapping dialogue like Altman, but at a crazy

Kurosawa takes De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves concept the year before, a stolen object (in this case a colt pistol) as the driving force for the narrative. At some point this film evolves into a compelling man-hunt police procedural (like say Fincher’s Seven) with gorgeous  compositions Kurosawa’s trademark wipe editingI wonder if Kurosawa shot the film chronologically- you can almost feel him get better over the course of the film—the compositions get stronger and stronger over the course of the film, the opening has a bunch of montages of the doggedly determined rookie detective (played by Mifune) searching—montage after montage

A flawed work from Brian De Palma but it’s De Palma—meaning there are some exceptional cinematic moments paired (often right alongside) some cringe-worthy storytelling/writing and pulpy pop psychologyThe psychological thriller, De Palma always the Hitchcock acolyte has fashioned another retelling of Psycho to go with his superior 1980 work Dressed to Kill (also a psychologist with identity issues who wears a wig)Part Sybil and a forerunner to Shyamalan’s Split De Palma uses canted dutch angles perfectly here showing Lithgow’s disturbed worldview Lithgow is going for it- it’s a tall ask as he has to portray five different personalities (who

A fascinating true story of forgery and deception- fits with Fuller’s obsession with exposing the sordid underbelly or ugly truthShot by James Wong Howe (Hud, Seconds – both would come later of course but Body and Soul before)- a great coup for Fuller to get him in in just Fuller’s second feature with not a ton of budgetVincent Price is both good in his performance and impeccably cast as well—shrewd, dominantTold in flashback structure with cigars and brandy and men in tuxedos You can tell Fuller sort of admires the character—the dedication to spend three years at the monastery,

Sam Fuller’s debut, and in typical Fuller fashion it was shot on almost no-budget in 10 days. Much of the acting in Fuller’s filmography is suspect— but John Ireland here is one of the exceptions—he’s tremendous as the infamous coward Bob Ford. The scene of him telling the ballad singer to sing the song about him to his face. This is the same year for Ireland as All the King’s Men- an impressive year Fuller’s close-ups, digging into the frazzled psyche headspace of his characters- a trait Fuller has an investigative streak in him—unveiling--- to get the seedy underbelly,

A stellar debut from Turkish director (and shot in Turkey) Deniz Gamze Ergüven— certainly the plot is similar to Sofia Coppola’s debut in 1999- The Virgin Suicides A strong debut from Turkish director (and shot in Turkey) Deniz Gamze Ergüven— certainly the plot is similar to Sofia Coppola’s debut in 1999- The Virgin Suicides voice-over opening, the five sisters in school uniforms are shown on the beach having fun then stealing apples (I don’t know how biblical we’re getting here but choosing apples to steal here doesn’t seem like a coincidence) – a bit of Zero For Conduct from

The sixth archiveable film in an incredibly fertile period for Sergio Corbucci—all westerns, another one here starring Franco Nero, with a score from Ennio MorriconeNero’s lone antihero (always out for himself here and the almighty dollar) isn’t the rugged western hero—but this time a well-dressed, slick businessperson-like hired hand The sixth archiveable film in an incredibly fertile period for Sergio Corbucci—all westerns Nero voice over that I think Corbucci forgets about Like most of Corbucci’s work there is politics or revolution vs. greed—usually entire characters that are all about a cause (here Fernando Rey as the professor vs Palance—there